Annabel Port is a British radio presenter. She was the co-presenter of Geoff Lloyd with Annabel Port on

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via digital audio broadcasting. The station focuses on alternative ...

from 2008 until the show ended on 12 April 2017. 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. On 9 May 2011 she won a Gold Sony Radio Award for Best On-Air Contributor.

Early life and career

Prior to working in radio, she taught ESL to

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

and

Mexicans Mexicans () are the citizens and nationals of the Mexico, United Mexican States. The Mexican people have varied origins with the most spoken language being Spanish language, Spanish, but many also speak languages from 68 different Languages o ...

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). Port is a former presenter of Whipps Cross Hospital Radio.

Broadcasting career

Virgin Radio

On 14 January 2001 she came to

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio is a branding of radio stations broadcast in Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. As of April 2024, there were over 40 stations globally. The stations ...

on a work experience placement and was spotted by Lloyd. Since then she has auditioned to be

Michael Hutchence Michael Kelland John Hutchence (22 January 1960 – 22 November 1997) was an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the co-founder, lead singer and lyricist of the rock band INXS from 1977 until his death in 1997. The band sold over 50 ...

's replacement in INXS and has been to

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

school. In a show broadcast on 9 September 2005, Sir

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

assisted her in completing a song about beef tomatoes. Port worked on the late night show The Geoff Show from its inception in January 2006 until it ended in September 2008, and 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". 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...

Absolute Radio

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 Mark Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter (with Ellen E. Jones) of the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Screenshot'', and co-presenter ...

. Annabel Port is the author of the music and lyrics of the Dead Dog Memorial Song. The song arose out of a show feature dedicated 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 recorded 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 Dogs Trust, known until 2003 as the National Canine Defence League, is a British animal welfare charitable organization, charity and humane society which specialises in the well-being of dogs. It is the largest dog welfare charity in the United ...

charity.

Other work

In August 2017, Annabel began co-hosting a podcast with her former Absolute Radio co-host Geoff Lloyd called ''Adrift''. In April 2018, her first book, ''Annabel vs. The Internet'', was published. The book is based on a feature of the same name from the old Hometime radio show in which Geoff would set weekly challenges for her. Since September 2020, Annabel has been the editor o
www.getgetgot.com
ref> and in April 2023 launched her online newsletter, Bit Weird, Quite Normal.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Port, Annabel Living people Absolute Radio British radio personalities Alumni of Oxford Brookes University People educated at Westcliff High School for Girls Year of birth missing (living people)