Latest news about BBC 1Xtra

Training officer gets show at BBC Radio Leicester

A theatre graduate, who works in workplace training, is joining BBC Radio Leicester to host a weekly show. Twenty-nine-year-old Aminata Kamara from Leicester will present The Vibe every Wednesday night, where she promises “a dash of drama, a hit of sauce and whole heap of realness!” In May BBC Radio Leicester held open auditions to find original talent to front the Wednesday night programme, aimed at African and Caribbean audiences, which will also be broadcast on Radio2Funky, Leicester’s only radio station dedicated to Black music and arts...

Zoe Ball joins top earners list at the BBC

New BBC Radio 2 breakfast show host Zoe Ball has joined the BBC big earners top 10 list whilst Jeremy Vine took at £110k pay cut. Vanessa Feltz also makes it inside the top 10 list, which this year includes three women for the first time, along with Claudia Winkleman. Chris Evans is still in the list, as it covers the period from April 2018 to March 2019, so will only represent nine months of work. He got £1.25m for 150 editions of the Breakfast Show (or £8.3k per programme).

Radio 1 and 1Xtra return to Ibiza

BBC Radio 1Xtra will be returning to Ibiza following the success of last years event, taking some of the biggest names in black music to the white isle for a night of DJ sets and performances at Ibiza Rocks on Saturday 3 August. BBC Radio 1 will also be returning for its annual trip, continuing its legacy on the island. This year, the station will be taking the biggest dance artists to Ibiza Rocks on Friday 2 August hosted by dance champions Annie Mac and Danny Howard. MistaJam will also be hosting a Dance Anthems special from Café Mambo celebrating 25 years of this iconic venue. Full details to be announced in due course.

RAJAR Q1 2019 – Zoe & Chris plus national and London radio round-up

Chris Evans and Virgin Radio both reached over a million listeners in the first quarter of 2019. The digital station’s audience has almost trebled compared with the last period of 2018 thanks to the arrival of Evans from Radio 2. In Q1/2019 it posts a weekly reach of 1.3m and total hours of 7.765m. A year ago those figures were 427,000 and 1.632m. Last quarter they were 447,000 and 1.686m.

BBC to create single role to Control Radio 1 and Radio 2

The BBC is to create a new single role of Controller of its pop music stations Radio 1, 1Xtra, Asian Network, Radio 2 and 6 Music. Heads of each station, plus BBC Music and the Music TV commissioning heads, will report to the new Controller. A source tells RadioToday that Ben Cooper, currently Controller of Radio 1, 1Xtra and BBC Asian Network is expected to be appointed to the new position across all five services.

Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Greg James increases listeners by more than 300,000

The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Greg James has increased listeners by more than 300,000 in his first full quarter. Latest Rajar data shows since Greg James started on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, there has been an increase of listeners aged 10+ to 5.59m (Monday-Thursday), from 5.28m last quarter. The same period (17 September-16 December 2018) has also seen a record for digital listening, with the proportion of digital listening now at 52.6%...

Sian Anderson takes Trevor Nelson’s 1Xtra Saturday show

Trevor Nelson is stepping down from his Saturday slot on 1Xtra to be replaced by Sian Anderson. Trevor will continue to host his Sunday show, but Sian will host Saturday and Friday from 4pm till 7pm. Sian moved to the Friday afternoon slot last year after hosting a Wednesday night show. Previously, Sian has presented several BBC documentaries including ‘Beyond The Music: Grime Photography’.

Festive Highlights for 2018 on BBC Radio

BBC Radio has today announced its on-air highlights for the festive period. Bob Shennan, BBC Director of Radio & Music, says: “This Christmas BBC Radio will offer an unrivalled collection of programmes featuring the finest DJs, musicians and actors. Across our stations, teams have curated brilliant schedules with world-class talent - all of which are available on BBC Sounds.”

Tiffany Calver takes over the Rap Show on Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra has hired Tiffany Calver to host The Rap Show, as a replacement for the recently departed Charlie Sloth. Tiffany starts on January 5th and comes from KissFresh where she hosted the Hip-Hop show till recently. She is the first female presenter to host the show, recently presented by Charlie and previously by Tim Westwood. Tiffany has been associated with big acts in the music scene having opened for Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s ‘On The Run’ tour earlier this year and...

RAJAR Q3 2018: London and national brands update

Nick Grimshaw left the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with half a million more listeners than a year ago – handing them to Greg James who took over the show halfway through the last quarter. The show now attracts 5.75m listeners (Mon – Fri) and is up 465,000 Year on Year. In London, Capital is back on top with almost 2,100,000 listeners according to Reach in the London commercial radio battle, as Kiss slips back under the 2m listener mark (1,958,000). Magic is in third place (1.5m) whilst Heart comes in 4th (1.4m). But BBC Radio 4 continues to lead the London Reach with 2.4m listeners.