Trailblazer Gloria backs Zoe and calls for more women on the radio
BROADCASTING veteran Gloria Hunniford has given BBC Radio 2’s first-ever female breakfast host Zoe Ball her seal of approval as thousands tuned in for her debut from 6.30am to 9.30am today.
Gloria, 78, has long championed the role of the solo female host. Despite a recent shake-up of presenters at the BBC, she reckons bosses could still do more on gender imbalance
She said: “I think Zoe is marvellous. She has a very natural personality and to talk for two or three hours without a script is hard. I was the first woman to have her own show on Radio 2, in 1982. I did a daily show for 13 years. I was given a job in broadcasting when there were not that many women there at all.
“When I started in the business I remember saying, ‘What makes you think that a man does not want to listen to a woman on the radio?’ and three years later I was on.”
Zoe, 48, was also the first solo female breakfast show host on Radio 1 in 1998. The presenter of Strictly Come Dancing spinoff It Takes Two said: “It makes my tummy go giddy when I think about the first show.
“I just hope that I can do a show that Britain wants to wake up to.” She added: “I am so excited – but that hasn’t stopped the anxiety dreams.”
Zoe beat fellow BBC radio DJ Sara Cox to take over from Chris Evans as host of the UK’s most listened-to breakfast show – following iconic names such as Terry Wogan and Ken Bruce.
After nine years in the role Evans, 52, returns to his old breakfast show at Virgin Radio.
Ms Hunniford continued: “Girls now say I blazed the trail, but you don’t think about that at the time as you are so busy doing it.
“But I think it is about time they had more women on radio.”
The new year shake-up also sees Sara Cox move from the late-night slot to the Drivetime show, taking over from Simon Mayo and Jo Whiley.
As for Ms Hunniford, she has a busy 2019 with BBC consumer affairs show Rip-Off Britain and ITV’s Loose Women and This Morning. She joked: “I have been commissioned until 2020. I will be in my Zimmer frame.”