Annie Mac hails females in broadcasting: “I love listening to women on the radio”
Annie Mac has shared a post hailing her female radio contemporaries as she prepares for her last ever BBC Radio 1 show.
The DJ announced back in April that she was set to leave the station after 17 years, with her last Future Sounds show taking place tomorrow night (July 30).
In a new Instagram post ahead of the final show, Mac shouted out the likes of Jo Whiley, Sara Cox, Annie Nightingale, Maryanne Hobbs and more women working in radio, and praised how far Radio 1 has come since she joined in 2004.
“When I joined Radio 1, the gatekeepers of mainstream music and alternative music on the radio were mostly men. It was lads lads lads!” she wrote, discussing how former Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles “generally seemed to use women (and anyone who wasn’t cis male) as props for jokes”.
She added: “It has been such a pleasure to witness all the brilliant women who have joined in the ranks of ‘specialist’ music broadcasting on Radio 1 during my tenure there,” shouting out a host of DJs and producers who have worked on the station in her time there.
“We’ve come some ways, and I know it’s obvious to say but god it’s important to say, that there’s still a way to go,” Mac added. “I love listening to women on the radio. All colours and creeds. Funny women. Nerdy women. Whip smart women.
“I would love to not be pleasantly surprised when there’s a new appointment of a solo female DJ in a high profile show. I would love to hear a mainstream radio show with two female co presenters. Broadcasting needs to keep investing in women in all of our varied glory.”
Earlier this month, Annie Mac said that women in prominent roles within the music industry “should be a given, not an anomaly”.
Mac went on to say that she was “very encouraged” by Radio 1 and “the commitment they have to women,” adding that lining up Clara Amfo as her replacement was “the most sensible and inspired choice”.
