Aircheck Tracker
Profile: Janice Long: Before diving into radio, Janice had a variety of jobs in various parts of the world - she was an air hostess, spent some time waitressing in Amsterdam, grape-picking in France and other unusual jobs before joining BBC Radio Merseyside. One day, she interviewed Paul Gambaccini on-air - and it was Paul that recommended Janice to Radio 1 where she then moved for a five year stay presenting a show of new music and general chatter. In her time at Radio 1 she interviewed a wide variety of celebrities and was an influential part of the station's coverage of Live Aid. She left in 1987 to give birth to her son Fred in 1988, and latterly moved to London's GLR, X-FM and Crash-FM in Liverpool. Janice was part of the team that applied for the licence and won! The excitement of this led to more excitement in her personal life when she gave birth to another baby - Blue - in 1997. Oddly, it is reported that Janice was sacked from the station she helped to create. Apparently, management felt that her ideas were too alternative and instead wanted to aim for a more commercial audience.
By chance one day in 1999, she got a telephone call asking her if she'd like to help present a Radio 2 show live from Glastonbury music festival - she agreed and took part in the station's coverage on a sunny weekend which involved chasing after REM's Michael Stipe, Blondie's Debbie Harry and Travis member Fran Healey to get him to sing 'Driftwood' after she got hold of someone's guitar. Radio 2 then became more and more a part of Janice's life, returning back to her BBC roots after time in the Commercial Radio sector.
Whereabouts: Having spent so much time in Liverpool at Crash FM, commuting up and down the M6 to Birmingham gradually became more and more of a bind, so along with Blue, Fred (who wants to be a DJ like mum) and hubby Paul, she moved to Birmingham to buy a house in the upmarket suburb of Moseley. After settling the kids down at school, which took a great deal of time and effort, Janice has got into the routine of putting the kids to bed and going to work for Radio 2 from Birmingham studios along with Alex Lester who follows her on-air. This 'nightbird' lifestyle often causes Janice to fall asleep at the Cinema, waking up dribbling at the end of the film, however this does not put Janice off, and she thoroughly enjoys her current jobs.
Janice starts her stint by presenting the evening show on the new BBC Digital channel 6Music, which runs from 10:00pm to Midnight. Having taken the show into Midnight, with a few pushes of a few buttons and without even leaving her seat, she moves on to present the first overnight slot on BBC Radio 2, weeknights from Midnight to 3:00am! Two radio stations - one stint! Janice also appears on BBC6Music at weekends from 6:00am - 8:00am.