Jo Whiley

Johanne Whiley-Morton (born 4 July 1965), better known by her professional name Jo Whiley, is an English radio DJ and television presenter.

She was the host of the long-running weekday later weekend Jo Whiley Show on BBC Radio 1.

She currently presents her weekday evening Radio 2 show.

She is also the main presenter for the BBC's Glastonbury Festival coverage.

Whiley was born in Northampton to Martin, an electrician, and Christine, a postmistress.

She attended Campion School at Bugbrooke, near Northampton and then studied applied languages at Brighton Polytechnic.

She swam competitively for Northamptonshire.

In Whiley's final year of her degree, still unsure of what she wanted to do, a conversation with a lecturer led to a job with BBC Radio Sussex on a show called Turn It Up.

It allowed anyone to get on the radio and required Whiley to attend shows and interview the musicians.

After a year, Whiley left for City University London for a one-year course on radio journalism.

After writing many letters, she got a job as a researcher on WPFM, a BBC Radio 4 youth culture and music show.

When the presenters Terry Christian and Gary Crowley left, she took over, gaining her first presenting role.

She then moved into television, firstly at British Satellite Broadcasting where she produced and presented the indie show, and then at Channel 4 where she worked as a researcher on The Word, with her friend Zoe Ball.

Whiley moved on to BBC Radio 1 from September 1993 until March 2011, during the heyday of Britpop with bands such as Blur and Oasis.

She hosted a weekday evening show called The Evening Session with Steve Lamacq, which was oriented towards less-mainstream, non-dance music.

Whiley presented her own show on Saturday afternoon in late 1995.

From 1995 to 1998, Whiley was a regular guest presenter on Top of the Pops, initially co-presenting with fellow DJ Steve Lamacq before flying solo and alternating with Zoe Ball and Jayne Middlemiss.

The three women are referred to by the Top of the Pops website as the '90s girls', as between them they presented nearly every show of 1997.

However, the only occasion when all three presented together was on Christmas Day 1997.

From February 1997, Whiley had a weekday lunchtime show, called The Jo Whiley Show and later The Lunchtime Social.

This included elements of the evening show, such as tour dates and occasional live 'sessions' at Maida Vale Studios while working within the restrictions of Radio 1's daytime schedule.

When Simon Mayo left BBC Radio 1 for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 2 in February 2001, Whiley's show was moved to a mid-morning slot.

On 24 November 2002, Whiley became the first female presenter of the Radio 1 Chart Show, though she only presented that one edition.

Whiley returned to the show twice between 2005 and 2006 to co-present with lead presenter Fearne Cotton.

In July 2008, The Jo Whiley Show was fined £75,000 for misleading listeners for an incident involving a member of BBC staff posing as a member of the public taking part in a competition.

The BBC claim Whiley herself was unaware of the deception at the time of its broadcast.

In July 2009, Whiley published her autobiography, My World in Motion, on CD through Random House Audiobooks.

Jo Whiley's weekday show ended broadcasting in September 2009 as part of a major shake-up of Radio 1's weekday schedule.

The shake-up saw Greg James move to the afternoon slot (was occupied by Edith Bowman) and Fearne Cotton move to Whiley's slot.

Her final weekday programme took place on 18 September 2009.

Following weekdays, the Jo Whiley Show was moved to weekends between 1pm to 4pm.

As with her former weekday show, it still featured Live Lounge performances from visiting artists, as well as three new features: Jo's Road Trip, Top of the Shops, and SpellStar.

Since August 2009, Whiley has been an occasional stand in presenter for Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2.

She was first heard on the network on Friday 21 August and made subsequent appearances on 2 October, 6 November, 27 November and 18 December 2009.

In March 2010, it was announced that Whiley and former BBC Radio 1 presenter Steve Lamacq would present a one-off Evening Session (the first in 13 years) on Good Friday (2 April) for BBC Radio 6 Music.

After being an occasional stand-in presenter on BBC Radio 2, Whiley began presenting In Concert on Thursday evenings in April 2010.

Her last show on BBC Radio 1 was on 27 March 2011.

Presented another Evening Session on 28 January 2011.

On 1 February 2011, it was announced that Whiley would be leaving BBC Radio 1 after 17 years of broadcasting to join BBC Radio 2, where she would present an evening show from Mondays to Thursdays starting on 4 April 2011, replacing The Radcliffe and Maconie Show.

Radcliffe and Maconie would, in turn, move to BBC Radio 6 Music while Whiley's Radio 1 show would be taken over by Huw Stephens.