Latest news about Magic FM

Bauer to launch Magic at the Musicals on DAB+

Bauer is launching another new radio station from Golden Square, this time playing music from musicals. Magic at the Musicals will be available on DAB+ in and around London from Thursday 21st November with presenters including Ruthie Henshall (Chicago, Cats) and Jonathan Bailey (Broadchurch, Doctor Who, W1A, Company) The schedule will also include Louise Dearman (Wicked) John Owen-Jones (The Phantom of the Opera), alongside Julian Bird (CEO of SOLT and UK Theatre) and special shows from Luke Evans (film: Beauty and the Beast, Clash of the Titans; Stage: Rent, Miss Saigon), Alfie Boe (Les Miserables) and others.

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...

Magic and Absolute Radio to broadcast from New Zealand

Bauer Radio is to partner with Tourism New Zealand and broadcast from across the country with Magic Radio and Absolute Radio. The partnership will see the two stations create a week of bespoke programming from across New Zealand, connecting audiences to the essence of Kiwi culture and local communities through on-air breakfast show promotion, online and social video content. The campaign started on Monday 23rd September and will run till 20th October as a direct partnership between Bauer Media and Tourism New Zealand.

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.

Emma B to replace Angie Greaves on Magic afternoon show

Former Radio 1, Heart and Smooth presenter Emma B is taking over the afternoon slot on Magic next month as Angie Greaves heads to Smooth. Emma is currently on the weekend schedule on the Bauer station, but will move to weekdays 2-5pm from 1st July. She told RadioToday: “I am so totally thrilled to be presenting Magic Radio Afternoons. The station has been a dream to work on whether chatting on-air with the listeners, playing out their favourite tracks or getting out and about hosting the stage at"...

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.

Radio professionals head to Student Radio event in Swansea

A number of radio presenters, producers and management are in sharing their experience and knowledge with students in Swansea this week. The annual Student Radio Conference is taking place over three days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and has a line-up to rival most other industry events. Radio presenters giving up their time include Greg James, Adele Roberts, Aled Hayden Jones, Stephanie Hirst, Matt Edmondson, Mollie King, Tim Cocker, Will Manning, Vicki Blight, Trevor Nelson, Tom Swarbrick, Alex Mansuroglu and Sam Darlaston.

Bauer boss calls for collaboration and respect in radio

Bauer Media UK’s CEO Paul Keenan has called for the whole radio industry to unite so that the sector can continue to prosper, saying there’s never been a better time in commercial radio. He was speaking in the opening session at this year’s RadioDays Europe event in Lausanne, Switzerland – where he also revealed that 40% of Bauer’s streaming of radio in the UK comes from smart speakers.

Magic flips main station to 100% Christmas

Magic Radio will switch to playing all Christmas music from this Friday instead of launching a separate service. Previously, Magic Christmas was in addition to the main station on 105.4 FM in London and DAB nationwide, but this year the festive tunes will replace the usual playlist. The station tweeted the information on Tuesday morning, saying “So, um. This Friday at 9am… we’re going 100% Christmas.”

Magic Radio to broadcast from Paris for the day

Magic is moving its full daytime line-up to Paris on Thursday in a deal to promote the new Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The Bauer station will be broadcasting live from a specially created studio on the Seine overlooking the Eiffel Tower, starting with a train ride during the breakfast show complete with listeners who will have just won a place on the train from London St Pancras. Ronan Keating and Harriet Scott have been inviting listeners to join them in...