One thing he does not miss is the attention heaped on BBC presenters. “I enjoy being on this station, where I think the scrutiny is slightly less than it is at the BBC.” No more annual high-pay-list drama for Bruce, which he describes as “the most annoying thing”.
While he listens to the Today programme most mornings and the “excellent” audio dramas on Radio 4 Extra, Bruce does not tune in to Radio 2 much these days. “No, not really,” he says. “I don’t avoid it, I just don’t bother switching it on.”
Is he worried that, if he did listen to the station with which he is most associated, he might pick things up in an almost osmotic way? “It’s not that conscious, but I think there’s probably something in that. I don’t want to listen to that, because either I’d think, ‘Gosh, they’re doing it really well’ or I’d think, ‘Oh, I’m glad I don’t work there any more.’ So it’s probably not a good thing.”
One former Radio 2 colleague who has found himself out of work is Scott Mills. Both Bruce and Mayo say that they “don’t know” the details of what led to his sacking in April. Ashton, for his part, says he is “not sure Scott would fit the format” of GHR and that he is “really focused on launching Zoe now”.
One of the surprising things about GHR is that what is in many ways an old-school radio station – the cameras filming what happens in the studios notwithstanding – has been able to thrive after launching at a point when most people have access to all the music to which they could ever want to listen, and more, easily available on their phones.
It is part of a resilient radio industry that has defied the doubters. What’s the secret? “I’ve always taken the view that radio somehow survives everything that’s thrown at it: cinema, TV, podcasts,” says Bruce.
“When I started in the BBC, I was doing a news course, and the guy taking it said: ‘It’s going to happen. Radio will die. There’s no future in radio. Television is going to be the way people consume everything. There’s no future for radio.’ Well, that was 1978 or something. And here we are 50-odd years later, and it’s still going strong. And stronger than ever in some cases.”
Listen to Greatest Hits Radio at hellorayo.co.uk/greatest-hits/