Jo Whiley
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Johanne Whiley (born July 4, 1965 in Northampton, England) is a British radio disc jockey on BBC Radio 1.
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[edit] Early life and career
Whiley went to Campion School (Bugbrooke) and then university in Brighton. From September 1993 until February 1997 (the heydays of Britpop - Blur and Pulp), she hosted a weekday evening show called The Evening Session with Steve Lamacq from 7 until 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday. The show was oriented towards less-mainstream, non-dance music. Lamacq still has an evening show each Monday on Radio 1, with a similar content, and has a weekday afternoon show on 6 Music, a digital radio channel. In addition to The Evening Session, in Late 1995 she presented her own show on Saturday afternoon from 2.30-5pm.
[edit] The Jo Whiley Show
From February 1997, she had a weekday show from 12 - 2 p.m., named 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 while working within the restrictions of Radio 1's daytime schedule.
When Simon Mayo left Radio 1 for Radio Five Live in February 2001, Whiley's show was moved two hours earlier to the time it is today (from 10 a.m. to 12.45 p.m.).
The show includes an 'entertainment news' section, now at noon, which is currently read by Natalie Jamieson. News updates also appear at half hourly intervals throughout the show, with the last news bulletin at noon before the show ends at 12.45.
There have been numerous features on the show. Current features are marked in bold type:
- Changing Tracks - Daily feature - This is when a listener emails in and asks for a song that reminds them of a time in their life when music changed everything, particularly if that had had a great experience or whether a song provided some kind of comfort after a traumatic time.
- Live Lounge - The Live Lounge is where invited artists come into the studio to perform music from their new album/single as well as performing a cover version of a song they particularly admire, and give their own take on it. Selected guests from 2006 include, Goldfrapp who performed "Fly Me Away" and the Ordinary Boys' "Boys Will Be Boys" and Nelly Furtado who sang "Maneater" and covered Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". This is a popular feature of the show and a compilation album of such covered music has been released.
- Pet Sound - Daily feature - This is a song that has been considered by Jo to be something that we need to hear. It usually has not been released or is due to be released in due time. This song is played once on Jo's show for the week and it changes every week.
- Marilyn Manson was never in The Wonder Years - This happens infrequently. Basically if there is a question that you do not know the answer to and would like answered, then this is the place to find out. The title comes from the urban legend that Marilyn Manson was a cast member for the series The Wonder Years, when actually he wasn't.
- I Have Never... - An occasional feature where Jo embarks on something she has never done in her life and listeners are also challenged to the same thing, examples have included not watching television for a whole week and trying a sport for the very first time.
- What Rocked? What Sucked? - This feature involves listeners to e-mail or text in to tell her and the listening audience what went well and what didn't. Jo sometimes offers her own view from time to time.
- 7 Song Shuffle - Daily feature - A mishmash of 7 different songs is played to a listener via telephone and the idea is that the listener has to get them all correct by naming the artist and song title. The number of correct answers they get corresponds to the number of albums they can receive as prizes. If not all 7 songs are guessed correctly then other listeners can claim them by texting or emailing the missing answers. It is more difficult than it appears!
- We Love Mondays - Weekly feature - At the start of each week, Jo runs through various reasons to be happy on a Monday morning, such as what is showing at the cinema, what music albums and singles are being released and what is coming up on television and radio.
- Ask The Experts - Weekly feature - For this feature, listeners can e-mail in their dilemmas or questions to a certain expert, whether it be about video games, gadgets or relationships for example. Tracey Cox is one of the experts, with her field being relationships.
[edit] Trivia
- Whiley has always been keen to promote new artists and bands. Amongst many others she was one of the first DJs to champion James Blunt.
- She is good personal friends with The Streets aka Mike Skinner [citation needed], who stole a microphone from her in 2003, recorded an album with it and returned it to her in 2005 (cited on Skinner's remix of Bloc Party's Banquet).
- Whiley is also a television presenter and presents televised coverage of major music festivals, such as the Glastonbury Festival. She also narrated the BBC3 series, Little Angels.
- In 2005, she was one of a handful of BBC disc jockeys and television presenters who broke strike picket lines. BBC staff were striking over announced job cuts [1].
- In April 2006, it was announced that a Jet2 Boeing 737 based at Blackpool International Airport was to be named after her [2] following a campaign by fellow Radio DJ Scott Mills who wanted her name used in airports. There is also a suggestion that a departure lounge in Newquay Airport will be named after her, but no decision has been taken on this yet.
