Janice Long

Janice Berry (née Chegwin; 5 April 1955 – 25 December 2021), known professionally by her first married name Janice Long, was an English broadcaster who was best known for her work in British music radio.

The first female presenter to have a daily music show on BBC Radio 1, Long also appeared on other BBC Radio stations, such as BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio WM, and BBC Radio 6 Music, and was a regular presenter on the television chart show Top of the Pops.

Janice Chegwin was born on 5 April 1955 in Liverpool, to Margaret (née Wells) and Colin Chegwin, who encouraged their three children to pursue an interest in stage performance.

Her younger brother, Keith Chegwin (1957–2017), likewise had a career in radio and television.

Her early employment included two years at Laker Airways as cabin crew, and also as a shop assistant, in telesales and as an insurance clerk.

In July 1978, Long and ex-husband Trevor won the premiere of 3-2-1, a Yorkshire Television game show.

Long became a station assistant at BBC Radio Merseyside in Liverpool in 1979.

Shortly afterwards she started presenting her own show Streetlife for the station on Sunday evenings, focusing on local bands in the thriving Liverpool music scene.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood did their first radio session for her show.

After interviewing Paul Gambaccini for her new afternoon show, the latter recommended her to BBC Radio 1.

Each week, Long walked through the streets of a different city with a popstar from the 1980s or 1990s as they remembered the key places, characters and music that shaped their pop career.

Long joined BBC Radio 1 in 1982, making her debut on 4 December with her own Saturday evening show from 7:30 pm to 10 pm, after being presented as the 'newcomer' on BBC1's chart show Top of the Pops two nights earlier.

On television, Long was a regular presenter of Top of the Pops between January 1983 and August 1988, and was the first woman to become a regular host.

She often presented it in partnership with John Peel (after the departure of David Jensen), with whom she struck up a solid friendship.

From 1984 to 1987 she presented the Monday–Thursday evenings from 7:30 pm to 10 pm, a mix of new music and current affairs, and record review programme Singled Out on Friday evenings from 5:45 pm to 7 pm.

She was the first woman to have her own daily show on BBC Radio 1.

In 1989, she joined London station BBC Radio London (then known as Greater London Radio), taking over from Nick Abbot on the breakfast show.

At the time GLR was being run by future BBC Radio 1 controller Matthew Bannister and future Radio 1 executive Trevor Dann.

Long left the breakfast show 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 (RSL), and played a crucial part in its bid for a permanent licence.

The idea for an alternative music radio station in Liverpool was thought up by Long and Connor in 1994, with the pair having the idea that the station could be the city's answer to XFM.

In 1995, Long moved back up to Liverpool, where she set up a radio station called Crash FM with Bernie Connor.

The station was launched on a Restricted Service Licence (RSL) broadcasting for a month from 5 November 1995 at Mabel Fletcher College on Greenbank, and with presenters such as Inspiral Carpets member Clint Boon getting their first radio presenting jobs.

Over the next few years, the station received support from Bob Geldof, Boy George and Primal Scream amongst others, and successfully bid for a permanent licence on 107.6FM.

In 1999, Long started appearing on BBC Radio 2, presenting a Saturday afternoon show from 3 pm to 6 pm.

In April 2000, she began as a weekday presenter, hosting the show originally from Birmingham and then (from April 2008) from BBC Radio 2 studios in London.

Long promoted a number of acts through live music sessions on her show including Adele, The Zutons, Primal Scream, Kasabian, Amy Macdonald, Hard-Fi, Faithless, The Manic Street Preachers, Marillion, Josh Ritter, The Stranglers, Paul Weller, Moby, The Dandy Warhols, Stereophonics, Aslan and a significant number of new and unsigned bands such as Elle S'Appelle, Vijay Kishore, Damien Dempsey, Senses and Sam Isaac.

Amy Winehouse performed her first radio session after Long was the first presenter to give her airtime.

Between 2005 and 2021, Long was the Presenter of Moseley Folk and Arts Festival.

At the end of her career, Long hosted four nights a week on BBC Radio Wales and Saturday afternoons on Greatest Hits Radio.

Long returned to co-present the final show in July 2006.

In 2021, Long was among a number of ex-Radio 1 DJs hired by Viacom International Studios to countdown the Official Charts Company's retro hits of the year on Channel 5's Britain's Favourite Songs, with Long first being heard on the 1982 episode which also featured Toyah Willcox, Paul Gambaccini and Clare Grogan.

In January 2010, due to a reorganisation of the breakfast schedule on Radio 2, her show was cut to two hours, and ran from midnight to 2 am, Monday to Friday.

At the time Long was earning £137,000 a year.

With the announcement of the new After Midnight programme on Radio 2 from October 2014, the show was on Mondays to Thursdays, midnight to 3 am.

Long left her regular BBC Radio 2 slot after further changes to its schedule.

Her final After Midnight show was on 26 January 2017.

She returned to BBC Radio 2 standing in for Jo Whiley for a week commencing 10 April 2017, and was given her own series called A Long Walk With... which went out between 2017 and 2018.

A Long Walk With... was an hour long series of interviews initially broadcast on BBC Radio 2 from 9 August 2017 at 10pm.