Andrew Peach says 'thank you to listeners' in final show

Andrew Peach's final broadcast can be listened to on BBC Sounds throughout December

A local radio presenter has hosted his final show for BBC Radio Berkshire after more than three decades.

Andrew Peach's breakfast show has been a feature on the station's airwaves since 2005.

He said he was "touched and humbled that so many people got in touch to say goodbye".

The final show earlier recalled some of the highlights along his journey at the BBC that began when he was just 19 years old.

'The greatest privilege'

It was October 1992 when, as a 19-year-old student, Andrew Peach began his Saturday breakfast show on the recently opened BBC Radio Berkshire.

Mr Peach said: "If you'd told me my alarm clock would still be going off at 04:00 to present the Breakfast Show 31 years later, I would not have believed you."

Andrew Peach reporting on Princess Eugenie's wedding in Windsor

He has covered major stories from the Ladbroke Grove rail crash in 1999 to the death of the Queen in 2022, and even broadcast from Downing Street while the Maidenhead MP Theresa May was prime minister.

He said: "This job has been the greatest privilege. Daily radio shows like this are, above all, a relationship. A warm and authentic relationship with the audience.

"We've chosen to spend time together day after day, month after month, year after year. That relationship is so precious and I know I will miss it desperately."

Mr Peach also said he was proud of the impact his show has had on the Berkshire community over the years.

He said "We could make things happen. Whether it was building a sensory garden in Tilehurst, Reading, getting the government to send the army to help flood victims in Wraysbury, delivering walkie-talkies to midwives at the Royal Berkshire Hospital during the Covid pandemic or knitting comfort dolls for children in Ukraine.

"The programme has brought people together, applied a bit of pressure here and there and meant that, from time to time, we've changed things for the better. "

The team (left to right: Bridgitte Tetteh, Katie Tyler, Kirsten O'Brien, Emily Bailey Page, Andrew Peach and Iona Hampson) won a gold ARIA for best local radio show in the UK

Speaking on his last show, he said it was "humbling that so many people got in touch this morning to say I'd become part of their morning routine over the years".

"That's what makes radio so special, the relationship with listeners and I know I'll really miss it," he said.

"I'm really grateful to all the well-known people kind enough to take part in the show today but most of all to producer Katie Tyler and the incredible team who've been such a joy to work with all these years."