Annie Avril Nightingale – 1 April 1940 to 11 Jan 2024

This lady blazed a trail as first female Radio 1 DJ broadcasting pop music to the enthusing masses and also presenting Top of the Pops. She was known to fans as “The Queen of Breaks” – breakfast being her subject of specialist interest. She also broadcast on the famous “Old Grey Whistle Test” and was known as a new contender in the “Husband Substitute” for those used to only male presenters to get listeners up or jolly the listeners on during the day. She said ” I became the token women”. She is famed for her enthusiasm for a wide spectrum of musical genres from prog rock through punk to dance and rap of the 21st century.

Annie Joined the BBC in 1970 and frequently listens to teenage music with the sanguine knowledge of it being the music of the future. She eventually became the station’s longest lasting broadcaster.

Annie was friends with The Beatles and Marc Nolan but continued broadcasting to what she saw as the “younger market”.

Novelist Irvine Welsh said “ her cool funky tones stood out against the flatulent sounds of loud, boring, thick and egotistical men strangling the airwaves”.

Annie was married twice and had a son and a daughter. She constantly made herself glamorous and photogenic whether her hair was blonde or brown and her sunglasses were an intricate part of many paparazzi photo. I had the pleasure of meeting her at her then residence on the second floor of a luxury Edwardian apartment on the Brighton front overlooking the sea in 1981 where she and her partner – a chef shared white wine and stories with me, It was great.

Penny Nair Price