Latest news about BBC Radio 2

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).

Tom Odell to host new four-part series on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 has hired singer/songwriter Tom Odell to host a four-part series on BBC Radio 2. Produced by Wisebuddah, Around The Piano with Tom Odell sees Tom celebrate the role of the piano in shaping pop music over the last 60 years. During the four programmes, Tom takes the audience on a journey through the world’s most iconic piano-driven tracks – from Jerry Lee Lewis to Kanye West and Nina Simone to Harry Styles.

BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show’s 500 Words 2019 winners are revealed at Windsor Castle

The six winners of this year’s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show’s 500 Words children’s writing competition were announced today during a live broadcast from Windsor Castle. The final was attended by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall who is an Honorary Judge and delivered a speech to the audience and met all the winners. The Bronze, Silver and Gold winning stories across the two age categories (5-9 years and 10-13 years) were read out by Hugh Bonneville, Konnie Huq, Helen McCrory OBE, Michael Sheen OBE, Sandi Toksvig OBE and David Walliams OBE. The event was attended Chris Evans, who created and launched 500 Words in 2011 and is Chair of the judging panel...

Brexit is the 2019 Children’s Word Of The Year by OUP for BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show’s 500 Words competition

Analysis of short stories submitted to BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition by Oxford University Press reveals that the Brexit impasse and Theresa May’s travails are inspiring children’s creativity. A significant increase in the use of vegan and vegetarianism, plus references to climate change and plastic, show that British children are increasingly aware of health and environmental issues, along with political activism.

Pet Shop Boys to headline BBC Radio 2 Live In Hyde Park

BBC Radio 2, the UK’s most listened to radio station, proudly announces the line-up for one of the summer’s most-anticipated music festivals - BBC Radio 2 Live In Hyde Park - which takes place on Sunday 15 September in London. The most successful duo in UK music history, Pet Shop Boys will headline the concert, performing a selection of hits from their award-winning catalogue of classics. This year’s line-up is a pop music bonanza, with performances from Westlife, Status Quo, Clean Bandit, Bananarama, Emeli Sandé, Kelsea Ballerini and Simply Red.

James Cridland’s International Radio Trends: Where should a radio station be? And RAJAR Q1 2019

James Cridland, radio futurologist, is a conference speaker, writer and consultant. He runs the media information website media.info and helps organise the yearly Next Radio conference. He also publishes podnews.net, a daily briefing on podcasting and on-demand, and writes a weekly international radio trends newsletter, at james.crid.land.

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.

Broadcasters unite once again for Mental Health Minute

Commercial Radio and the BBC are once again uniting to broadcast a one-minute message in support of mental health awareness. For the second year Mental Health Minute will feature globally famous voices and unite stations all over the UK, from national networks such as those run by Global, Bauer and Wireless, to smaller local stations and community stations, together with BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, and 5 Live.

Greg James and James Purnell sign up for Radio Festival

The Radio Festival will include sessions from BBC Radio 1 breakfast show presenter Greg James, and the BBC’s Director of Radio and Education James Purnell. Other new sessions announced today are from Google News’ Brenda Salinas and Katy Leeson of Social Chain. James Purnell will be joining RadFest to share his thoughts on the importance of treasuring radio amidst significant change in the industry and in people’s listening habits.

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.