Popular BBC personality Jonathan Ross, no stranger to controversy, will be pre-recording his Saturday morning radio show 24 hours beforehand, the British public broadcaster announced Friday.

"Pre-recording Jonathan's show enables us to ensure the program is watertight due to compliance whilst attracting the best guests," according to a BBC statement.

"It's common practice to pre-record radio programs and both Radio 2 and Jonathan are very happy with the plan as we've been discussing the matter for many weeks."

A BBC spokeswoman pointed out that Ross's Friday night BBC One TV chat show is pre-recorded as well.

Fallout from Ross, Brand row lingers

In October, Ross and former BBC personality and comedian Russell Brand sparked a major row when they broadcast a crude telephone prank in which they left lewd messages on an actor's answering machine about his granddaughter, with whom Brand had previously had a relationship.

Thousands of complaints flooded into the BBC and British broadcast regulator Ofcom over the prank call, which ultimately led to Brand quitting his show, the executive in charge of BBC Radio 2 resigning her post and Ross being suspended for 12 weeks.

In April, Ofcom issued the BBC a record £150,000 ($274,000 Cdn) fine over the incident.

Ross returned to the airwaves in January, but was recently in hot water again when a flood of listeners complained about comments he made about boys who are fans of Hannah Montana, the fictional character portrayed by U.S. pop singer Mylie Cyrus.

Ross said he felt "mortified" that some listeners construed his comments as homophobic.