Radio 2 crashes off air with technical fault during Vernon Kay show

Vernon Kay’s BBC Radio 2 show was taken off air this morning because of a technical fault.

He was midway through his Ten to the Top quiz, talking to a listener on the phone when the station went off and after almost 30 seconds a back-up of non-stop music played out.

After around 11 minutes, the station came back and Kay told listeners: “Let me explain what’s happened. Basically, the system needed a reboot. That’s what happened.

“Everything just crashed, literally crashed. We have a machine where we play all the music off and that’s gone kaput. That’s got warning signs flashing in front of me. I don’t know whether it’s overheated or having a day but it’s gone kaput.”

He also said that they were going to try and play all the music and jingles planned off a different system, adding: “Now if it doesn’t work, bear with us, because we’ve got a few people milling around trying to press alt, J, delete and see what happens!”

When things got back to normal, Vernon joked: “Do you know what it is? It’s because we’re not at Broadcasting House. It’s like, “Ah, we’ll make you get there quicker, we’ll just turn everything off” – and that’s what happened!”