NEWS presenter Wesley Smith officially swapped the TV screen for Oxfordshire’s airwaves on Saturday thanks to help from Oxford Mail readers.

The former ITV Thames Valley Tonight anchorman was forced to leave the show in February after becoming a casualty of the station’s cutbacks.

Radio station BBC Oxford offered him a regular Saturday afternoon show which began this weekend.

The Oxford Mail was inundated with pleas to bring back the broadcaster when we started our Bring Back Wesley campaign.

Mr Smith said: “The Oxford Mail campaign was just outstanding and really reflected the depth of feeling in Oxfordshire of the importance of local broadcasting.

“Many people who rang in on Saturday had voted in the campaign and they were really pleased to see that as a result of that, the BBC had listened and let me fly the flag for Oxfordshire.”

He added: “It’s a totally new experience but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had a great support team so I’m really lucky.

“I was a bit nervous because I didn’t want to let anyone down, but I’m really pleased with how it went.”

Catch Wesley Smith on BBC Oxford 95.2FM, between noon and 2pm every Saturday, when he looks back at the station’s best bits for that week.