Stephanie Hirst is an English radio & TV presenter currently heard on

Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 25 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. As of October 2022, the network has a combined reach of 6.6 million weekly listeners according to RAJAR. Overv ...

. She has hosted '' Hit40UK'' and the weekday breakfast show on

Capital Yorkshire Capital Yorkshire is a regional radio station owned by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire from studios in Leeds, West Yorkshire, E ...

'' Hirsty's Daily Dose''.

Career

Hirst started her career at age 12 at

96.3 Radio Aire Radio Aire was an Independent Local Radio station, serving Leeds and West Yorkshire. The station was merged and relaunched as Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020. History Radio Aire was launched at 6am ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

as a helper making tea for DJs, where she soon moved up the ranks and was on the overnight show at 16. Hirst moved onto

Minster FM Minster FM was a local radio station serving York and the surrounding areas such as Selby, Tadcaster, Thirsk, Northallerton and Goole. The station closed on 31 August 2020 and its frequency is now a relay of Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire York & ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, then onto

The Pulse of West Yorkshire Pulse 1 is an Independent Local Radio station based in Leeds, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the West Yorkshire. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 131,000 list ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

in 1995 to present the evening show. In 1997 she moved to

Hallam FM Hallam FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Sheffield, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 283,000 ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, her local station, where she hosted the drivetime programme for three years. She then returned to

to co-host the breakfast show with Elisa Hilton, but quickly left to take over the breakfast show at

Viking FM Viking FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Sheffield, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire. As of September 2022, the s ...

in Hull – the one area of Yorkshire which had yet to hear her – after the departure of

JK and Joel Jason King (né Griffiths) and Joel Ross (né Hogg), known professionally as JK and Joel, were a radio presenting duo, best known for hosting the official UK chart on BBC Radio 1 between 2005 and 2007 and presented the CBBC show ''Hider in the ...

. She and her breakfast team won a

Sony Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

in 2002. Hirst left 96.9 Viking FM, to take on the breakfast show (entitled '' Hirsty's Daily Dose'') at

Galaxy Yorkshire Capital Yorkshire is a regional radio station owned by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire from studios in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Englan ...

, a station covering all areas of Yorkshire. The ''Daily Dose'' team, led by Hirst, including ex-Viking colleague Danny Oakes and existing Galaxy Yorkshire presenter Joanne (Jojo) Kelly (née Moorhouse) won the title of Commercial Radio Presenter(s) Of The Year at the CRCA Awards, and was nominated in the breakfast category of the 2005 Sony Awards. After Neil Fox quit as the long-running host of the nationally networked Hit40UK in 2004, Hirst – one of Fox's stand-ins previously from 2003 – was recruited, initially with

Katy Hill Katy Hill (born 15 April 1971) is an English television presenter who has worked in television and radio in the UK since 1995. She presented the long-running children's programme '' Blue Peter'' from 1995 to 2000 and the flagship Saturday morni ...

, to host the programme each Sunday from the studios of

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. I ...

in London and went on to host the programme alone. She was up against

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

for the chart audience on a Sunday afternoon – the presenters whom she succeeded at Viking FM and with whom she remains close friends; in fact, during her chart reign she shared a flat in London with

Joel Ross Joel Ross (born Joel Hogg 31 May 1977) is a multi award winning British radio DJ and television presenter. He has worked with a co-host Jason King (known on-air as JK). He currently presents the Rock FM Breakfast Show. Career Best known ...

. Also a spin-off TV show ''Hit40UK TV'' hosted by Hirst was broadcast on a weekend on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

's youth strand T4. She won a

for the show in 2006. During Hit40UK on 2 April 2006, she announced that Gnarls Barkley had made pop history as the UK's first number one song based on download sales alone. Hirst presented her last Hit40UK chart on 15 October 2006, due to objections from Galaxy's rival Yorkshire radio stations Viking FM, Radio Aire and Hallam FM who were due to start broadcasting the chart on 22 October 2006. They were unhappy that a

presenter would be heard on their station, since they could possibly lose a proportion of their breakfast audience to Hirst's weekday breakfast show. In May 2013, Hirst returned to presenting nationally on

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

on Saturday afternoons between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm, later moving to the earlier time of 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm, where she went on to create a show called 'Vinyl Heaven', with every song played live from the original vinyl copies. On 20 June 2014, Hirst announced that she had left her presenting roles at Capital and Gold, which brought ''Hirsty's Daily Dose'' to an end after 11 years. 2014 also saw her collect a nomination for 'Breakfast Show of the Year' at the

Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

(formerly Sony Awards). The final edition had aired on 13 June. Adam O'Neill took over as the main host of the newly named ''Capital Breakfast'' with Danny and JoJo remaining co-hosts. In January 2015, Hirst started work on ITV's morning show 'Lorraine' as part of a strand called 'Change One Thing'. Hirst continues to be part of ITV Lorraine's extended presenter family. She made a return to radio on 4 July 2015, with a programme called, 'Nothing but the 90s' which was aired on BBC Radio Manchester from 10pm to 12midnight every Saturday. In a 2015 interview she said coming back to radio at a time slot which was somewhat tucked away at night and not in the limelight felt just right, so she could find her new voice without huge pressure. On 5 March 2016, she started a new radio programme on BBC Radio York called 'Stephanie Hirst's Vinyl Revival'. The show aired every Saturday from 12noon to 2pm for 8 weeks while the usual presenter of that time slot was away on leave. She has also presented a few spin-offs of this show including a 3-hour version for Bauer's 'Greatest Hits Network' and Vinyl top 40 show for the BBC. As of 3 September 2016, her weekly Saturday night show on BBC Radio Manchester changed to a "Vinyl Revival" show, airing at the same time from 10pm to 12midnight. The show was the only one of its kind on UK radio, with Hirst playing each song live from the original vinyl copies, along with taking live listener requests. The show was taken off air - initially, according to the BBC, temporarily - to be replaced by a phone-in during the first Covid-19 lockdown in the UK in March 2020. However, the show never returned. Subsequent announcements that Vinyl Revival would be revived in another format by Hirst have so far come to nothing. At the Radio Festival which took place at The British Library in London on 26 October 2016, she was awarded a 'Fellowship', the highest honour The

Radio Academy The Radio Academy is a registered charity dedicated to "the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production". It was formed in 1983 and is run via a board of trustees, with a chair and a deputy chair ...

may confer upon a member of the radio industry, to recognise her outstanding contribution to British radio and the industry. In April 2018, Hirst began hosting her first, solo, daily radio show since leaving Capital in 2014. The Stephanie Hirst Show was broadcast on

BBC Radio Leeds BBC Radio Leeds is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of West Yorkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at St Peter's Square in Leeds. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...

9:00-12:00, then moving to 14:00-18:00 during

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. She left the BBC in April 2021. Alongside her radio career, she has always DJ'ed live. Hirst created her 'Kitchen Belters' brand in 2016 which was born out of DJ'ing in her kitchen when the capability to stream video on

Facebook Live Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of t ...

arrived in late 2015. Hirst realised early on that a weekly live DJ set of 90s, 00s & 10s dance anthems was something which her followers would connect with whilst getting ready to go out, or cooking their evening meal. The show gained weekly views & replays of 100k+. From the success of this she made a return to commercial radio for Bauer's

Hits Radio Pride Hits Radio Pride is a national digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts across the United Kingdom. It was launched on 28 August 2020 as a pop up Pride station focusing on music for the L ...

, initially a temporary 'pop up' DAB & Online station for the

LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...

, it has subsequently become a full time national radio station. She hosted her first 'Belters' show on 28 August 2020, and can be heard Saturday evenings 19:00-20:00. From the success of her weekly

show, she joined the national

network in August 2021 to host 'Stephanie Hirst's Belters' - a 3-hour celebration of the biggest 90s, 00s & 10s dance throwbacks. It has since become one of the most streamed shows on the

app. She also is a trustee of The Radio Academy and a former chair of the

Student Radio Awards The Student Radio Association (SRA) is a representative body which supports and acts on behalf of the UK student radio community, comprising radio stations that are associated with or linked to a place of education. It is a not-for-profit organi ...

Transition and activism

Hirst came out publicly as a woman and talked about her

gender transition Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...

on 11 October 2014 during an interview with

Stephen Nolan Stephen Raymond Nolan (born 20 August 1973) is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Radio 5 ''Live'', and is the highest earning broadcaster that the BBC employ in the Province. Early life Born in ...

on BBC

Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

. In 2014 and 2015 Hirst was included in ''

The Independent On Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

''s "Rainbow List", an annual celebration of 101 LGBT people in the UK. In June 2016, she was one of the prominent faces of Pride In London's 'No Filter' campaign. The manifesto film, which starred Hirst alongside Sir Ian McKellen and Graham Norton, explored what 'No Filter' means to the LGBT+ community. A second short film was made with Hirst describing her first 'No Filter' moment and shown daily within London's Westfield centre. In July 2016, Hirst was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Leeds Beckett University for her LGBT activism. In February 2017, Hirst was nominated for a British LGBT Award in the 'Top 10 LGBT+ Celebrity' category.

References

External links

Stephanie Hirst's Belters on Hits Radio Pride
(Hits Radio Pride)
Stephanie Hirst's Belters on Hits Radio
(Hits Radio)
The Throwback on Hits Radio
(Hits Radio) *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirst, Stephanie Living people British radio personalities British radio DJs Capital (radio network) People from Barnsley Transgender women Transgender writers English LGBT people LGBT DJs Transgender musicians British LGBT broadcasters British LGBT journalists Year of birth missing (living people)