Background
The son of a miner, he left school at age 15 and worked as a clerk for a mining company before obtaining a job as a newsreader for a radio station in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
The son of a miner, he left school at age 15 and worked as a clerk for a mining company before obtaining a job as a newsreader for a radio station in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
He subsequently worked for various stations in Perth and Western Australia, in both presenting and producing roles. He moved to the United Kingdom and joined Capital Radio at its inception in 1973, first as a producer of talk programmes, and then presenting Capital Open Lincolnshire, before making his name as presenter of the morning interview and phone-in show on LBC Radio from 1976 to 1990. Here he adopted an often aggressive style with callers – making it clear he did not suffer fools gladly.
Though this sometimes caused irritation it was a valuable asset to the station.
(He was once satirised in Private Eye as ‘Brian Bastard"). Since 1990 Hayes has appeared on various stations, including presenting the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 2 breakfast show Good Morning United Kingdom from January 1992 until the end of that year.
He was replaced by the show"s former host Terry Wogan. Hayes presented the weekly phone-in Hayes over Britain on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 2 in the 1990s, as well as sitting in for Jimmy Young and Jeremy Vine until the mid-2000s.
He worked on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Five Live until 2006, and British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4, on various programmes including Not Today, Thank You.
During the mid-2000s, he presented Friday nights on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 5 Live and on Sunday nights he returned to LBC. He is mentioned on the song Hello by The Beloved which is a song whose lyrics feature a list of names of (some fictional) people, "saints and sinners" who have supposedly inspired the group members.