Chatting to Jo Whiley is like catching up with an old friend. She greets you with the warmest of welcomes and her familiar deep voice, from almost three decades in broadcasting, is instantly comforting.
Before we get into our interview, we discuss the heatwave that we’ve recently been enjoying in the UK, and Jo jokes that she feels like she’s on Love Island after suggesting we “crack on” with the interview.
The 56-year-old is still buzzing from her return to presenting coverage from Glastonbury after the festival took a two year break due to the pandemic.
She admits that it felt “overwhelming” to be back out in the crowds and says that the audiences were “more excited” after their time away from Worthy Farm.
“The energy you get back from the audience that hasn’t been out for years and haven’t seen their friends for years and then all of sudden they come together for one night is electric,” she says.
“People are so hell bent on having fun and it is such a release. They are quite emotional, they really are.”
She loves TV, but radio will always be Jo’s first love and after almost 30 years on the airwaves, she says it is “really touching” to have a connection to her BBC 2 listeners.
Jo started her career at BBC Radio Sussex and has worked on everything from her eponymous Radio 1 show to the Radio 2 Drivetime show since.
She says: “It’s a real privilege and you build up relationships with listeners. There are people I have gotten to know over the years because they regularly email or tweet the show and you have similar music tastes.”
Jo - who was born in Northampton and shares four children with her husband of 31 years, Steve Morton - goes on to tell how those relationships with her fans were particularly important at the height of the pandemic, when for some people her’s was the only voice they heard all day.
“People were very open and reached out because a lot of people were not seeing anyone or talking to anyone. You were their only voice and their only friend. You were privy to their lives and that was really emotional,” she reflects.
She adds: “I really love my job, I am so happy to do what I do and have the listeners that I do. That relationship is an enormous privilege.”
Jo then recalls a recent interaction with one of her fans during a trip to the theatre.
“This woman walked past me and said, ‘Jo, I just want to say thank you for everything,’ and she was really tearful. We both just stood there hugging each other. We had never met before but that is what the relationship between you and your listeners is like.”
Jo also reveals that the relationship she has with her listeners is as impactful to her as it is them.
“[Being on the radio] is almost like therapy, You can be in a really bad mood or upset about something but my studio is a sacred space. It’s just me and my microphone and the people I am talking to. To know that you need to be there for them distracts you from whatever you are stressing about.
“It’s a reminder that it’s not about you, it’s about the listeners out there who have saved my sanity on a regular basis. It never fails to change my headspace and to make me feel happy again. [Presenting radio is] really energising and cathartic.”
One thing that Jo’s show gave her some light relief from was the fight for her younger sister Frances, 54, to receive a Covid vaccine as a priority.
Frances – who is two years younger than Jo and has the rare genetic syndrome Cri du Chat – contracted the virus after an outbreak at her care home in Northampton, with her family being asked to discuss palliative care in what Jo describes as the most “dark and bleak” time of her life.
“It was awful, my worst nightmare. I have always feared losing Frances, it’s always been the thing I had nightmares about and it was coming true. But that happening also gave me an opportunity to speak up for people who have learning disabilities.
“I sent a bunch of tweets saying, ‘Can anyone help?’ and had other people getting in touch saying, ‘We’re in the same boat.” It was great to bring exposure to all those people’s learning disabilities who had been forgotten about up until that point.
“It’s times like that when I’m so grateful for the platform that I have,” she adds. “It’s all very well getting on with it, but if I can use my position to help other people then I am going to do it.” Jo’s brave campaign was successful and, following her publicity, all those who were on the GP learning disability register were prioritised for the vaccine.
Frances is now in a better place and Jo lights up as she tells us her sister is “really happy at the moment. She went away last week with people in her care home, which was fantastic.”
“There’s that saying, ‘you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child,’ and I’ve got my sister to throw in there as well. I’m happy when she’s happy.”
Something that may have helped Jo push through with her fight for Frances was the “tougher mindset” she says she has developed in her 50s.
“We’ve had a couple of incredibly close friends die which changes everything. In the past I might have put things off and said, ‘Oh, we’ll do that in a couple of years’ time’.
"Now it’s all about living for today because you never know when it could be all over. Bad things happen, things can change in a heartbeat and I don’t want to die with any regrets. I just want to have as much fun as I can while I’m with the people I love.”
Another factor to getting older is your eyesight inevitably starting to fail which is why Jo has teamed up with Vision Express on their See More This Summer Campaign.
“Being the age that I am now, I need prescription lenses, I’ve also realised you really need to protect your eyes in the summer, even on cloudy days its important to wear sunglasses and protect the delicate skin around your eyes.”
It was also important to Jo that the glasses be good value as she confesses she’s prone to losing her pairs!
Although she’s been in the industry for almost half of her life, Jo assures us she won’t be hanging up her headphones anytime soon.
“I will always be on the radio, just doing things at my own pace. I’ve learnt how to say no, I’m getting a bit better at that,” she says.
“It’s about getting that balance. I want to see my family, I want to enjoy things with my kids, but I’ll always want to play records to people because I love it. I certainly don’t have any plans to stop.”
Jo Whiley has partnered with Vision Express to encourage the nation To See More This Summer. To find out more information on the campaign and to see Jo’s selection of sunglasses, visit visionexpress.com/blog/2022/jo-whiley-see-more-summer
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