FORMER BBC and Hospital Radio Chelmsford DJ Mike Smith has died aged 59 following complications from major heart surgery.
The ex-King Edward VI Grammar School student died on Friday after a 40-year career in radio and TV, which all started in Essex.
His old friend Ken Oliver, the programme controller who took on Smith as a teenager into the hospital radio team, has paid tribute to the "cheeky" chap.
"I remember an enthusiastic young teenager," said Ken, 62, also a former KEGS pupil.
"He was very much the man who came to be known by the nation as a fun-loving chap with his cheeky remarks here and there.
"In retrospect I could easily say yes, it was clear he would go on to bigger things, but there were a number of talented young people I saw at those stages.
"Mike clearly had a great deal of talent, but it's not just about talent, it's about luck and making your own success, but certainly he had the drive to do that."
Despite Hornchurch-born Smith's early ambition to become a train driver, the youngster started work fresh from his A levels backstage for Newpalm Productions based at Chelmsford Civic Theatre.
He joined the hospital radio station in 1974, but four years later started work at the London commercial station Capital.
Within a year he was presenting the Sunday afternoon chart programme, its breakfast show from 1980 and by 1982 was presenting on BBC Radio 1.
He went on to co-present The Late, Late Breakfast Show with Noel Edmonds, front the BBC's Live Aid coverage in 1985 and help launch Comic Relief.
He hit the headlines in 1988 when he and fellow TV presenter Sarah Greene were both seriously injured in a helicopter accident in Gloucestershire. He proposed to Sarah a few weeks later.
Since 2003 and in the run up to his death he headed up Flying TV, which provides aerial footage for producers, as managing director.
"I am absolutely shocked at the news," said Ken, who grew up in Witham but now lives in Wiltshire.
"I caught a headline off the BBC on Saturday night and I truly had a reality check. He is a young man at 59, and I don't think anyone had an inkling that he was ill.
"I'm truly shocked, and my thoughts clearly go out to Sarah, his wife, and his family. My sincere condolences to all of them."
Station manager of the hospital radio Hal MacLean, now based on the Broomfield site, said Smith would have been invited to the radio's 50th anniversary dinner party in September.
"I remember when he took over from Mike Read on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show," said Hal.
"Mike Read was a legend and when Mike Smith took it on you thought he will never be the same as Mike Read, and you know what? He was not – he was much, much better.
"He just brightened up your morning."
Noel Edmonds, a long-term friend of both Smith and his wife, has said in a statement: "I am totally stunned and heartbroken for Sarah and his family.
"Mike introduced me to motor racing and I introduced him to radio.
"He was so much more than simply a presenter. Mike was that rare individual – the consummate broadcaster in an era when professionalism, dedication and hard work were truly valued.
"I am typing this through the tears. I wish I had told him more forcefully and frequently how much I admired his talent and valued his support."
