This is a download from LBC, Steve Allen's Little Bit Extra.

Morning everybody, welcome along to your free podcast for today. It's Wednesday,

the 10th of February. I had a lovely letter from Rita. And Rita wrote to me the other day,

saying, I have to write you about your show this morning. I've never written to you before. She said, I listened as you talked about your mother. I was working at my computer, but as you went on talking, I stopped and I listened. And I'm so very sure that there were so many other people like myself that cried as your voice broke as you spoke about losing your mum. Yes, I got lots I got lots of, lots and lots of letters about that.

She said, I know that your mum would be very proud of you. I know that you touch the hearts of many

people this morning. But then she says, you always do. She says, it was what you said about Terry

Wogan and how you recounted that he always said he only had one listener. She said, well, you too have only one listener. She said, and it's me. And I've listened to you now for quite a lot of years. And she said, I feel I'm across the table to you both. You're in conversations are spectacular and always very end. Anyway, it was just a very, very nice letter from Rita, from Hayes. Thank you very much indeed. She said, you really do cause the morning spike. Yes, I mean, I don't like, I joke about, you know, being big-headed about, you know, having great audience figures. But believe you me, when you work at 4 in the morning till 6.30, there is a lot of competition out there. There's lots of other

radio stations. They're all competing for your, for your listenership. They want you to listen to them.

Unfortunately, I want you more. And so I have to sort of battle against them. But I don't find it's

a hardship battle. I get, I've said you before, apart from people like Rita who have listened to to me for a long, long time. I like to think that we're

honest on the program. If I say something, sometimes that offends somebody, it's because I mean

it. I don't mean to offend somebody, but I firmly believe in it. I can get quite passionate

about things. I make no apologies for doing that. Sometimes it gets me into trouble.

And sometimes people write in and go, you're absolutely right, absolutely right about this.

You know, you do it because you're doing it live. You're doing it on the spur of the moment.

We don't do a pre-recorded programme apart from the in conversations.

And you just have a genuine interest in what you do.

And that's what my bosses have always said.

They've always said, you've got to have a love for this job. Not everybody can do it.

I don't know why they can't do it, because I found it absolutely easy, peasy lemon squeezy.

I don't find it difficult to do, but some people don't have that ability to communicate. They can do a program and I'm very jealous of people. I can remember

and my boss will tell you this from ages ago when we, when he first came into the, to the building.

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