THE longest serving broadcaster on Radio One has described her lifelong career in music and how she started out as an Argus reporter.

Annie Nightingale, who was the first woman to DJ on the station, spoke about her passion for music as a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

At 19 years old she was the only woman writing for The Argus in the early 1960s and had a column reviewing records called Spin With Me.

The 80-year-old told the show’s host Lauren Laverne: “I was a general reporter and I’d done everything.

“They’d said they wouldn’t have me because I hadn’t got the right background, but it was just as well they gave me an opportunity because it was the most wonderful training you could have.

“You didn’t think it at the time, covering things like parish council meetings or court reporting but I was learning so much.

“To make something out of one paragraph is much more difficult – the big stories write themselves.

“I still didn’t know what was coming. You have to believe in yourself and try and follow your dreams.”

Annie, who is the only woman DJ in the world to have been honoured with an MBE by the Queen, still hosts a show on Radio 1 and celebrates her 50th anniversary at the station this year.

Her hunger for discovering new music has not changed.

She said: “John Peel put it best – you want to hear something you’ve never heard before. Something that surprises you.

“It’s a thrill – it’s so exciting. I actually get a physical sensation when I hear something that becomes very successful.”

Annie’s disc choices included tracks by Billie Eilish and Beyonce as well as David Bowie, Sid Vicious and John Lennon.

She said: “I knew about John and Yoko before it was announced and I had a newspaper column, but I wasn’t going to break their trust.

“When they did go public it was a great relief - sometimes it’s not good to be in the right place at the right time.”