VETERAN broadcaster, author and bandleader Robbie Shepherd has died aged 87.

Known for being a champion of traditional Scottish dance music and the north-east Doric dialect, he presented the BBC Radio Scotland show Take the Floor for 35 years.

He has been credited with helping to keep the Doric language alive with his voice well-known across the airwaves.

Shepherd (below) last hosted Take the Floor in 2016, having first presented the show in 1980, and wrote a number of books on Scottish dance music and Scottish country dancing.

Gazette:

After he retired, then first minister Nicola Sturgeon was among those to pay tribute to him and described him as a broadcasting legend.

Explaining his broadcasting philosophy in 2016, he said: “I like to thank that I am broadcasting to a lady in the top tenement in Glasgow at the same time as I am chatting to a lady in a croft.”

He was a regular commentator at Highland Games and was the voice of the dragon in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen in 2012.

Many took to social media to pay tribute to the broadcaster, with Scots singer Iona Fyfe saying: “Heartbroken at the death of legend Robbie Shepherd. So kind, supportive and encouraging towards me since early 2000s.

READ MORE: Jackie Baillie insists Scottish Labour running Rutherglen by-election

“In 2017, I was honoured to make a speech dedicated to him at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland when they made him Dr.”

BBC presenter Gary Innes said: “I am so sorry to hear of the passing of Dr Robbie Shepherd MBE.

“Robbie was an incredible man, musician and champion of the Doric language. A true legend and until we meet again ma man, ‘aw the best till then’.”

Another said he was an “utter legend” while another said he had a “lovely voice” that they remembered fondly from their childhood.