Radio 2 is a religion, says DJ Trevor Nelson

"I’d come back and serve the Irish grandmother, the West Indian woman with a young family, whoever came into the shop... That’s when I learnt how to talk to people who were not like me. That was my first taste of broadcasting to a variety of people.”

Fast-forward 45 years and Nelson is broadcasting to the broadest variety of people in his life, in Radio 2’s 2pm to 4pm daytime slot. It’s not a position he ever aspired to.

“In the old days, daytime was always seen as a compromise. At Radio 1, I turned down any opportunity to do daytime. I’m a music DJ, I genuinely love the music, and some people might worry I’m gonna lose that in daytime. But I don’t think I will. I’ll bring it, and add to it with the little games I play, the interaction with the audience. I love talking to listeners.”

With this move, Nelson, who started out on pirate radio, couldn’t be more mainstream. What moved – him or the mainstream? “A bit of both. We're living in an increasingly diverse world and I think there is an acceptance of being broader than there was years ago.”

While he is starting on daytime, he’s keeping that breadth with a podcast, Eras, about Bob Marley (on BBC Sounds) over whom he enthuses, “He was an absolute genius, a great example of how you can get reach and keep your integrity. He’s one of the most successful musicians in history. People go, ‘I'm not really into reggaeton, but I love Bob Marley.’”

But, Nelson points out, he has always been catholic in his tastes, even if his listeners haven’t been aware of it. “I don’t think anyone who listened to me on Radio 1 would know that I even knew a Steely Dan song or a Talking Heads song, but I went to a little grammar school near Old Street and there were three Black kids in a class of 30. There I got exposed to The Boomtown Rats, The Undertones and The Stranglers. I refuse to stay in a bubble.”

And lest we forget, amid the froth of publicity around Radio 2’s revamped schedule, Nelson has graced the station, on one show or another, since 2008. “When I first joined, I knew nobody. Wogan was doing the breakfast show and it was a completely different world. I was an interloper.”

As an interloper, he had a one-hour specialist show on a Wednesday but it sufficiently resonated with listeners that he was “promoted” to Saturday nights, first 8pm to 10pm and then 10pm to midnight – the night-time slot.

“Everyone thinking, ‘Oh, you “just” do night-time radio for people to go to sleep to, but I decided that show was going to become the most important show of my career. I really thought about how to engage the audience with the music I like. Radio 2 is a radio station built for melodious music, and soulful music is melodious music, but it was the only thing I felt was missing from the station. I wanted to change that.”

Over the next few years, Nelson did change that as, slowly, Radio 2 evolved around him. Chris Evans replaced Wogan at breakfast, while Michael Parkinson, Sarah Kennedy, Dale Winton and Malcolm Laycock all departed. Paul O’Grady, Graham Norton, Claudia Winkelman and Zoe Ball joined the line-up. All the while, Nelson worked away...

“I really feel that we created something really special. A lot of people said I was playing tunes that they hadn’t heard for years and others said that they didn’t think they liked that music as much as they did. And this is all I ever wanted to do as a DJ.”

Nelson talks, heartfelt, about being “a messenger of music” and it doesn’t sound remotely naff or pretentious, likely because his ego is held in check by a genuine humility. “Most people who play music like me don't play on a national platform, but to a very much smaller, specialist audience. I’m thankful every day that I can do a show on Radio 2.”

Indeed, Radio 2 audiences were so amenable to Nelson that they didn’t balk (that much) when he sat in for Ken Bruce.

“In the beginning, I was quite oblivious to how big Ken's show was, which I think was a good thing. But I've never been on a radio station like this in my life where everybody is so emotionally attached to the presenters. I’m not saying it’s a cult...”

Because that would be a little strong?

“Because it’d be a cult if there were 500,000 listeners. There are 13.5 million. It’s a religion!”

Read more:

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Despite the dearth of female presenters on the station before 4pm on weekdays, there’s no doubt that Radio 2 is a broader church than it was when Nelson joined. “Now it's Scott, it's Vernon, it's Sara, and of course, it's Jeremy. His energy levels are through the roof,” he says fondly.

Nelson says he feels “armed” moving to daytime – not least because of how his audience responded to his goodbye to Rhythm Nation.

“After five or six years of the most challenging show of my life – playlists of 100 songs for every show that I’d torment myself over putting together – I was trying to do a farewell link, and I ended up in tears, overwhelmed,” he recalls.

It was only later, when Nelson’s wife encouraged him to read the comments that listeners had posted in response to his sign-off, that he appreciated how much love and respect his audience had for him.

“She wanted me to know that it was worth all the effort I put in. Lots of people were really, really nice to me... It’s a great time to be going on to the biggest show of my career. I feel really empowered and I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think the Radio 2 audience wanted me to.”

That must be a great feeling. Nelson nods. “I feel like I should be there, and I should be doing this. I don’t feel like an interloper anymore.”

A condensed version of this interview appears in the latest issue of Radio Times – subscribe here.

Trevor Nelson's new BBC Radio 2 show airs from 2pm-4pm weekdays.

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