What are your memories of radio presenters reacting to tragic events

[MyPithyCat]

There's many examples. Which one do you remember

I was at work when Jo Cox was murdered and the first I heard of it was police turning up to the office to interview one of my colleagues who knew her and to ask for his co-operation in calming tensions with the local Muslim community.

It was quite alarming because we didn't know what capacity they wanted to talk to him in, and neither did he!

We heard the news early on the radio as we were going on a holiday in the UK. At first the news was just that she was injured.

Our very long car journey was rather sombre with the constant tributes from world leaders and celebrities being played on continual rotation

1994 Murray Walker having to comment live on Ayrton Senna's death, made all the more poignant as Roland Ratzenberger had died the day before. My dad and I were driving back from getting some takeaway and we had been watching the race earlier that day. I didn't watch Formula One again.

I remember this too - in fact every time i hear that tune I think of Dunblane. I still appreciate it as one of the greatest House Classics but it always takes me there

I fell asleep after work with BBC Radio 2 on and woke up to hear the commentators reporting on the Heysel Stadium Disaster

All the tributes to Rachel Bland, from her colleagues.

I came on to post this; I'd just woken up and it was the first thing I heard. I don't remember much specific about the programme after that, but I stayed at home and listened to it all instead of working. It was comforting.

I was shopping in All Saints on Buchanan Street in Glasgow listening to 6Music on my headphones when it came through that Keith Flint had died - I remember it was late morning and I was so shocked I left everything and went home.

We were travelling by train to visit PILs in Scotland on 11 Sept and an American student saw that DH had an American tshirt on and came up and asked if we were American then told us he'd just heardon his radio that a plane had flown into the WTC. We spoke for a while and listened to the radio but it was only when we got to PILs that we realised the scaje of what had happened.

We were students when Diana died, we got up late on the Sunday morning and put on the Radio and it was talking about her death and I thought it was some kind of speculative fiction, then put on the TV and realised it was real. We were probably some of the last people in the country to know she had died.

I remember listening to Chris Tarrant on Capital, the morning of the Clapham Rail crash and the travel guy in the helicopter just saying something like it looks bad and sounding utterly shocked.

I can’t remember his name, but the breakfast presenter on Absolute Radio reacting the morning after the attack at Ariana Grande’s Manchester concert. The anger was palpable, as he spoke about kids just enjoying music.

I remember Xfm in London, I think on the day of Diana’s funeral, playing Shine On You Crazy Diamond. At the time to me it captured something. Such an odd time.

Not radio but I remember the night news broke that Komla Dumor a BBC Journalist has died suddenly. It was very late at night and the news reader on obviously just got the news as he was reading it and he burst into a sob and it was obvious that this man had just unexpectedly lost a dear friend and colleague, it was very sad but also a moving reaction.

Princess Diana. I was a community carer and set off about 7am. The only radio station in my car was Virgin and they were playing really sombre music. I passed about 2 newsagents and all the paperboys/girls were standing outside. I thought the paper deliveries must be late. I bit later I called at a paper shop to buy a paper and the headline read that Dodi was dead and Diana badly injured. The woman in the shop told me she was dead. I was stunned.
It was a very strange mornings work. All my clients, mostly elderly ladies were very upset 😪

Sara Cox did this well on Radio 2. I was on the train to work and DH had just texted me to say Bowie had died. I remember her saying that it was a privilege in a way to be able to pay tribute to him.

I heard about the death of Michael Jackson in the car on the radio. I don’t remember which station but I remember hearing the shock in their voices.

I can remember Mum saying she'd been driving to the supermarket that morning and had heard sombre instrumental music for a while on Virgin (they'd been meant to be doing some rock and roll weekend thing) before the news came on.

The day that Bowie died. Simon Mayo had Rick Wakeman on his evening programme on radio 2.At the end of the programme he played Life on Mars, live on the piano. I will never forget that. It was heart breaking

August 1977. We were on honeymoon. Money was tight, as we had just bought a flat, and interest rates climbed to 17%, but we thought we had to have a few days away. We hired a car, a mini, and booked an apartment in Devon, in Westward Ho!. It turned out to be a bit grotty, and above the entertainment hall of a large caravan park. Braddicks if anyone knows it. Anyway, we had a good few days, driving round visiting the sites, when on the Tuesday, Elvis Presley died. We were not Elvis fans. That night, Radio Luxembourg cancelled all advertising, and played none stop Elvis songs. I think the DJ was Tony Prince, and he was in tears as he read out messages, and kept repeating the news. The next morning was bizarre. Went to the site shop for a paper, and the place was full of aging Ted's, in their drape jackets, gathered together reading the news in tears. This was in the days long before Karaoke was a thing, but for the rest of the week, the entertainment consisted of people getting up and singing Elvis songs. A strange week, but unforgettable.

I switched the radio on the day Bowie died and Sound and Vision was playing so I bopped around the kitchen singing along. When the song finished Shaun Keavney said he had died. I have been upset at the deaths of celebrities before especially if I was a fan..but I genuinely felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. I will never forget it.

I rarely am emotional when celebrities die...

Bowie died, I think the same week as Alan Rickman.... Both affected me. Both pure talent and creativity.

I was watching the match with housemates and the brother of one of them was at the stadium.

Both were the same age too - 69yo.

The morning the news broke about Diana’s death, my local radio station woke me up playing Albatross by Fleetwood Mac.

I initially thought the queen had died.