From the iPaper: “How I'll miss Bob Harris - radio will be a worse place without him”

Photo: Sarah Jeynes / BBC

Sarah Carson writes, “Radio 2 has been a quieter place for the past few months without it. Since April, Harris’s shows – Sounds of the 70s and Bob Harris Country – have been covered by stand-ins and special guests, so it was not a huge surprise to hear the news today that he is retiring from the BBC after 56 years due to ill health. But it is still incredibly sad.

“Whispering Bob Harris’s voice is as much a soundtrack to the life of his listeners as the music he plays.”

Harris, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007, has long been open on Instagram about his treatment – and how much it’s been giving him a kicking – and in April shared that the cancer had spread to his spine. He has been having radiotherapy and recovering at home since, but in a statement today, he announced that he had made one of the hardest decisions of his life.”

There can’t be many people truly dismayed about retiring at 80, but in his farewell, you can feel Harris’s regret. Ours is even greater. What a privilege it has been to listen to his reliable and unique gift of a voice for so long and to have discovered so much music, joy and connection through him. Radio will be a stranger and quieter place without him.