Janice Long (born 5 April 1955) is an
English radio broadcaster currently working on
BBC Radio 2. Her show is on Sunday to Thursday nights from midnight to 02:00. She is the older sister of TV and radio personality
Keith Chegwin.
Early career
BBC Radio 1
Janice joined
BBC Radio 1 at the very end of 82 with her own a Saturday evening show between 7:30 - 10pm. From 84 to 87 she presented the Monday - Thursday Janice Long show from 7.30-10pm,a mix of new music and current affairs &
Singled Out on Friday evenings from 5.45-7pm. On television, Long presented the
BBC One chart show
Top of the Pops sixty times between December 1982 and August 1988, and also returned to co-present its final show in July 2006.
The Superstation, GLR and Radio 5
In 1989, she joined London station
BBC GLR, taking over from
Nick Abbot on the breakfast show. At the time,
GLR was being run by future
Radio 1 controller
Matthew Bannister and future Radio 1 executive
Trevor Dann. In 1991, Long left the breakfast show of her own volition but continued to work for the station, where she took over a weekend show. In addition to this, she was heard presenting and producing occasional shows on the old
BBC Radio 5. Long became involved with XFM in London, when it had a restricted service licence and played a crucial part in its bid for a permanent licence.
Crash FM
In 1995, Long moved back up to Liverpool, where she set up her own Radio station,
Crash FM. With support from Bob Geldof, Boy George, and Primal Scream amongst others, she put together an RSL and a successful bid for a permanent licence.
BBC Radio 2
In 1999, Long started appearing on the rejuvenated
BBC Radio 2, presenting a Saturday afternoon show from 3pm to 6pm.
Since 2000, she has been a weekday presenter and hosts a show between midnight and 3am Monday to Friday originally from Birmingham but since April 2008 has been presenting the show from BBC Radio 2 studios in London. Live music has included sessions from The Wombats, White Lies, The Comics, The Enemy, The Twang, The New Scientists, Shack, Mystery Jets, Adele, The Hollidays, The Zutons, Primal Scream, Kasabian, Amy McDonald, Hard Fi, Faithless, The Manic Street Preachers, Josh Ritter, The Stranglers, Paul Weller, Morrissey, Moby, Dandy Warhols, Stereophonics, Aslan , and a significant number of new and unsigned bands like Married to the Sea, Elle S'Apelle, Vijay Kishore, Damien Dempsey, Amsterdam, Sam Isaac,
Amy Winehouse did her first radio session after Janice gave her a go before anyone else.
As of late 2007, Janice has begun to champion her listeners under the group name 'the two percenters'. This came about due to a word choice game that employed tricks to produce the same answer for all that played it. However, most of the listeners to Janice Long did not produce the intended answer and thus were said to fall into the two percent category of people for whom the game does not work.
As of January 2010, due to a reorganisation of the breakfast schedule on Radio 2, the show has been cut to two hours, and runs from midnight to 2am, Monday to Friday.
BBC 6 Music
From the station's founding and launch in 2002 to 2004 Janice presented The
Dream Ticket
on
BBC 6 Music, which aired from 10pm to midnight, five days a week with a Saturday and Sunday early morning follow-up from 6am-8am.
Other radio work
As well as a daily show on Radio 2, Long presented for a time on
BBC WM on Saturday mornings from 9am-12pm, left in July 2010.
Other work
Long has also appeared on the
X Factor,
Countdown,
The Biography Channel, and provides the voiceover for the documentary
Desperate Midwives on
BBC Three TV.
She was also one of the personalities at the Live Aid concert in 1985, in which she mainly interviewed the performers back stage.
Long won the The Weakest Link DJ celebrity special, shown on BBC One on 5 September 2009.
References
External links
Category:1955 births
Category:British radio personalities
Category:Living people
Category:British radio DJs
Category:Top of the Pops
Category:Radio presenters from Liverpool
Category:BBC Radio 2 presenters