Janice Long

Early career

Following two years employed by Laker Airways as cabin crew and work as a shop assistant, in telesales and as an insurance clerk, Long became a station assistant at BBC Radio Merseyside in Liverpool. She started presenting shows for the station shortly thereafter. After interviewing Paul Gambaccini, the latter recommended her to Radio 1. In 1978 she and her husband Trevor were the first winners on Yorkshire Television's show 3-2-1, presented by Ted Rogers. The couple won a sterling silver tea service, after rejecting the car.

BBC Radio 1 and television

Long joined Radio 1 in 1982, making her debut on December 4 with her own Saturday evening show from 7:30 pm to 10 pm. From 1984 to 1987 she presented the Monday–Thursday Janice Long Show 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. On television, Long was a regular presenter of the BBC One chart show Top of the Pops between December 1982 and August 1988, and she returned to co-present its final show in July 2006.

GLR, Radio 5 and XFM

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 3 pm to 6 pm. In 2000, she began as a weekday presenter. She hosted originally from Birmingham but since April 2008 from BBC Radio 2 studios in London. Live music included sessions from Adele, the Zutons, Primal Scream, Kasabian, Amy McDonald, Hard Fi, Faithless, the Manic Street Preachers, Marillion, Josh Ritter, the Stranglers, Paul Weller, Morrissey, Moby, the Dandy Warhols, Stereophonics, Aslan and a significant number of new and unsigned bands such as Elle S'Appelle, Vijay Kishore, Damien Dempsey, Amsterdam, Senses and Sam Isaac. Amy Winehouse performed her first radio session after Long was the first presenter to give her airtime.

From late 2007, Long began 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.

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.

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 Radio 2 after further changes to its schedule. Her final show was on 26 January 2017. She returned to Radio 2 standing in for Jo Whiley for a week commencing 10 April 2017.

BBC Radio 6 Music

From the station's founding and launch in 2002 to 2004 Long presented the Dream Ticket on BBC Radio 6 Music, which aired from 10 pm to midnight five days a week, with a Saturday and Sunday early morning follow-up from 6 am to 8 am.

BBC WM and BBC Radio Wales

As well as a daily show on Radio 2, Long presented for a time on BBC WM on Saturday mornings from 9 am to noon, but left in July 2010. On March 28, 2017 the BBC announced that Janice would start presenting a new evening show on BBC Radio Wales from May 22, airing Mondays to Thurdays from 7:00pm–10:00pm.

Other work

Long appeared on the X Factor, Countdown and The Biography Channel, and provides the voiceover for the documentary Desperate Midwives on BBC Three TV. She was one of the personalities at the Live Aid concert in 1985, in which she mainly interviewed the performers back stage. Long won The Weakest Link DJ celebrity special, shown on BBC One on 5 September 2009. In the mid-'90s she presented a programme on the BBC World Service which was a mix of science and popular music called Pop Science. She also presented The Janice Long Review Show on Vintage TV. She currently hosts The 2ube on local TV station Made in Liverpool (Sky 117, Freeview 7, Virgin Media 159).

Personal life

Janice married Trevor Long in Liverpool in 1977 and they divorced in 1982. The couple appeared as winning contestants on the first edition of Yorkshire Television's game show 3-2-1 in 1978. From 1987 until her death, she was in a relationship with Paul Berry; they married in September 2017 and had two children.

In September 2011, Long was assaulted outside Broadcasting House after attending a concert by Echo & the Bunnymen at the London Palladium and her VIP access-all-areas concert pass was stolen.