LEGENDARY BBC star Walter Love has died aged 88 after a career spanning over 70 years.
The iconic radio personality, who presented shows including the popular Love in the Afternoon and Radio Ulster’s Day By Day, passed away yesterday morning, his family said.
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With a broadcasting career spanning 77 years, Jazz Club with Walter Love aired its final show in 2023.
His heartbroken family confirmed he passed away on Friday morning in a nursing home after a short illness, reports the BBC.
Walter’s relatives described him as “a dearly loved member of the Love family”.
The broadcaster started his long career in the 1950s as a BBC radio freelance contributor.
He then took a job as a studio manager in London, before becoming a TV news anchor in Belfast.
Walter joined Radio Ulster in 1978, where he also presented Sunday show Love Forty, and received an MBE in 1997 for services to journalism.
The presenter was inducted into the Phonographic Performance Ireland Radio Awards Hall of Fame in 2014.
BBC Northern Ireland director Adam Smyth described Mr Love as having a “hint of mischief” while being “genial, kind and cheerful”.
He also paid tribute to the long-serving broadcaster’s “incredible” performance on air, as well as his “encyclopaedic” musical knowledge.
Ex-BBC Radio Ulster head of programming Don Anderson, who moved Walter into the morning slot on vacated by Gloria Hunniford, said the presenter “was the gentle part of gentleman”.
“He was always a superb broadcaster. He actually joined the BBC in a behind-the-scenes role and then moved over into news reading,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
“He was a gentleman, and he was the gentle part of gentleman. He was always polite, had a wonderful voice. In many ways he was ‘Mr Respectable’ in broadcast terms.
“People liked him instantly and he had a great rapport with the audience.”
