With BRMB striving to offer something different from the established BBC radio stations, Butler was encouraged to speak informally on the air, emphasising rather than hiding his accent.
After being sent on a tour of radio stations in Canada and the US, Butler noticed the success of the forthright North American broadcasters and, back in the UK, he began to develop a similar aggressive manner on the air, offering controversial opinions and arguing with callers to his shows.
In another innovation imported from across the Atlantic, Butler began to offer sports fans the opportunity to call into his shows with their opinions of their teams' performances, giving birth to his boast that he was the inventor of the football phone-in.
Butler's much repeated catchphrase "On 'yer bike" was used to cut off callers whose opinions he disagreed with, whilst his competitions would tax listeners with questions such as "How many yards of elastic are there in a golf ball?".
His abrasive style, locally well-known, was brought to national attention after being worked into the routines of Birmingham comic Jasper Carrott, who often liked to poke fun at the homespun nature of BRMB's programming at the time.
[3] The dismissal of such a high-profile personality was front-page news in Birmingham, and programmes on BRMB were severely affected as some of Butler's former colleagues walked out on strike.
[3] Following his sacking, Butler was snapped up more or less immediately by the BBC local TV news programme Midlands Today often reporting on the lighter items and demonstrating a much softer side to his nature than anyone had hitherto seen.
In 1994 Butler moved back to commercial radio, hosting the breakfast show on BRMB spin-off station Xtra-AM, giving him the opportunity to play more music.
"[9] In August 2009, after Orion took control of BRMB and Gold, it was announced by Tom Ross that Butler would be returning to co-host the football phone-in on Friday nights.
Ross paid tribute to Butler in an emotional telephone interview with his predecessor on his opening football phone-in show of the 2012–13 season, thanking him for bringing him to BRMB over thirty years earlier.