Overview
- Hayes died on Sunday, 30 November 2025, aged 87, with former LBC colleague Steve Allen first sharing the news on X.
- Born in Perth, Western Australia, he moved to Britain in the early 1970s and joined Capital Radio as a producer at its 1973 launch before moving on air.
- He made his name hosting LBC's morning interview and phone-in from 1976, helping define a serious, conversational call-in style, with Margaret Thatcher as his first phone-in guest.
- At BBC Radio 2 he fronted the Breakfast Show in 1992 before Terry Wogan returned in 1993, and his weekly Hayes over Britain phone-in won a Gold Sony Radio Award.
- He later worked across BBC Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live and returned to LBC for a Sunday slot, as colleagues and listeners posted tributes; no cause of death has been reported.