Latest news about Classic FM

John Humphrys joins Classic FM on a permanent basis

Classic FM’s new Sunday schedule for 2020 includes former BBC Radio 4 host John Humphrys presenting a weekly programme and the end of the Classic FM Chart. From 5th January, John Humphrys will be on-air each Sunday from 3pm to 5pm sharing his own stories and reflections on his favourite composers and their music. Charlotte Hawkins, who currently hosts that slot, will present a new Sunday night edition of Smooth Classics at Seven, keeping her Young Classical Star feature but in a new time slot...

£850,000 raised at Global’s Make Some Noise gala

A number of presenters from Global’s radio brands hosted the Make Some Noise annual charity gala at London’s Finsbury Square on Monday. The event raised £850,000 for charity, as music artists including Robbie Williams, Tom Walker and Freya Ridings took to the stage to perform live in front of almost 500 special guests. Global united all its radio brands for the event – Heart, Capital, Smooth, Classic FM, LBC, Radio X, Capital XTRA and Gold – to help children and young people living with illness, disability or lack of opportunity.

RAJAR Q3 2019: London and national brands round-up

Zoe Ball has lost another 364,000 listeners to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in the latest radio listening figures from RAJAR. It means more than a million weekly listeners have switched off since she took over the breakfast show from Chris Evans in January. In the period 24th June to 15th September 2019 (Q3/2019), Radio 2 breakfast had a weekly reach of 7.902m – that’s down from 8.266m in Q2 and 9.047m in Q1.While Zoe is still the presenter of the UK’s biggest breakfast show, the figures are the lowest for the slot in a decade – since...

John Humphrys joins Global to cover Classic FM Breakfast

Former BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys is joining Global after over 30 years at the BBC. He will host Classic FM’s More Music Breakfast from Monday 28th October to Friday 1st November inclusive from 6am to 9am, as he stands in for regular presenter Tim Lihoreau. Moira Stuart, who presents the breakfast news bulletins, will also be with him for the week. John Humphrys said: “I’m struggling to think of a greater contrast with my old job: the bliss of Beethoven and Brahms instead of Brexit and backstops! Maybe there really is another world out there!”

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...