Latest news about BBC Radio 5 Live

Phil Williams returns with a week on talkRADIO

Former BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Phil Williams has been hired by talkRADIO to host Drive for a week. He’ll be on-air Monday 22nd July to Thursday 25th July from 4pm till 7pm, covering for Eamonn Holmes. His colleague, and talkRADIO breakfast presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer tweeted that he’ll also be live from College Green on Tuesday and Wednesday. Phil left 5 Live in May after 18 years, where he presented the Late Show since 2013. Before 5 Live, Phil worked at BBC Radio 1, GMR in Manchester and XFM London.

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).

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.

Danny Baker sacked from 5 Live over chimp tweet

Danny Baker has been sacked from his Saturday morning slot on BBC Radio 5 Live, after apologising for a tweet about the royal baby. He posted an image on Wednesday evening showing a clothed chimpanzee holding hands with a couple, along with the caption ‘Royal Baby leaves hospital’. He quickly deleted the tweet after accusations it was racist, but screengrabs been shared widely on social media and used by the national press.

Making waves: the radio DJs changing the way men talk about mental health

By blending banter with heartfelt discussion, rising radio stars John Robins and Elis James have created a forum that allows men to open up about masculinity and mental health – with jokes attached. In the two days between the announcement that their weekly Radio X show would be ending and the final broadcast, comedians John Robins and Elis James received 110 pages of emails from their listeners. One of the emails they read out in that final show in April, from a fan called Frank, said the show had been his...

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.

Frank Skinner joins Radio Festival 2019 line-up

Absolute Radio’s Saturday morning presenter Frank Skinner will appear at the Radio Festival this year in conversation with fellow comedian and presenter Matt Forde. Frank will talk about his decade on-air, why he’s most like his real self when he’s behind the microphone and why his is the only radio show to feature an AE Housman alarm. Also just confirmed, BBC Radio 5 Live’s Drive show presenters Anna Foster and Tony Livesey will be the hosts of this year’s event, which takes place at the British Library on 13th May.

New Premier League contracts for Radio 5 Live and talkSPORT

BBC Radio 5 Live has secured four of the seven Premier League live commentary contracts for the next three years, whilst talkSPORT picks up the other three. talkSPORT and talkSPORT2 have rights to broadcast Premier League games across three time slots on Saturday – 12.30pm, 3pm and 5.30pm – a first for commercial radio. However, 5 Live will have first pick of the Saturday 3pm games.

Greg James and Roman Kemp win at the TRIC Awards 2019

The winners for the Television & Radio Industries Club awards have been announced, with Greg James and Roman Kemp amongst those recognised. BBC Radio 1 breakfast presenter Greg James took home the Radio Personality award whilst about-to-be-national Capital Breakfast’s Roman Kemp won Best Radio Programme. BBC Radio 5 Live’s “You Me & The Big C” won Podcast of the Year...

Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2019 nominations

BBC radio presenters Danny Baker, Lauren Laverne, Cerys Matthews and Paddy O’Connell have been shortlisted in this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. Comedian Romesh Ranganathan is also among this year’s nominees for the BPG’s Podcast of the Year award, acknowledging the growth and quality of streamed and downloadable audio. The 45th annual BPG awards, sponsored by Virgin Media, will be presented next month at...