R2OK!

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

Xfm DJ Lauren Laverne has criticised sexist attitudes in the radio industry and called on station bosses to employ more women DJs.

The breakfast host, whose TV credits include CD:UK, Channel 4 music show Transmission and BBC2's The Culture Show, said sexism was worse in radio than it is in television.

"I go to a meeting and they comment on my clothes, saying 'Ooh, you look nice.' I kind of think, would you say that to Johnny Vaughan? In a way it's worse in radio than it is in television," Laverne told a Radio Academy event.

"Every interview I have done they say: 'Do you drive your own desk? Do your breasts not get in the way? That's amazing. Isn't she good?'

"You kind of want to garrotte people but you can't. It's illegal. I worked for a guy for three years and he only ever called me darling.

"It needs more of us. Get Chris Moyles a womb. And if we can't have more women then we need more sex changes, an obligatory sex swap. Transgender FM?"

Laverne, who first found fame in the '90s as the lead singer of indie band Kenickie, is the only woman to host her own breakfast show in the cut-throat London radio market, succeeding Christian O'Connell in October 2005.

"To be honest I turned it down a couple of times after Christian O'Connell said he was leaving," she said.

"I was the anti-breakfast show DJ, a very different sort of DJ but my boss at the time [former Xfm programme director] Andy Ashton said we really believe you can do something different. When he said that I began to feel excited about it. It was not a cynical career move."

Laverne was talking to Radio 2 DJ Janice Long at the Radio Academy interview in central London last night.

Asked if she had any ambitions to work at Radio 1, Laverne said: "I am very happy at Xfm, but I am open to offers. I am a fan of [Radio 1's] Edith Bowman.

"Music wise I find Radio 2 more exciting. Maybe that is because it's a point of difference because I work at Xfm."

Laverne said Radio 1 had its "strengths and weaknesses. I prefer to listen to their specialist shows. They are some of the most exciting specialist shows on radio."

Although Laverne's breakfast show has lost listeners in the last 12 months - down to 283,000 in the third quarter of last year from 349,000 in the same period in 2005, she has gained critical plaudits.

NME editor Conor McNicholas described her show as the hit of 2006 and "nothing short of magnificent".

Long remembered the first time she worked at Radio 1, when she was told by Simon Bates: "Oh you are a woman. And the first working class person we have had."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

In the future?

Behind Geddon's Wall · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:04 pm Post subject:

She couldn't do worse than some of the men employed on Radio 2 over the last Year.
_________________
Geddon

You simply mustn't blame yourself -- the days were perfect
And so were exactly what I was born to spoil
For I am the Rider to the World's End
Bound across the cinder causeway
From the furnace to the quarry
Through the fields of oil

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

She's featured in the Radio times this week alongside Dermot and Russell, so it looks strange as she's in the headlines twice and radio 2 mentioned?

Ian Robinson · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject:

I think she's in the Radio Times simply because she's a bright-eyed young girl and fits the story they wanted to write. I don't think she's coming to Radio 2 (although I wouldn't complain) but do think these comments are very good publicity for her local radio show.

Phil Urapitus · Guest

I'd LOVE to hear her on Radio 2! She'd be awesome on Drivetime! Simply move Chris Evans to the 2-5pm slot and have Lauren on Drivetime!