One of Jimmy Savile's former bosses at Radio 1 has said he questioned the DJ about rumours over his private life more than 20 years ago.
Derek Chinnery, Radio 1 controller from 1978-85, said he asked Savile about "these rumours we hear".
"And he said that's all nonsense," Mr Chinnery told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House, adding "there was no reason to disbelieve" the DJ.
Police believe Savile may have sexually abused 60 people dating back to 1959.
Scotland Yard, which is co-ordinating the investigation, says it is following up 340 lines of inquiry and has been in contact with 14 other police forces.
Savile worked at Radio One from 1969 to 1989. During Mr Chinnery's era in charge, Savile was presenting a weekly show broadcasting charts from previous decades.
In an interview with BBC reporter Sima Kotecha for Broadcasting House, which will be broadcast at 09:00 BST, Mr Chinnery said he approached the star directly when he heard rumours relating to his private life. "I asked what's all this, these rumours we hear about you Jimmy?"
Asked about accepting a denial by the former Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It presenter, Mr Chinnery said: "It's easy now to say how could you just believe him just like that."
He added: "He was the sort of man that attracted rumours, after all, because he was single, he was always on the move, he was always going around the country."
'Popular man'A fortnight ago, former Radio 1 press officer Rodney Collins told BBC News that, in 1973, he had been asked by a previous controller of the station to check whether newspapers were planning to print allegations of Savile having inappropriate liaisons with underage girls.
Mr Collins said Douglas Muggeridge, station controller from 1968 to 1976, had told him "there were allegations about a programme called Savile's Travels that went round the country from Radio 1 - Jimmy and a caravan".
Mr Collins added: "There were allegations that there were girls, underage girls involved, maybe, in the caravan."
He said he reported back that the papers had "heard these allegations" but were unwilling to print them "whether they were true or not" because Savile did a lot for charity and was "perceived as a very popular man".
The BBC is to hold an inquiry into whether culture and practice at the BBC at the time enabled Savile to carry out the sexual abuse of children.
A second inquiry will ask why a BBC Newsnight investigation into Savile was shelved last year.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health is to investigate the decision to appoint Sir Jimmy Savile as head of a taskforce overseeing Broadmoor hospital in 1988.
The DoH said that claims in the Sun that he abused a 17-year-old patient on a visit to the psychiatric hospital in Berkshire as a fundraiser in the 1970s were "disturbing".
Savile should not have been appointed to the role, it added.
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