Jo Whiley

Jo Whiley is one of the best-known and most enduring voices on radio, and one of the BBC’s lead presenters of live music coverage. A fixture on Radio 1 for almost 20 years she introduced listeners to some of the most influential artists of recent times. She now hosts her own Radio 2 show playing a combination of hits and album tracks from a range of genres.

After early roles on BBC and commercial radio and television, Jo moved to Radio 1 just as Britpop was reinvigorating the UK music scene. She and her co-host Steve Lamacq presented The Evening Session, a home for new guitar bands and less mainstreams acts that, at the time, were overlooked elsewhere on the station. It was perfect timing and the show became inexorably linked with the likes of Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Suede as well as an assortment of less well-known but just as influential arttists.

Jo took over her own daytime show on Radio 1, as well as continuing television roles such presenting Top of the Pops, the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage, and music programmes on Channel 4. She was a mainstay of Radio 1’s daytime schedule for another decade before moving to Radio 2 as the station shifted its music remit towards a more contemporary tone.

Although unquestionably associated with music, Jo has also presented coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show and an edition of Panorama, has appeared on Loose Women, competed in a celebrity edition of The Chase, and also cropped up as a radio presenter in Richard Curtis’ film Love Actually.