Annie Nightingale obituary: the trailblazing DJ who was Radio 1's longest-serving presenter

Annie Nightingale claimed that music was her first word

(Image credit: John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images)

published 21 January 2024

Annie Nightingale, who has died aged 83, interviewed Sean Connery in a Wimpy Bar in Brighton before the release of the first Bond film. But journalism proved not to be her vocation, said The Daily Telegraph. She moved into TV, hosting a pop show, and in 1970 she became the first female DJ on BBC Radio 1. In that role, she met some of the biggest stars of the era, from The Beatles (who became close friends) to Jimi Hendrix ("charming"), Mick Jagger ("very shrewd"), Marc Bolan ("hilarious") and Jim Morrison ("a bit of an arse"); and she championed the music of a host of up-and-coming stars, including David Bowie. Meanwhile, her appearance morphed from unthreatening girl next door to "rock chick", with bleached hair and outsized shades. She'd entered a boys' club, and her determination to find a place in it would blaze a trail for Annie Mac, Jo Whiley, Zoe Ball, Sara Cox and many more.

Annie Nightingale was born in 1940 in Osterley, west London, and educated at Lady Eleanor Holles School. She claimed that music was her first word, and after gaining a diploma in journalism, she joined the Brighton and Hove Argus, where she wrote a music column. She moved into TV; then, inspired by the success of the pirate station Radio Caroline, she started to lobby the BBC for a radio job. Female DJs were banned on Radio 1, Nightingale: embraced rave culture but in 1970 she was offered a trial, which led to her own afternoon slot. "It was quite unbelievably sexist," she recalled. "They said a woman's voice wouldn't carry on the airwaves, that DJs were substitute husband material [for housewives], that I would alienate other women. I thought I'd last a year, I really did." It would be 12 years before another woman – Janice Long – joined her. By then, Nightingale had moved to a Sunday evening show where she had more choice over the music she played. She had also become the first female presenter of TV's The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Having loved prog rock and punk, Nightingale didn't care for a lot of 1980s music, but she was reinvigorated by acid house, and with her children grown up, she embraced the rave scene, said The Times. In the 1990s, she hosted a late-night radio show for returning clubbers called Chill Out Zone; and she DJ'd at clubs and festivals all over the world. In 2001, she was named "caner of the year". In 2002, she was awarded the MBE (later upgraded to CBE). She was still working in her ninth decade, always playing new music, never oldies. Radio 1's longest-serving DJ, she appeared on air for the last time on 19 December, on a show dominated by drum and bass, and techno. "Every week, in my job, is a new adventure. I enjoy it," she said last July. "Most people get bored with pop music when they're a certain age. I go on being interested in where it's going, its twist and turns."