Jenny Abramsky

Born to a Jewish family, she was the daughter of Miriam, a social worker and former communist who was in Brick Lane during Oswald Mosley's fascist marches, and Chimen Abramsky, a professor of Jewish studies and rare book expert.[2] One of her grandfathers was Yehezkel Abramsky, a prominent Orthodox rabbi and scholar who was jailed by the Soviet Union and later headed the London Beth Din for 17 years. She was educated at Holland Park Comprehensive School, London, and then completed her education at the University of East Anglia, where she read English.[2]

In 1969, she joined the BBC as a programmes operations assistant, and in 1973 was appointed as a producer of The World at One. She became the first woman editor of the agenda-setting Today programme, ran the first Gulf War Radio 4 News FM service, and went on to launch Britain's first continuous news and sport radio station, Five Live, before launching the television channel BBC News 24. She launched the BBC's online news website, news.bbc.co.uk. She was named Director of BBC Radio in January 1999 and was subsequently promoted to the BBC's Executive Board with overall responsibility for BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, and Five Live and the BBC's digital radio stations 1Xtra, BBC 7, 6 Music, Five Live Sports Extra and the Asian Network; the three BBC orchestras based in England; and the Proms. In 2006 she became Director of Audio and Music – adding online services, audio on demand and podcasting to her remit of broadcast radio.

She had an annual programming budget of £236 million (about US$475m) and a staff of 1,681. Under her leadership, by the first three months of 2007 the BBC's radio stations had an audience share of 56.6 percent – compared with the 13.9 percent of listeners shared by all commercial radio broadcasters – and a reach of almost 33.5 million people – a record, according to Guardian newspaper (9 July 2007). The paper listed Abramsky as the 18th most powerful person in the UK's media, though she had slipped from No. 11 in the paper's 2006 ranking.[3]

It was announced in June 2008 that Abramsky was retiring from the BBC after 39 years of service, to be replaced by Tim Davie.[4] She currently serves on the board of trustees for the UK's largest youth drama festival, the Shakespeare Schools Festival and is a Fellow of The Radio Academy. She is Chair of Trustees of National Life Stories and a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Music.[5]

She was married to Alasdair Liddell, former head of planning for the NHS, who quit to go into private business. He died on 31 December 2012.[6]

Abramsky was elevated from Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.[7]

• List of British Jews

• Abramsky profile at BBC website