Latest news about BBC Radio 2

Audio: Radio industry unites to thank the NHS

Radio stations all over the UK came together to thank NHS workers during the coronavirus pandemic. A mass applause, coordinated under the #clapforourcarers hashtag on social media, showed the country’s gratitude to all the nurses, doctors, GPs, carers and many others working tirelessly to help fight the virus. Industry body Radiocentre encouraged stations from every corner of the UK to take part, with stations including Heart, Capital, LBC, Hits Radio, Absolute Radio, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and 5 Live, and Nation Radio, encouraged their millions of listeners to join the applause at their windows, front doors and balconies...

Radio stations to unite with You’ll Never Walk Alone

You’ll Never Walk Alone will be played out simultaneously on a number of radio stations this Friday morning. NPO 3FM presenter Sander Hoogendoorn had the idea to bring all radio stations in the Netherlands together during the corona crisis, but now BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and dozens more across Europe are joining in. Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio will play the tune during Breakfast with Simon Ross from Liverpool, along with the Breakfast shows on Hits Radio stations in England, plus Country Hits Radio...

Radio 2’s OB from C2C now a studio based show after festival cancellation

Following the cancellation of C2C at London’s O2 tomorrow (Saturday 14 March), BBC Radio 2’s live outside broadcast from the event won’t be happening. The global pandemic of COVID-19 has forced the organisers of the Country to Country Festival 2020 to postpone it. They say that they hope to reschedule it at a later date. Radio 2 was due at the event to broadcast the full headline set from Darius Rucker plus music and interviews from Old Dominion, Old Crow Medicine Show and Runaway June...

Sara Cox & Frankie Wells host equality podcast series

BBC Radio 2’s Sara Cox and podcaster Frankie Wells are the hosts of a new series of podcasts to celebrate International Women’s Day. Each for Equal, produced by PodcastWorks, brings together women from the worlds of journalism, business and entertainment; including Katie Thistleton, Mariam Khan, India Willoughby, Shola Kaye, and Helen Lederer. To celebrate International Women’s Day, each episode will focus on a particular issue, deemed most relevant by each guest, concerning female equality in 2020...

Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020 – Winners

The winners at the Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020 have been revealed at an event at the London Palladium. The BBC took home 17 awards including Emma Barnett for Best Speech Presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James for Best New Show, The 1Xtra Breakfast Show with Dotty forBest Music Breakfast Show and Elis James and John Robins for Funniest Show on BBC Radio 5 Live. Bauer Media radio brands were recognised on the night with Absolute Radio winning Gold for their coverage for Mental Health Awareness Week as well as their regional station Forth 1 who won Best Local Radio Show...

Greg James to write for Waitrose newspaper

BBC Radio 1 Breakfast presenter Greg James has signed up to be a regular columnist for the Waitrose & Partners Weekend newspaper. Greg, who co-wrote the children’s book series, Kid Normal, will have his first column published today in which he talks about his love of flan and why he is a fan of Waitrose. Other columnists for the magazine include BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine and Phillip Schofield. Ollie Rice, Editor-in-Chief of Waitrose Weekend says: ‘We’re delighted to welcome Greg to the Waitrose & Partners Weekend team. His positivity and wit will be'...

RAJAR Q4 2019: London and national brands round-up

Coverage of the general election helped 5 Live, Radio 4 and LBC each add half a million listeners across 2019. 5 Live is up from 4.9m to 5.4m in the Q4/2019 RAJAR listening figures, while Radio 4 has added a similar amount, rising from 10.4m a year ago to 10.9m now. LBC, including new digital station LBC News, posts a record high of 2.7m listeners (up more than half a million year on year), while talkRADIO is up more than 40% from 12 months ago to now have 433,000 listeners a week – another record high for the Wireless station...

Zoe Ball launches 500 Words live from Liverpool

Zoe Ball was live in Liverpool today to launch the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show competition 500 Words. The children’s short-story writing competition also celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, since it was first created and launched by Chris Evans in 2011. The live final will take place at Buckingham Palace on Friday 12 June and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall once again returns as an Honorary Judge. The short-story writing competition for children aged five to 13 years old was declared open for entries by Zoe Ball this morning with a special outside broadcast of the Breakfast Show from Four Oaks Primary school in Liverpool where pupils joined her live on air...

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...

Opinion: RadioToday industry predictions for 2020

One thing is for sure – radio is changing at an incredible pace. Keeping up with emerging products and making full use of smart technology is key. But whilst the art of ‘input’ is changing, the ‘output’ has remained fairly static for many decades. Listeners can still hear a friendly voice on the radio at all hours of the day – the major difference is where the voice is located and when they were recorded. But let’s dig deeper down into the industry and see what 2020 might bring...