TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to Tom Steele, the former managing director of Radio Forth in Edinburgh, who died after a long illness.

One of the leading figures of the Scottish radio industry, he started his career in newspapers, including a spell with the Daily Mail. He went on to become the first employee at Radio Clyde in 1973, when he was appointed to set up and lead their news team.

Just two years later, Steele moved to the east as head of news at Radio Forth to drive the new station’s launch.

He always considered himself a reporter, and once said: “It’s what goes on in between the records that makes a station unique.

“It’s all about what’s going on in the area, cementing your roots in the community, with something for everyone and telling them you’re doing it.”

A perfect illustration of that unique thinking came in winter 1978, which saw much of Forth’s broadcast area come to a standstill after a sudden blizzard.

Steele launched a week of emergency planned billed “Snowline” – to help people in the community who had become stranded or were facing other difficulties caused by the weather – demonstrating the vital role that independent local radio (ILR) could play.

He went on to become programme director, overseeing the creation of Forth 1 on FM and Forth 2 on AM, before taking over as managing director, but retired through ill health in 1999.

Luisa Cairns, then the newsroom secretary at Forth, told The National: “I’m really shocked. I have too many memories of him to think of only one.

“Probably, like most others’ recollections of him, I would say simply that he was a very big character, kind, fair, meticulous and funny.”

John Collins wrote on Facebook: “RIP Tom Steele. One of the ILR originals who launched Clyde and then Forth. He was a man who was a bit mad, a bit scary and a bit perfect in equal measure. He convinced me it was OK to take a 33% pay cut to join Forth.

“He was a risk taker and a legend.”

Graham Bryce, chief operating officer of Bauer Media, which now owns Forth, said: “Tom was one of the driving forces behind Radio Forth as he was passionate about radio and doing the best for our listeners and the local area.

“Local radio was very new in the UK at the time and Tom was at the forefront of the industry which was recognised by the many awards and accolades he won over the years.”

I too have found memories of Tom Steele, who gave me my break in broadcasting at Radio Forth in the late 70s.

Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979 and was doing a round of media interviews in Edinburgh. I had been working in newspapers and was used to being suited and booted for work.

However, I was only a few months into my first radio job and he sent me to interview Thatcher … because I was the only person wearing a tie.

He was perhaps the biggest influence on my career, and as John Wood wrote on Facebook: “Words seem inadequate to sum up the contributions and characteristics of such a unique individual. RIP sir.”