Radio 1's Jo Whiley: Gone To Radio 2, But Not Forgotten

For someone so often labelled as the face of landfill indie, the online reaction to Jo Whiley’s departure from Radio 1 after 17 years with the station was unsurprisingly brutal.

“Is that because people have finally realised she's boring as sin?” tweeted natalie_hrhon. “It's Radio 2 listeners I feel sorry for,” said Rock Til You Drop. One user even caught the ire of Whiley herself after daring to suggest that her departure to Radio 2 was due to the imminent exodus of her menstrual cycle. As easy and, from time to time thoroughly entertaining, a target for verbal lashings she was, now may be the time for a reappraisal of the former Tops Of The Pops presenter’s contribution to British radio.

Those who caught her Top 40 Tracks of 2010 show over the holiday period will have been reminded just why Whiley was a perfect fit with daytime Radio 1 schedulers. Featuring a wildly eclectic mix of artists that ranged from the pre-Sounds of 2011 Jamie Woon and Clare Maguire to super massive popstars Eminem and Rihanna, the 45 year old was proved to be both an adept tastemaker and crowd pleaser. It was when these roles collided that Whiley struggled to break free from her image as an archetype of mediocrity.

With a weekly turnover of new bands, for every act she worthily supported there would be a Pigeon Detectives or Kooks ready-made for mass popularity but lacking in substance behind their catchy wiles. Regrettably, when the stock of great new British music began to falter so did that of one its chief champions. The combination of Whiley’s oft misplaced enthusiasm and a credibility dampening stint as judge of T4’s MobileAct Unsigned would eventually lead to her replacement by the utterly vacuous Fearne Cotton. A presenter so in thrall to the comforts of mainstream music that Darwin Deez’s ‘Radar Detector’ proved to be the edgy highlight of her own Top 40 Tracks of 2010.

In this regard, lusting for the days of Jo Whiley could be portrayed as similar to harking for latter-day Oasis when faced with the prospect of Beady Eye. Nevertheless, with her steady combination of the Live Lounge and an endearingly giddy fangirl interviewing style, Jo’s greatest testament is probably that she managed to stick around at Radio 1 for so long.

That the station had to engineer a specialist DJ takeover week this past January, which embraced alternative music across a daytime listenership peak, speaks volumes where Jo Whiley will no longer.