Jeanette Kwakye: 'Execs told me certain jobs wouldn’t happen for me based on my look or profile'
"In athletics, success is completely objective – you’re the best at what you do or you’re not, simple. In broadcasting, it’s completely subjective."
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
When she was 21, broadcaster Jeanette Kwakye had what she describes as a "Sliding Doors moment". Fresh out of university and having applied, and failed, to get a job at Radio 1 Extra, she had a conversation with a newspaper editor. "He convinced me I should try to be an athlete full-time," she remembers. "He said I’d never get the chance when I was older, but broadcasting might be something I could step into later. I’ll be forever in debt to him."
He was proved right on both counts. Now co-hosting the weekend breakfast show on Radio 5 Live, Kwakye previously triumphed in an athletics career that saw her become a five-time British champion and reach number two in the world in the 60m sprint. Having retired from the track in 2014 but still a dedicated gym goer, what, apart from supreme physical fitness, does she bring from those years to her present job?
"It sounds corny, but I believe it’s my capacity for hard work," she says. "There’s so much discipline athletes take for granted. There might be things that would feel otherwise impossible in daily life, but as an athlete, you’re trained in getting down to it, getting it done."
With two children under 10 and a large extended family living near her in east London, the 41-year-old is tapping into that discipline for her new routine, which includes a 3.30am alarm on Saturdays, and a veritable lie-in until an hour later on Sundays. She seems impressively unfazed. "I’m a morning person for sure."
Kwakye remains nostalgic for one element of her previous life. "In athletics, success is completely objective – you’re the best at what you do or you’re not, simple. In broadcasting, it’s completely subjective, and you know you can’t please everybody."
Which is the more cut-throat field? She pauses. "Both, in their own way. In sport, when you get left out of a team after six months to a year of training, it’s brutal and you wouldn’t wish it on anyone. In broadcasting, you have no control. You might be the best, but the timing’s not right or your face doesn’t fit. It doesn’t matter why, you just don’t get the gig."
In the last 10 years, since making her debut on air with BBC Radio Berkshire, Kwakye has presented for Sky Sports, Channel 5 and BBC Radio London. She was also a member of the BBC team at the Paris Olympics and co-hosts The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV1.
If this all makes her career change seem seamless, she assures me there have been bumps in the road. "Execs have told me out of the gate that certain jobs aren’t going to happen for me, based on my look or profile. That’s fine and fair. I always ask, what else can I do or try?"
Kwakye has a clear idea of what she wants her Radio 5 Live weekend shows to be. "As I’m from London, I’ve come to realise how many London-centric viewpoints I’ve always heard. Now I want to know, what does the person in Edinburgh think of that, or Cardiff? It’s a luxury having such a breadth of voice and opinion, whether we’re talking about Russia and Ukraine, or homing in on a farm in Colchester."
Kwakye likens her career to that of Sue Barker, but the former sprinter has arguably travelled further. Proud of her roots on an east London council estate, she says there are no rules any more for a route into broadcasting, whatever the grumbles by some that sports people are taking the seats of journalists.
"This industry asks a lot of questions about where talent comes from," she says. "I wanted to be able to answer those questions myself. That’s why I went away for my NCTJ [journalism qualification] and studied shorthand, even though I didn’t need it. I worked my way up to this point.
"Back in the day, when I was growing up, it would be only people from Oxbridge or people with parents doing the same job. Now there are other pathways. The only thing I have to say is, 'Just be good at it.'"
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Jeanette Kwakye presents the weekend breakfast programme on BBC Radio 5 Live alongside Eleanor Oldroyd on Saturdays and Gordon Smart on Sundays.
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