Liz Kershaw - Career

Career

The sister of fellow broadcaster Andy Kershaw, she began her media career in Leeds (after graduating from the University) with a music column in the Yorkshire Post. In 1984 she formed her own band Dawn Chorus And The Bluetits with her friend and neighbour Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman and their recordings included a version of Teenage Kicks with the Undertones’ O’Neil brothers (which was released on Stiff Records DAWN 1) and a Peel Session which was broadcast on Radio 1 in 1985.

Her first radio show was in 1981 on Radio Aire where her brother also worked for a time. In 1985 she moved to BBC Radio Leeds to present a weekly rock show showcasing local bands.

In 1986 her day job with British Telecom saw her move to London to set up “Livewire” a dial-in pop service which superseded Dial-a-Disc. In running this she produced Radio 1 DJ’s Mike Smith, Janice Long and Dave Pearce before devising her own show for Radio 1 in 1987, Backchat, which won several awards.

This was followed by her presenting the Radio 1 Evening Show and then, with Bruno Brookes, Radio 1’s Weekend Breakfast Show and The Radio 1 Roadshow from 1989 to 1992. The two DJs projected a 'love-hate' relationship on-air, and got their fair share of PR in the tabloids, including Kershaw’s smashing up of a Wet Wet Wet record, and the studio turntable under it, live on air (for which she was fined £1,000 by the BBC) because she hated the band for disappointing their fans by not turning up at the Radio 1 Roadshow; and the two pulling a stunt of getting married as an April Fools' Day joke. During this period they also made three charity record for the BBC's Children in Need campaign; a version of It Takes Two which charted at No.43 and two more records featuring their Radio 1 colleagues and guests Status Quo, Frank Bruno and Samantha Fox.

She left Radio 1 in 1992 to present The Crunch the UK’s first national daily phone-in on BBC Radio 5. In 1994 she was part of the team which relaunched the station as BBC Radio 5 Live. In 2000 she went back to BBC Local Radio as the first and only woman in the country to present a solo radio breakfast show. This was BBC Radio Northampton's breakfast programme, which was nominated for the Best Breakfast Show Award at the Sony Radio Awards in 2002 along with Radio 4’s Today Programme and The 5 Live Breakfast Show. She also presented documentaries for Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4.