Janice Long

Janice Long (born April 5 1955) is a Liverpudlian radio broadcaster in the UK, the sister of former TV personality Keith Chegwin.

Having begun her career on BBC Radio Merseyside, she joined Radio 1 in 1982. For several years (1984-87) she presented a mid-evening show, a precursor of the later shows of Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe, playing a wide range of music (especially of the indie-rock genre) and including a number of features including a weekly "diary" by John Walters, who at the time was John Peel's producer. She was the only female DJ allowed to host Top of the Pops or do Roadshows, and she was not entirely popular in a male-dominated environment; notably, controller Johnny Beerling claimed that her shoes made her look like "a lesbian". At around this time, she had a highly public relationship with fellow DJ Peter Powell.

After returning from maternity leave, she resigned from Radio 1 acrimoniously in 1988 when told that her old weekday show was being abolished and that to stay on the station she would have to host a weekend breakfast show, which she thought was incompatible with the changes in her life forced by the birth of her baby. Later radio work would include a stint as breakfast host on GLR in London - ironically run at the time by future Radio 1 controller Matthew Bannister and future senior Radio 1 executive Trevor Dann, and a close association with the now-defunct Liverpool indie station Crash FM. In the late 1990s she started appearing on the rejuvenated Radio 2, where she has been the weekday overnight presenter since 2000. She hosts the show from the BBC's studios in Birmingham.