After a stint at BBC Radio Merseyside, Janice Long – elder sister of Swap Shop’s Keith Chegwin and a former Laker Airways hostess – joined Radio 1 in 1982, making her debut on 4 December with her own Saturday evening show from 7:30 pm to 10 pm.
In October 1984, she became the first female presenter of a weekday Radio 1 show, taking over the evening slot from David ‘Kid’ Jensen. She also became a regular presenter on Top of the Pops and was the first woman to serve as a regular host, often presenting alongside John Peel.
She resigned acrimoniously in 1988 when she was offered a less attractive slot, which would have moved her from weekdays to weekends.
On her return from maternity leave in 1989, she joined BBC Radio London (then known as Greater London Radio), taking over from Nick Abbot on the breakfast show. 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.
In 1995, she moved back up to Liverpool, where she set up a radio station called Crash FM with Bernie Connor, which eventually secured a permanent licence on 107.6FM.
In 1999, Long started appearing on BBC Radio 2, presenting a Saturday afternoon show, and in April 2000, she began as a weekday presenter, hosting the show originally from Birmingham and then from BBC Radio 2 studios in London.
Long left her regular BBC Radio 2 slot after further changes to its schedule, but returned to stand in for Jo Whiley for a week in April 2017 and was given her own series called A Long Walk With . . .
From the station’s founding and launch in 2002 through to 2004, Long presented “Dream Ticket” on BBC Radio 6 Music and also presented for a time on BBC Radio WM on Saturday mornings from 9 am to noon. In 2017, she began presenting a new evening show on BBC Radio Wales (taking some time away in December 2017 following her brother’s death). Long presented her final show on BBC Radio Wales on 9 December 2021.
She died at home from pneumonia on Christmas Day 2021, at the age of 66.
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