Mr Angry and Sally Traffic hail 'genius' Steve Wright

David Wernham said Steve Wright was like an "inspiring teacher" who got the best out of his colleagues

Former colleagues have been paying tribute to "genius" broadcaster Steve Wright following his death, aged 69.

David Wernham, who voiced Mr Angry, Wright's best-known comedy character, said Wright was "inspirational".

"He had that knack of finding what people could do... and getting it out of them in a really great way," said Mr Wernham, 64, of Norwich.

Sally Boazman - dubbed Sally Traffic by Wright - hailed the presenter's "unique" connection with listeners.

Mr Wernham devised and voiced the character Mr Angry for many years

Mr Wernham worked as a technical operator on Wright's BBC Radio 1 show in the 1980s.

"He tapped into a whole unused stream of creativity," he told BBC Radio Norfolk's Chris Goreham.

"All the technical staff who were working on there... a lot of them were frustrated DJs themselves, like me... but when he came along, he just befriended everyone.

"He just had that knack of finding what people could do, what they could contribute, and getting it out of them in a really great way."

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Mr Wernham devised the long-running character Mr Angry, based on his own father.

"He did used to get angry on the phone sometimes... when he was complaining to utility companies and he got passed from one person to the other and he just gave up and threw the phone down, and it just made my brother and I laugh all the time when we heard his calls," he said.

"I did one for Steve, a version of it, and he just loved it and took it on and he was so enthusiastic about it, and it just took off in a huge way... people were talking about it and impersonating it everywhere."

Mr Wernham, who ended his broadcasting career as a video editor with BBC East in Norwich, said news of Wright's death had come as a "terrible shock" to him.

"It was like losing someone very close to me. I haven't really seen Steve for many years, but it hit me very hard. He was a very important person in my early broadcasting career," he said.

Sally Boazman said it was Wright who first dubbed her Sally Traffic

He likened Wright to an "inspiring teacher... who managed to get you to places you never thought you could go and do things you never thought you could do".

Ms Boazman, 66, who lives in Suffolk, presented traffic reports alongside Wright on his BBC Radio 2 show.

"He was only on the radio at the weekend, saying 'Goodbye, see you next week,' so none of us were prepared for this. It still hasn't quite sunk in," she told Wayne Bavin on BBC Radio Suffolk.

She said he was a private man who shunned the showbiz lifestyle and loved his family more than anything.

"He had this ability to just connect with people that was quite unique," she said.

"He was one of the kindest men I've ever known - he was just so generous with himself, and so lovely, and obviously a genius in some way, because no-one has ever produced what he produced over those years."