A radio host found a novel way of doing his bit to help the environment - when he accidentally took his show off the air.

Alex Duffy was presenting on Chiltern Radio last Monday when he narrated to listeners that he was turning off all "unnecessary" equipment to save electricity.

Unfortunately the plan went slightly awry after he uttered the immortal words: "What does that do? I don't think it's too important."

He then switched off the main link between the Bedford studio and its Sandy Heath transmitter, leaving listeners with nothing but loud static.

Shortly afterwards Alex came back on the air, and admitted: "It turns out that was quite important."

This week, Alex, who presents his show from 10am-3pm on weekdays, said: "I was just trying something different for our Green Month, where we are spreading the message about what people can do to tackle climate change.

"It was off the cuff. I thought I would do something a bit different and turn unnecessary equipment off. Then it all went quiet."

Anyone who was listening to the show should be immediately familiar with what happened next. And unluckily for Alex, the 'anyone who was listening' included his immediate boss.

"Two things happened at once," he said. "The moment we went off air my boss came in and asked what had happened, and the engineer phoned up and asked if something had been broken. As you'd imagine, I got told off after the show.

"Even my mum was listening, despite the fact that she lives in Dorset. My brother has got her a gadget so that she can play the show over her computer and through her stereo speakers. So of course she got to hear it all.

"That is radio though. If you make a mistake then everyone knows you have made it, and they know about it immediately."

Chiltern Radio programme controller Tony Dibbin added "We at Chiltern Radio sincerely apologise for this mistake. Green Month has been all about trying to get the message out there that if we all do our little bit we can add those little bits up and it really will make a big difference.

"On this occasion, however, Alex took it one step too far and has been warned about his future on-air conduct at the station. We've also shown him again which buttons not to touch!"