The one and only Zoe Ball returned to the airwaves on 7 September as she launched her new show on Greatest Hits Radio.
Ball, who has spent most of radio career with the BBC, introduced fans to Zoe Ball in the Afternoon on Monday, and couldn’t resist giving a shout out to Ken Bruce, whom she used to work with at BBC Radio 2.
Bruce hosts a mid-morning show on Greatest Hits Radio every Monday to Friday from 10:00am to 1:00pm.
As she began her brand new show, Ball told her listeners: “I can tell you excitement levels currently peaking. Thanks to Ken, I am so thrilled to be his radio neighbour once again.
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“Mondays to Fridays from 1 till 4 I will be here before handing you over each day to the mighty Simon Mayo. Adore him,” she added.
Mayo, who also worked at Radio 2, currently hosts the Drivetime show on Greatest Hits Radio every weekday from 4:00pm to 7:00pm.
As she kicked off her first show, Ball revealed “the big question” was finally about to be answered.
Greatest Hits Radio listeners had been sharing their thoughts on what Ball’s first song should be all weekend; with Ball giving some of them a shout out on the show including Dave Fox who guessed Led Zeppelin’s Rock’n’Roll, Anne Miles who suggested Feeling Good from Nina Simone and one cheeky listener named Dennis, who went for Elton John’s 1974 hit The B**** is Back.
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Finally confirming what it would be, Ball told her listeners: “First song on Greatest Hits Radio. It’s got to be big. Big production, big sound, big feels.
“Not sure many of you guessed this one. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you. The Kiki Dee Band… ‘I’ve Got the Music in Me’,” she announced, before playing the 1991 track.
Ball stepped down from her BBC Radio 2 show back in December 2025, while Bruce presented his final show on the same station in March 2023. Mayo left several years earlier in December 2018.
In an interview with The Telegraph, published in July of this year, Bruce appeared to be referencing the BBC when he stressed that Greatest Hits Radio doesn’t chase younger listeners.
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“I think what we do is we know who we’re talking to, we know what they want to hear, and we deliver that,” he said. It’s no secret that Bruce disliked some of the music he had to play towards the end of his Radio 2 stint.
Speaking about the three of them being back together on the same station again, Bruce said: “We’re here, and we’re not messing about. We’ve got Zoe Ball joining us. So it’s a statement of not sitting still, not just leaning back and thinking, ‘This is going nicely.’ It’s actually pushing forward and setting up the next several years. I think it’s a very, very wise move.”
Kirsty is a freelance writer and editor specialising in all things entertainment. Over the past 16 years, she has worked on showbiz desks at various national newspaper websites in London, including Express.co.uk, The Sun, and MailOnline.
More recently, she spent three years living in New York City writing celebrity and lifestyle news for DailyMail.com, The Mirror US, and Daily Express US. Kirsty graduated from Southampton Solent with a BA in Magazine Journalism and Feature Writing. When she’s not watching reruns of Sex and the City, you’ll find her listening to David Bowie and daydreaming about an espresso martini.