Annie Nightingale

Annie Tucker
File:AnnieNOGWT.jpg Presenting the Old Grey Whistle Test circa 1980
Years active	1970 – present
Career
Show	Annie Nightingale
Station	BBC Radio 1
Time slot	Thursdays 02:00 - 04:00
Style	Breaks
Country	UK
Website	BBC Radio 1 minisite

Anne "Annie" Nightingale MBE (born 1 April 1942) is a British radio broadcaster. She is most commonly known by the more informal name of Annie. She was the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 and, since the death of John Peel in October 2004, is its longest-serving presenter.

Early life and career

After attending Lady Eleanor Holles School, Hampton, London and the Polytechnic of Central London School of Journalism, she began her career as a journalist in Brighton. Nightingale joined Radio 1 in January 1970 with a Sunday evening show. She then hosted the singles review show What's New in the early 1970s before graduating to a late-night progressive rock show, which was simulcast on the Radio 2 FM frequency.

In the late 1970s she presented a Sunday afternoon request show, and by 1980 was presenting a Friday night show and the non-music-based Radio 1 Mailbag. In 1978, Nightingale began presenting the The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2; during her tenure, the show moved away from its progressive rock bias and embraced more modern, and popular, styles such as punk rock and new wave.

In the late 1970s, her best known show – the Sunday request show - began its run. It was originally broadcast on Sunday afternoons, before moving to a slot immediately after the Top 40 in 1982. The show was one of the first on British radio to regularly play music from CDs. A gimmick was to allow the intro of the first song in the show to play uninterrupted before saying "Hi" in the very last second before the vocals started.

In 1994, Nightingale moved to a weekend overnight dance music show, initially called The Chill Out Zone. She can still be heard in the early hours of Friday mornings on BBC Radio 1. On her current show she spins breaks, often featuring major breaks DJs such as Plump DJs, Freestylers, Noisia and Meat Katie. Nightingale also regularly DJs live at clubs and festivals around the UK and Europe.

As a DJ, she has travelled all over the world and made musical documentaries from visits to Russia, Romania, Iraq, Chile, The Philippines and Cuba. However, while in Havana in 1996, she was attacked in a mugging causing multiple injuries and an air-lift back to a London hospital. Since that incident she has worn the distinctive shades which are now part of her image.

She was awarded the MBE in 2002 for her services to radio broadcasting. In the same year she was awarded The Caner Of The Year Award by Muzik Magazine. The award represented an accolade for her intensive coverage of the radio scene. In 2004 she was the first female DJ from Radio 1 to be inducted into the Radio Academy Hall Of Fame.

Nightingale has published two autobiographical books: Chase The Fade (1981) ISBN 0713711671 and Wicked Speed (1999) ISBN 0283061979. She has also compiled two albums: Annie On One (1996, Heavenly Recordings) and her own instalment of the Breaks DJ mix series Y4K (2007, Distinctive Records).

On 30 September 2007, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 1 Annie co-hosted a special return of the Request Show with Annie Mac, featuring contributions from musicians such as Paul McCartney and Chemical Ed, excerpts from the original show and Annie's recollections of regular contributors such as "Night Owl of Croydon". The show featured many classic tracks which had been requested over the years and closed with one of Annie's favourites, Cristina's version of "Is That All There Is?".

A version of The Smiths song Panic interpreted by Mancunian cult comedian Frank Sidebottom dedicates its choruses to "Ann the deejay" and asks "Ann Nightingale what's your blinking game".

External links

• Annie Nightingale at BBC Online
• Template:Myspace
• Radio Academy Hall of Fame page
• Annie Nightingale at Radio Rewind
• Links to Brighton
• Official Rivmixx Page
• National History Day Research Project on Annie Nightingale