Latest news about BBC Local Radio

Shortlist out for Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020

The shortlist for this year’s Radio Academy’s ARIAs have been announced at an event at News UK headquarters in London. Presenters getting nominated include Chris Evans, Greg James, Stephen Nolan, Zoe Ball and Frank Skinner. Bauer leads the Commercial Radio nominees with just over two dozen, whilst we count that News UK has around 15. Global isn’t mentioned due to not submitting any entries once again this year. The rest of the shortlist includes newspapers, independent podcasts, independent producers and presenters, along with a few local radio stations including...

BBC Radio to close more medium wave transmitters

The BBC says it is closing a further 18 medium wave transmitters across England, Scotland and Wales in the next stage of its plan to cut costs. Services being closed range from BBC Radio Solent’s two AM frequencies on the South Coast to BBC Radio Scotland’s service in Aberdeen. Six more BBC Local Radio services will no longer be transmitted on AM – they are Three Counties Radio (630 and 1161 kHz), BBC Radio Merseyside (1485 KHz), BBC Radio Newcastle (1458 KHz), BBC Radio Solent and BBC Radio Solent (for Dorset) 999 and 1359 KHz, BBC Radio Cornwall (630 and 657 kHz) and BBC Radio York (1260 KHz)...

New direction for the sound of BBC Local Radio

All BBC local radio stations are getting a different sound for 2020 with a new jingle and imaging package from ReelWorld Europe. The first station to broadcast the new sound was the first BBC local radio station – BBC Radio Leicester – on Monday 6th January. A new strapline has been created “The Sound of [area] and all the music you love” along with an updated six-note logo. The previous network-wide package, produced by Mcasso, also featured a six-note logo, with listeners left to work out the words to match...

Winners announced for the 2019 Audio Production Awards

The winners have been revealed for the Audio Production Awards at a gala evening at the BFI Southbank, hosted by Tommy Sandhu. The special Gold Award went to the Mental Health Minute, coordinated by Radiocentre and produced by Somethin’ Else in 2018 and TBI Media in 2019. The Mental Health Minute was broadcast in May across hundreds of radio stations, including BBC Radio 1, Radio 2 and 5 Live, BBC Local Radio, as well as networks including Global, Bauer and Wireless and community stations. It reached a combined audience of over 40 million people, and featured His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge...

Breakfast show presenters announced at BBC Radio Solent

Alun Newman and Louisa Hannan are taking over the breakfast show from Julian Clegg on BBC Radio Solent. Alun and Lou currently present the mid-morning show on the station and are moving to the new slot in the new year along with producer Warren Hayden. Earlier this year Julian announced he would retire at the end of the year and present his last show on 5th December – his 60th birthday. Managing Editor Sarah Miller told RadioToday: “Replacing someone like Julian after 23 years in the role was always going to be a challenge. Alun and Lou are well known and loved by our listeners, and this has grown since they came together as ‘radio’s newest couple’ on mid-morning”.

Nominations out for BBC Local Radio’s Gillard Awards 2020

The shortlist is out for the annual BBC Local Radio awards event, the Gillards. The awards will be announced and handed out at a ceremony in Sheffield on February 5th 2020. Last year, Radio Sheffield won the most Gold awards, taking home three in total. Kat Harbourne and Jenny Eells won Best Presenter for their Naked Podcast, Toby Foster won Best Breakfast, and the whole team won Station of the Year. Here’s the full list: ...

BBC Local Radio comes together for Brexit Special

BBC Local Radio’s planned network programme Brexit Special will go ahead on Thursday evening despite Brexit being postponed. The programme, on 39 local stations, will be hosted by BBC journalist Adrian Goldberg and BBC North West political editor Nina Warhurst and will gather opinions from the public on what’s happening. Local Radio political reporters and presenters will be based across the country capturing the mood of the public from Merseyside, Brighton, Luton, Devon, Preston and York – as well as guests from business and agriculture communities...

RAJAR Q3 2019: Regional and local radio facts and figures

The big stories from the regions are that Heart has increased its audience despite rolling out a national breakfast show, and Greatest Hits Radio stations are taking a beating under their new names. Global - For the Heart brand, overall, it has seen an increase in listeners since taking its breakfast show national. It now has 9.8m weekly reach compared with 9.7m last quarter and 9.6m last year. In the regions, seven Hearts went up including Scotland and North East England, nine went down including West Midlands and two stayed the same...

Jimmy and Summaya pair up for BBC Radio Leicester Drive

Jimmy Carpenter and Summaya Mughal are joining up to present a brand new Drive show together on BBC Radio Leicester from Monday 16 September. Summaya won a talent search competition at BBC Radio Nottingham last year to host evening shows whilst Jimmy moves over from hosting the afternoon show on BBC Radio Leicester. In the first week they will be working towards giving someone the #BestCommuteHomeEver on Friday, with an open-top bus tour of the city.

BBC Local Radio starts search for New Voices

Open auditions are to take place across England and the Channel Islands for BBC local radio’s new talent search. All 39 local radio stations across England and the Channel Islands are hosting open auditions for New Voices on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 September, following our report in January about the project getting underway. Hopefuls will have 60 seconds to impress a panel of judges. They could tell a story about something they care about, something local, something personal… anything as long as it’s unique. Judges across the country will include BBC editors and producers plus special guests such as vocal coaches Carrie and David Grant.