[Keith]

Interesting point! How often do these come round?

If it wasn’t “known” (as the below seems to imply the newsreader didn’t know till midway through his bulletin).. I wonder how the instruction was given to remove those IDs

x.com 

I'd suggest it may have been known earlier in the day that he was very unwell / taken to hospital, and that things weren't looking good. This might have prompted a few 'precautionary' measures, such as removing the ID and preparing a playlist for potential near-future use. It's also some people may have heard unofficially and/or directly from Steve's family prior to 5pm, hence how Jeremy Vine may have been aware by 2pm. The BBC would have also needed some time to prepare a statements to release with the news.

It's quite possible that Sara Cox and her colleagues only found that he'd died out once she'd handed over to the 5pm news. Perhaps fortunately the bulletin was about 5 minutes long, compared to the usual short midday bulletin at the start of Vine's show. This would fit in with what Mike Powell has said on twitter about him only knowing as he read it out.