He arrived at the beginning of an extraordinary transformation that turned BBC Radio 2 into the UK's most popular radio station. But now Mark Lamarr, the former presenter of Channel 4's notorious late night series The Word, is to leave the station after 12 years.
Lamarr was among the first of a new breed of presenters on Radio 2 – later including Chris Evans, Jeremy Vine and Jonathan Ross – who helped the station shed its woolly jumper and cosy slippers image and pile on 5 million extra listeners, eclipsing the audience of the nation's former favourite, Radio 1, in the process.
The DJ joined the station in 1998 to present Shake, Rattle and Roll, in which he chooses tracks from his extensive collection of obscure rock'n'roll classics. The current and final series ends on 14 December.
Lamarr also presents his own late-night Friday programme on Radio 2, with his final show due to finish in the early hours of Christmas Day.
A spokeswoman for Radio 2 said the station would replace Lamarr's shows with "equally distinctive content" and had a "greater commitment than ever before to specialist music genres".
Lamarr was hired by Radio 2's then controller, Jim Moir, who kickstarted the makeover of the station that was continued by his successor Lesley Douglas. The station is now overseen by Bob Shennan after Douglas resigned from the BBC in the wake of the "Sachsgate" scandal.
Radio 2 had fewer than 10 million listeners when Lamarr joined in 1998. Such has been its transformation since then that it recently had its biggest ever weekly audience of 14.57 million listeners and a record share of the market of 17.2%.
It is not all down to Lamarr – that would have been quite some performance – who joined the station at the same time as Jools Holland. Another of its new breed of DJs, Steve Wright, had already joined the station and took over the weekday afternoon show in 1999.
As well as co-presenting Channel 4's The Word, Lamarr also hosted BBC2's Never Mind the Buzzcocks and was a team captain on another BBC2 panel show, Shooting Stars, where he was dubbed a "50s throwback" by hosts Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.
His other shows on Radio 2 included the Reggae Show, Mark Lamarr's Alternative 60s and God's Jukebox. He also stood in on the Saturday morning show when Ross was away, co-presenting with Jo Brand.
A BBC Radio 2 spokeswoman said: "Mark Lamarr has decided to leave Radio 2 in December. We are sorry to see him go and wish him well for the future.
"We have a greater commitment than ever before to specialist music genres and feature an extraordinarily broad range of music going back over seven decades throughout the Radio 2 schedule. We plan to replace his shows with equally distinctive content in 2011."
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