This is taken from The Guardian:

Roger Bennett

by David Foot
Monday July 25, 2005

Journalist Roger Bennett, who has died of cancer aged 69, worked for BBC Radio Bristol from its inception in 1970 and was the longest serving breakfast show presenter in radio. He possessed an enthusiastic, informal manner, complemented by a sharp newspaperman's instinct for news and the right measure of gravitas.

Like many shy people, he became warmly gregarious when behind the microphone or on the bandstand. He built up a huge following around his native Bristol; and at times his show, Morning West, on local radio had a bigger audience than Radio 4's Today programme.

He seemed to know everyone in the city and could be persuasive enough to bring them on to his show: lord mayors, bishops and footballers. His interviewing technique, although outwardly amiable, always included the penetrative question.

He was also a fine jazzman, playing for nearly half a century on the Bristol jazz scene. He was "among the best in the west", according to his mate Acker Bilk, and fronted the long-established Blue Notes Jazz Band. Far from well, he was still playing his soprano sax or clarinet with gusto until recently. His colleagues always found it remarkable that even after playing jazz gigs into the early hours, he was up and in his place behind the mike promptly next morning after driving in from his home in north Somerset.

Educated at Bristol grammar school, he went to work for the Bristol Evening Post, where his father Bob had been the cartoonist. Roger eventually became the chief reporter and one of his regular stints was to attend Flax Bourton magistrates court on Friday mornings, in competition with Tom Stoppard (and myself). There were usually sessions afterwards at the Jubilee Inn, where shorthand notes were traded.

As a broadcaster he won a number of awards, including the Sony Radio Presenter of the Year (1983), Local Broadcaster of the Year (1994) and Sony Gold Achievement Award for dedication to local radio (1998). He was awarded an honorary masters degree at Bristol University. Although he had retired officially from his radio job in 2002, he was looking into the studios until recently.

Roger leaves a wife and four children.

· Roger Bennett, journalist, born October 17 1935; died July 13 2005