Zoe Ball launched her new show on Greatest Hits Radio on Monday, thanking fellow presenter Ken Bruce and explaining the reason behind the first song she played.
Ball stepped down from her BBC Radio 2 show in December last year, when she was replaced by Emma Willis – the new co-host of Strictly Come Dancing.
She returned to the airwaves for her new show, Zoe Ball in the Afternoon, promising that her first song would be “big… Big production, big sound, big feels.”
Ball, 55, went for “I’ve Got the Music in Me” by the Kiki Dee Band, playing it after sharing some of the guesses from her listeners – including “Rock‘n’Roll” by Led Zeppelin, “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone and “The Bitch is Back” by Elton John.
“I can tell you excitement levels [are] currently peaking,” Ball told her audience. “Thanks to Ken [Bruce], I am so thrilled to be his radio neighbour once again. Mondays to Fridays from 1 till 4 I will be here before handing you over each day to the mighty Simon Mayo. Adore him.”
Ball returned to the radio full-time after taking a two-year break to spend more time with her family – crediting her daughter, Nell, as one of the people who encouraged her to get back to it.
“When the call came [from Greatest Hits Radio], it felt like a gorgeous gift and fabulous timing,” she told the Radio Times in an interview last week. “Lots of my friends in commercial radio had said to me, ‘It’s fun out here!’”
Ball also clarified that she has not “left-left” the BBC for good: “I’m grateful to the BBC because they changed my life on numerous occasions and looked after me,” she said. “They continue to do amazing things but there is a lot of great stuff happening in commercial radio.”
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She said that fans should expect a selection of music from the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties: “Three eras I love. I was saying to Ken recently that a lot of my record collection is from the Seventies and I wish I had been at Woodstock because I feel like there’s a hippy in my heart,” she continued. “There’ll also be lots of audience interaction because the Greatest Hits audience is wonderful. I’m looking forward to getting to know them.”
Ball is hosting her Greatest Hits Radio show from Monday to Friday, 1-4pm.