Latest news about Classic FM

Pet Sounds radio show returns to Classic FM to help cats and dogs

Classic FM is partnering with the RSPCA next month to broadcast two special programmes to help keep anxious pets – and their owners – calm and relaxed this fireworks season. Pet Sounds, hosted by Classic FM’s weekend presenter and dog-lover Bill Turnbull, will be broadcast on Saturday 2nd November, with a second programme on Guy Fawkes Night itself, Tuesday 5th November. They follow Classic FM’s inaugural Pet Sounds programme last November, which saw digital listening hours on the day increase by almost 70% compared to the rest of the month...

'It's a new golden age': Radio 3 launches video game music show

Radio 3 is launching a new weekly programme dedicated to video game soundtracks. Running from Saturday 26 October, the hour-long show will be presented by composer Jessica Curry, who won a Bafta for her work with UK studio The Chinese Room and created and presented Classic FM’s video game music programme, High Score. “[BBC presenter and journalist] Tom Service and his producer Brian Jackson came to interview me for Radio 3 at Chinese Room a couple of years ago, and we all really hit it off,” said Curry. “Tom’s an avid...

RAJAR Q2 2019: London and national brands round-up

Zoe Ball has lost more than three quarters of a million listeners to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, according to the latest audience research from RAJAR. The show’s reach is down 781,000 quarter-on-quarter to 8.266m for the three months survey period up to the 23rd June 2019. In Q1/19 she had 9.047m listeners; in Q2/2018 Chris Evans reached 9.038m. Radio 2’s audience at breakfast is now the lowest its been since Q3/2010, when Evans was fairly new in the job.

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.

Capital’s Vick Hope signs up for Classic FM series

Vick Hope, co-host of the Capital breakfast show, is to present two programmes on Classic FM. The classical music station is launching its first-ever series for students to help them through their GCSEs, A-levels, Scottish Highers and university exams. Classic FM’s Revision Hour will be broadcast every Saturday night (9pm to 10pm) from 27th April to 15th June and will be hosted by Vick, Lewis Capaldi, Dan Smith and more yet to be announced presenters.

Eímear Noone joins Classic FM for new High Score radio series

Classic FM has signed game scores composer Eímear Noone as the new host of its video game music series, High Score. A new six-week series starts on June 22nd, with each hour-long programme featuring a different theme. Themes include Game Changers, Girl Power, and Magic, Myths and Legends. Eímear Noone’s music has reached more than 100 million people through her award-winning scores for World of Warcraft and Warlords of Draenor. Over the past nine years...

Global Awards hosts return for second year

Heart’s Rochelle Humes, Capital Breakfast’s Roman Kemp and Classic FM and Smooth presenter Myleene Klass will host The Global Awards once again this year. The ceremony takes place at London’s Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on Thursday March 7th featuring performances from Mark Ronson, Little Mix, Lang Lang, Blossoms, Mabel, Anne-Marie and more.

Performers revealed for Global Awards 2019

DJ and producer Mark Ronson, RnB singer Mabel, Little Mix, pianist Lang Lang, Blossoms and Anne-Marie are all confirmed to perform at the Global Awards on March 7th at London’s Eventim Apollo Hammersmith. The event brings together Global’s radio stations including Capital, Heart, Classic FM, Smooth, Radio X, Capital XTRA, Gold and LBC to celebrate music, news and entertainment.

Scala Radio to launch on full DAB in stereo

Launching a radio station in stereo should not be a news headline in 2019, but the industry has long decided it would rather provide more services in mono than fewer services in stereo. A radio station playing classical music needs to be in stereo to fully appreciate the content, and if Scala Radio has any chance of competing with Classic FM, it needs to at least match its bit rate of 128 kbit/s stereo.

Bauer to launch classical station Scala Radio

Simon Mayo is returning to daily radio with Bauer from 4th March as host of mid mornings on a new classical music station called Scala Radio. The station will be the first national classical station in nearly 30 years and is set to challenge Classic FM. RadioToday understands it will broadcast on the SDL national DAB multiplex, replacing heat Radio.