Radio News

Eight new presenters get BBC Radio 1 opportunity

Eight of the presenters given a one-off show over the 2020 festive period at Radio 1 are returning to host a month of Early Friday Breakfast shows. Dean McCullough, Rakeem Omar, Danni Diston, Sam MacGregor, Darcy Kelly, Alex West, Numi Gildert and Robyn Richford will host the programme over the coming months. First up will be 28-year-old Dean McCullough, who will take on Friday Early Breakfast in April. Originally from Belfast and now based in Manchester, Dean started out volunteering at Wandsworth Radio in 2016 before landing a show on Gaydio, where he currently hosts the breakfast show...

Stars line up to cover Virgin Radio Drive Time show

Giovanna Fletcher, Sharleen Spiteri and Gaby Roslin are set to become guest hosts of Kate Lawler’s Virgin Radio UK weekday Drive Time slot, whilst Kate is on maternity leave with her new baby girl Noa. I’m A Celebrity’s first ever ‘Queen of the Castle’, Giovanna Fletcher, will be covering Kate’s Drive show from the 1st to the 12th of March. As well as Giovanna, lead singer of rock band Texas, Sharleen Spiteri, will be in the hot seat for two-weeks between the 15th and the 26th of March, while TV presenter Gaby Roslin will be taking over the reins in April...

Schedule changes for Virgin Anthems, Chilled and Groove

Virgin Radio Anthems, Virgin Radio Chilled and Virgin Radio Groove are having some changes made to their schedules next month. Jez Welham, Sean Goldsmith and Matt Brown join the team whilst Chris Brooks, Rich Williams and Dave Kelly take over new slots. Sean Goldsmith joins from Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio and will join Virgin Radio Chilled to present weekday evenings from 6pm. Children’s author Matt Brown, who previously worked for Capital, Heart and Magic, will present Virgin Radio Chilled’s weekends from 2pm- 6pm. Former KISS FM and Capital XTRA presenter Jez Welham (in the photo above) will join Virgin Radio Groove to present on Saturday and Sunday from 2pm – 6pm...

BBC Radio 3 holds 24hr celebration of women composers

BBC Radio 3 will mark International Women’s Day with 24-hours of special programming which puts the work of female composers in the spotlight. As part of this, the station has commissioned two new works which receive their world premiere performances as part of the celebration. Film composer, vocalist and educator Ella Jarman-Pinto has set a text by the poet Jo Brandon for soprano Nazan Fikret and pianist Rebecca Cohen which explores the emotional impact of the pandemic on women, in a piece called Plango: A Cure Lament. It gets its world premiere performance in the drive-time programme In Tune...

Scott Mills and Chris Stark bring back the LOLathon

Scott Mills and Chris Stark are hosting another 24 hour LOLathon on BBC Radio 1 for Red Nose Day 2021. The afternoon presenters have done it twice before, with the first one in 2017 causing a few complaints to Ofcom for the middle of the night sex hour and non-innuendo bingo. This year, Radio 1’s LOLathon kicks off on Friday 5th March at 8am and continues until Friday 12 March culminating in the 24-hour marathon show hosted by Scott Mills and Chris Stark. The marathon will commence at 9am on Thursday 11 March and will continue until 9am the following day...

Penny Smith to host Drivetime on Scala Radio

Former GMTV anchor Penny Smith is taking over Drivetime on Scala Radio each weekday. In other changes following the departure of Simon Mayo from the daily schedule, Mark Forrest is to host mid-mornings permanently and Angellica Bell is to launch a new magazine style weekend show Saturday and Sunday 10am till 1pm. Simon will launch a new Saturday afternoon show from April called Simon Mayo’s Essential Albums. Jack Pepper will continue in his 3pm slot throughout March before moving to a new showtime of 6pm. Hannah Cox meanwhile moves to Saturday Breakfast at 7am, and Anne Frankenstein joins the Scala team for Sunday afternoons 1-3pm...

BBC Asian Network hires 13 new radio presenters

BBC Asian Network is welcoming 13 brand new presenters to the station following a search for new talent. Each of the new presenters will host their own Sunday shows each between March 2021 – and February 2022 as part of the station’s New Presenter Voices initiative. BBC Asian Network launched the search for new presenter voices in December, searching for talent who have a passion for British Asian culture and the latest in music and entertainment. For several of them, hosting on the Asian Network will be their first ever role in radio, including for Serena from Birmingham, who works as a model and content creator. Serena will be the first of the new DJs to...

Ken Bruce named as Britain’s favourite radio presenter

BBC Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce has been named as Britain’s favourite radio presenter in a new poll. Capital’s Roman Kemp takes second place with BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball in third. Chris Evans takes 4th and Jeremy Vine is in 5th place. Research carried out by digital radio manufacturer Pure also shows millions more Brits have turned to radio since the pandemic, regarding it as a trusted source of breaking news and instant information. Ken Bruce takes the top spot, despite not making the Top 10 in the same survey last year. Here’s how the top 10 shapes up...

Pirate FM and Lincs FM to take Bauer’s chart show

Bauer’s Sunday afternoon chart countdown is to air on Pirate FM and Lincs FM from this weekend. The Hits Radio Network’s ‘UK Chart Show’ is hosted by Sarah Jane Crawford and can be heard across stations such as Metro Radio, Radio Clyde and Radio City. On Lincs FM, it replaces the locally made Top 30 with Joseph Begley, whilst at Pirate FM it provides an alternative to the current non-stop music. Joseph will continue to host his Saturday breakfast show on Lincs FM...

David Kid Jensen gets six part series on Jazz FM

Kid Jensen is joining the team at Jazz FM to host a six-part series about his love for jazz music and to highlight the work of Parkinson’s UK. The former BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, Capital FM, The Jazz and Smooth Radio presenter, who is also an ambassador of Parkinson’s UK, starts his weekly show on Sunday 21st February. Of his new Jazz FM show and passion for the music he will play, David says: “I made my BOAC maiden flight in 1968, landing in London with a toothbrush and a pocket full of dreams and I used to love strolling down Wardour Street, loving venues like Revolution, Ronnie Scott’s, The Cromwellian and the Speakeasy...