Former Radio 1 DJ passes away

Rex Features

Former Radio 1 DJ Kevin Greening has passed away at the age of 44.

Greening hosted the station's breakfast show with Zoe Ball between 1997 and 1998.

He worked more recently at BBC Radio 5 Live and on the afternoon show at London's Smooth Radio.

John Myers, chief executive of GMG Radio told the BBC: "[Greening] was a talented broadcaster and we were privileged to have him as our afternoon presenter.

"He was passionate about radio and all kinds of music and will be sadly missed not only by his colleagues at Smooth, but by millions of listeners. It's a terrible loss to broadcasting."

The DJ's agent Chris North said he died "peacefully" on Saturday in his sleep.

Radio 5 Live presenter Simon Mayo described Greening as a "naturally gifted" DJ who could have achieved a lot more but for his modesty.

Mayo commented: "[Greening] was a really nice, modest, quiet bloke, whereas some other people with half his talent had twice his arrogance.

"He was quite shy - sometimes a bit embarrassed about achieving the level of fame he had."

"The work that he put into his programmes was fantastic. He was very meticulous. He was just a fantastic example and naturally gifted."