Jo Russell

This article is about the British radio personality. For people named Joe Russell or Joseph Russell, see Joseph Russell.

Jo Russell is an English radio presenter currently works at Greatest Hits Radio 80s doing an afternoon show and she also works at Magic Radio doing weekend afternoons for the summer. She occasionally covers presenters on Greatest Hits Radio.

Jo Russell
Born	2 December 1970 London, England
Occupation	Radio presenter
Known for	Greatest Hits Radio 80s, Greatest Hits Radio, Hits Radio East Midlands, Magic Radio

Biography

Russell worked for an insurance company and Coca-Cola among other roles before beginning her broadcasting career at York Hospital Radio. She later moved on to hosting weekend shows at Stray FM in Harrogate and a full-time presenting role at York's Minster FM.

From 1998 onwards, Russell spent over ten years co-presenting Trent FM's award-winning breakfast show with Andy "Twiggy" Twigge, who had previously worked alongside her at sister station Ram FM in Derby. During this time, Russell won various awards for her work including four Sony Awards, the 2008 Arqiva Commercial Radio Presenter of the Year and Best Breakfast Show at the 2007 European Radio Awards. In September 2008, she joined Absolute Radio^[1] as the host of a weekend mid-morning show, which ran for around thirteen months.

A month after her departure from Absolute, Russell joined BRMB to host its flagship weekday breakfast show, The Jo Show.^[2] In November 2010, following a break from work due to illness, she began co-presenting the station's weekday drivetime show Jo and Sparky, alongside Mark "Sparky" Colerangle.

During 2011, Russell also presented Back to the 80s, a weekly Saturday night show for the East Midlands regional radio station Gem 106.^[3]

In 2014, Russell was awarded the Local and Regional Lifetime Achievement award by the Radio Academy.^[4]

In July 2015, Russell and Colerangle moved to Free Radio's Shropshire and Black Country station to co-present Jo and Sparky in the weekday breakfast timeslot, beginning on Monday 20 July 2015 at 6am.^[5] The pair joined sister station Gem 106 in 2016 to present a Saturday morning show.

In September 2017, it was announced Russell and Colerangle would leave Free Radio and join Gem full-time as presenters of the station's weekday breakfast show on Monday 16 October 2017, replacing Sam Pinkham and Amy Voce.^[6]

The Hits Radio East Midlands Breakfast Show ceased to broadcast on 6th June 2025, along with the other regional Hits Radio Breakfast shows. They were replaced with a National show hosted by Fleur East from Monday 9th June 2025. Russell continues with her Greatest Hits 80s show on weekdays 2pm-6pm, as well as providing cover, notably for Jenny Powell on weekend Breakfast shows.

On 14 June 2025, Russell was made the weekend host on Magic Radio through the summer. Jo takes over this slot on an interim basis from Emma B until a permanent replacement is made.

Russell also covers for Ben Jackson’s mid morning show on BBC Radio Leicester when he is away.