Mike Chaney, launch editor of Newsbeat on Radio1 and popular editor of Today on Radio 4 has sadly died. He was 93 and had been poorly for some years.

Mike was a master craftsman, his chosen material, words. He selected them with great care from his vast lexicon warehouse and assembled them with precision into elegant and revealing sentences.

His perceptive observations of people, places and events coupled
with his skill with words were the perfect ingredients for a fine journalist. Mike was a very fine journalist.

Whether writing for the eight-ten lead on the Today programme or an internal report for senior management at the BBC, he applied the same standards. In print or broadcast he could smell a whitewash and applied journalistic paint stripper to reveal the unvarnished truth.

It did not always endear him to the BBC Board, some of his internal reports made for uncomfortable reading, but he remained true to the truth.

Mike always saw the good in people, even those who were less than kind to him.

A fine wordsmith, a tenacious and fair journalist, a good judge of character and a thoroughly nice man with a sense of fun and an infection chuckle.

We will all miss him and we are all now the poorer.

The Guardian chronicled his life thus:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/03/mike-chaney-obituary

Awake is being held on June 22nd. in Puddletown, Dorset  where he lived.