Radio News

History of jazz series planned for Jazz FM

A new landmark ten-part series is heading to Jazz FM from Easter Sunday looking at the history of jazz across the UK. Starting in 1919 when the ‘Original Dixieland Jass Band’ visited London’s Hippodrome for the first official performance of jazz music in the union, the series will feature the genre in Britain and how jazz evolved over the decades, ending up where we are today. “The Definitive History of Jazz in Britain” is hosted by BBC journalist and presenter Clive Myrie who cites jazz music as one of his passions in life. Each week he’ll explore the decade with archive audio, reconstructions, and expert insight from special guests...

Jackie Brambles to host Greatest Hits Radio series

The latest Audio Content Fund includes funding a four-part series called Greatest Brits with Jackie Brambles for Greatest Hits Radio. The former BBC Radio 1 host and current BBC Radio Scotland presenter will celebrate 80s and 90s British female artists in the run-up to the 2021 BRIT Awards. It’s one of many projects awarded money in the latest round, bringing the total to £1.7m in the past year. The projects will broadcast across more than 120 different radio stations and will be produced by 19 different independent production companies...

Capital builds Ice Rink on its roof for Sonny Jay

Capital has built an actual ice rink on the roof of Global’s HQ in Leicester Square to celebrate Sonny Jay’s Dancing on Ice win. The breakfast co-host won with Angela Egan over the weekend on the ITV show. Roman Kemp and the team had Champagne and pizza during Capital Breakfast on Monday morning for the official ‘After Party’ with Sonny’s skating partner appearing on the show this morning from the Terrace. They beat actress Faye Brookes to take home the trophy after performing a Bolero routine inspired by judges Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean’s 1984 Winter Olympics figure skating performance...

BBC Radio 2 to give away VIP Camp Bestival experience

Zoe Ball announced BBC Radio 2’s Text To Win prize which will be raising money for this year’s Comic Relief. During Breakfast on Monday morning, Zoe revealed to listeners that, “This week, you could be in with the chance of winning the staycation of a century at this summer’s Camp Bestival. “We’ve sorted out VIP tickets to the festival – for either a family of 2 adults and up to 4 kids, or a ticket for you and 3 mates – to stay at Lulworth Castle, on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. You’ll spend 4 nights sleeping under the stars in a luxury Tipi in the premium Backstage Camping area, from Thursday the 29th of July to Sunday the 1st of August 2021.”...

Simon Mayo returns to Drivetime radio with GHR

Greatest Hits Radio’s new networked Drivetime show with Simon Mayo launched on Monday with Gary Barlow, Marti Pellow, Midge Ure, Tony Hadley and many more artists wishing him well. Kicking off the programme with Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’, Simon welcomed in listeners both new and old. The show is broadcast from London across the Greatest Hits Radio network in England and Wales, and features split ads/jingles, regional news and local travel news for each licence the show is broadcast on. Simon also has new sung jingles to use on the show, which are produced with VO mentions for local areas...

New KISS Life show introduced with Swarzy Macaly

KISS is introducing a new Sunday evening show called KISS Life hosted by Swarzy Macaly. Bauer says KISS Life will be a place for reflection and discussion on the KISS Network – a weekly gathering for people to bring their authentic questions and opinions to the table, and to hear from those in power and positions of influence to help make sense of the world. Starting at 9pm on Sunday 7th March the live show will include stories from contributors and listeners from all around the UK...

Heart’s Make Me A Millionaire returns to the radio

Heart is giving away another million pounds to one listener with the return of Heart’s Make Me A Millionaire competition. Last year, hundreds of listeners won prize sums of up to £30,000 before one person won £1,000,000. Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden launched the 2021 promotion on Heart Breakfast this morning, with both of them dressing up for the occasion. Listeners are able to win a daily cash prize by listening out for when a specific artist plays on air. Selected at random, the daily winner can decide to walk away with that day’s prize fund or forgo their winnings for the chance go into the Million Pound Final to win £1 million pounds...

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...

Former Capital DJ Anton Powers joins KISS

KISS has hired former Radio City, Capital and Juice Liverpool DJ Anton Powers to host a series of weekend show across KISS and KISSTORY. Starting from March 5th, Anton will be kicking off the weekend every Friday with Tyler from 6pm in the mix. He’ll also be hosting KISSTORY classics on the KISSTORY station every Saturday 1pm till 5pm followed by 5pm till 7pm on KISS. Hailing from Liverpool, Anton has achieved in excess of 250 million streams and sold over 1.5 million singles in the UK alone. He has played sets at festivals including Tomorrowland and Creamfields as well as being invited to play across the world from Ibiza to the USA and Australia...

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...