Dave Lee Travis has told a jury he is not a "sexual predator" but admitted he has a "cuddly nature".
The veteran DJ told London's Southwark Crown Court claims he was a sex pest were "nonsensical".
He also said he would have reported Jimmy Savile to police had he known the television star was a paedophile, but denied the two had ever been close.
And the jury heard he had complained to police he had lost "work, money and health" due to the allegations.
Mr Travis, who is on trial accused of indecently assaulting 10 women and sexually assaulting another, said: "I do not have a predatory nature with women, I have a cuddly nature. Maybe that's what this is all about, but I am not predatory.
"If I really like somebody I will put my arm around them and I might give them a peck on the cheek, I even do that with men, to make them feel comfortable and welcome to the place."
The 68-year-old said that although "people automatically assume" he must have got on with Savile because they were both in showbusiness, they never really had a conversation.
Answering questions from Stephen Vullo, for the defence, he said: "I, like other people, did think 'he seems to like young girls'. He was always surrounded by girls and by that I mean girls of 16, 17, 18. But I don't think that anyone knew what was going on as far as him being a paedophile.
"In all honesty, if I had known that Jimmy Savile was a paedophile I would have been the first to get him arrested because it is the worst crime in the world as far as I am concerned."
Jurors heard he complained to police last September that he and his wife had "suffered badly" due to the allegations.
Junior prosecutor Teresa Hay said: "Mr Travis said that for 10 months he had lost his money, work, his health, he has had back and knee operations and had suffered stress.
"Worse still his wife had suffered breast cancer. She was through it now but stress is bad for someone who is going through that.
"This was costing him his job, his living and everything he has built up over 50 years."
The trial continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article