[4] Her early employment included two years at Laker Airways as cabin crew, and also as a shop assistant, in telesales and as an insurance clerk.

[7] Shortly afterwards she started presenting her own show Streetlife for the station on Sunday evenings, focusing on local bands in the thriving Liverpool music scene.

Over the next few years, the station received support from Bob Geldof, Boy George and Primal Scream amongst others, and successfully bid for a permanent licence on 107.6FM.

[10] Long promoted a number of acts through live music sessions on her show including Adele, The Zutons, Primal Scream, Kasabian, Amy Macdonald, Hard-Fi, Faithless, The Manic Street Preachers, Marillion, Josh Ritter, The Stranglers, Paul Weller, Moby, The Dandy Warhols, Stereophonics, Aslan and a significant number of new and unsigned bands such as Elle S'Appelle, Vijay Kishore, Damien Dempsey, Senses and Sam Isaac.

[32] In January 2010, due to a reorganisation of the breakfast schedule on Radio 2, her show was cut to two hours, and ran from midnight to 2 am, Monday to Friday.

[35] She returned to BBC Radio 2 standing in for Jo Whiley for a week commencing 10 April 2017,[36] and was given her own series called A Long Walk With...[37] which went out between 2017 and 2018.

Each week, Long walked through the streets of a different city with a popstar from the 1980s or 1990s as they remembered the key places, characters and music that shaped their pop career.

The first series featured Holly Johnson's Liverpool,[38] Alison Moyet's Basildon,[39] Richard Hawley's Sheffield[40] and a walk through west London with Gary Numan.

[41] The second series was broadcast on Thursdays at 9pm in 2018 with Jim Kerr,[42] Chris Difford,[43] James Dean Bradfield,[44] and Tracey Thorn[45] being the popstars featured.

From the station's founding and launch in 2002 to 2004 Long presented Dream Ticket[46] on BBC Radio 6 Music, which aired from 10 pm to midnight five days a week, with a Saturday and Sunday early morning follow-up from 6 am to 8 am.

Long's show was broadcast from the Radio City Tower in Liverpool, amid schedule changes at the station that saw the hiring of a number of BBC Radio presenters like Alex Lester, Simon Mayo, Mark Goodier, Matt Williams, Richard Allinson, Pat Sharp, Ken Bruce, Jackie Brambles, and Paul Gambaccini.

[64] In 2016, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors presented Long with a Gold Badge award for her contribution to the music industry.

[69] In her early days at Radio 1 she entered a relationship with fellow DJ Peter Powell which lasted from October 1984 to July 1985.

BBC Radio DJ Greg James said, "She picked the greats and got them in session before other DJs had even heard of them", while his colleague Adele Roberts said Long had forged a path for women; television presenter Carol Vorderman wrote on Twitter, "Rest In Music lovely vibrant trailblazer Janice Long”.