Grave tribute on air for broadcasting chief (5)
I believe the answer is:
reith
'broadcasting chief' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'grave tribute on air' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'on' could be 're' ('on' can be mean 'with reference to') and 're' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reith that I've seen before include "Auntie's old boss" , "BBC radio pioneer" , "One put in charge of the BBC" , "Early BBC man" , "head of broadcasting" .)