Look out boys, the girls are coming.
By Vikki Rimmer
In the world of Rock Radio it used to be ‘a man’s man’s world’, and although it’s taken nearly forty years it looks like the sisters are really starting to do it for themselves on the big music stations. Until fairly recently female presenters were sidelined, awarded the late shift, travel or weather, that is until a feisty bunch, led by Jo Whiley and including Lauren Laverne at XFM, Natasha Desborough at 6 Music, Emma Scott and Rachel New at Kerrang! grabbed the mic and the wrestled the spotlight away from the boys. Rachel New gives Ugly Phil a run for his money in the Kerrang! breakfast studio, and her rock credentials are strong – she recently led a record breaking attempt for ‘most TV’s thrown out of a window’, live on air. Kerrang!’s the kind of station that requires an exclamation mark – it’s loud, it’s often heavy, but contrary to popular opinion, Rock Radio’s no longer the preserve of the boys, with many a male listener enlightened during drivetime by Emma Scott’s lively take on the day’s issues. In the 60s and 70s Bra burning wasn’t a feature of music radio, where the boys definitely had it covered, leaving the girls with just enough studio space at the mic to giggle as the presenters patted the butt of their jokes. And with the exception of Annie Nightingale, over the years, female music DJ’s have sounded dangerously like grateful groupies, cooing at the rock gods invited in to the studio. Thankfully this new bunch of girls are keen on flashing their music credibility, and with the likes of Lauren Laverne at XFM displaying wit and an encyclopaedic knowledge of rock music, girls are no longer between Rock and a hard place, they’re ‘taking the mic’ and leading from the front.