Annabel Port
| Annabel Port | |
|---|---|
|
Annabel Port | |
| Born |
12 March 1975 Southend-on-Sea, England |
| Occupation | Radio Presenter |
| Known for | Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show |
| Website | Absolute Radio Biography |
Annabel Port (born 12 March 1975, Southend-on-Sea) is a Sony Award-winning British radio presenter. She is currently an on-air contributor to Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show on Absolute Radio. Previously she has worked on The Geoff Show and read travel reports on the Pete and Geoff Breakfast Show which she hosted along with Lloyd and Pete Mitchell before the latter's departure in December 2005.
Education
Annabel Port was educated at Westcliff High School for Girls and Oxford Brookes University.
Career
Prior to working in radio, she taught English to Poles and Mexicans for three years, spent six months doing data input, one week cleaning an old people's home and to her knowledge holds the national record for the 6 years she held a paper round (until the unusually mature age of 18).[1] Port is a former presenter of Whipps Cross Hospital Radio.
Virgin Radio
On 14 January 2001 she came to Virgin Radio on a work experience placement and was spotted by Lloyd. Since then she has auditioned to be Michael Hutchence's replacement in INXS and has been to circus school. In a show broadcast on 9 September 2005, Sir Paul McCartney assisted her in completing a song about beef tomatoes.[2]
Absolute Radio
Port has worked on 'The Geoff Show' since its inception in January 2006 and has devised and presented a number of radio features, including "Porting Controversy", as well as a velvety broadcast voice on the infamous "Dirty Book At Bedtime".[3] In January 2007, she became the Head of Showbusiness on The Geoff Show, and is still a prominent and notable member of the Absolute Radio team and Geoff Show symposium. She is well known for her unique take on the world with features such as 'Annabel versus the Internet.'
Before 'The Geoff Show', Port also presented features on the Virgin Radio Breakfast Show, which included "Annabel's Animals" where Geoff was asked to guess the identity of animals brought to the studio by local zoos. A more regular feature was "Annabel's Friday Song". This is where the aforementioned tomato song with Sir Paul McCartney was aired. This feature is now occasionally resurrected on 'The Geoff Show' when the show does a podcast only show, albeit a "bawdy" song not fit for broadcast on UK radio.
"Annabel's Friday Song" was usually a short, comical song introducing the coming weekend, with varying topical verses played live by Annabel. The song was introduced as coming "From the golden throat of miss Annabel Port".
Chorus
Oh what does it mean when the pubs are all packed at five-thirty?
Oh what does it mean when we're all having fish for our tea?
Oh what does it mean when top of the pops is on the telly?
Oh yes, the weekend's nearly here;
So sing along with meeee-ee hee hee...
On 29 September 2008, Port moved along with the rest of the team to Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show.
On 9 May 2011 she won a Gold Sony Radio Award for Best On-Air Contributor, beating, among others, Moira Stuart and Mark Kermode.[4]
Annabel Port is the author of the music and lyrics of the Dead Dog Memorial Song. The song arose out of a show feature deadicated to listeners dead dogs; Annabel was set the task of writing a memorial to those dogs. On 15 July 2013 Annabel revealed to the world the Dead Dog Memorial Song on Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show. The song was then remastered by the band The Boy Least Likely To and released on The Hometime Show on 18 July 2013. Profits from the Dead Dog Memorial Song go the Dogs Trust charity.[5]
References
- ↑ "Annabel Port on absolute radio". Absoluteradio.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
- ↑ "Sweden Beatles News". Beatlessweden.com. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
- ↑ "A Google video of "Dirty Book At Bedtime"". Video.google.com. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
- ↑ "Best On-Air Contributor". Sony Radio Academy Awards. 9 May 2011. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-10.
- ↑ "The Dead Dogs' Memorial - Absolute Radio". web.archive.org. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
- Prophet, Sheila (2003-11-20). "Mirror Works: Port with stilts on; How Annabel became a radio stunt queen.". Daily Mirror.
