She was also routinely groped by another radio presenter while live on air, she said -- and her complaints about this were met by ridicule.

Kershaw acknowledged that the broadcaster would treat such a complaint differently now, but said that at the time she was groped its response had been out of step with public views on acceptable behavior.

The BBC has also come under pressure to explain why its own flagship Newsnight program, which looked into a previous police investigation into abuse claims against Savile last year, decided not to run the story. That police investigation was dropped for lack of evidence.