Radio News

The Young Audio Awards event has been postponed

The upcoming Young Audio Awards event at the BBC Radio Theatre has been postponed following the latest government advice on the coronavirus. The awards for young people in radio and audio was scheduled to take place on Match 27th in London. The ceremony would have been hosted by awards’ ambassadors Matt Edmondson and Mollie King from BBC Radio 1, and KISS FM’s Swarzy and Tyler West...

Smooth Extra and Heart extra replaced on Digital One

Global has closed Smooth Extra & Heart extra and replaced them with Smooth UK & Heart UK respectively. Smooth Extra joined the national DAB multiplex D1 at the end of 2014 and had a strapline of Your Refreshing Music Mix – making it slightly different from the main station playing Your Relaxing Music Mix. The ‘Extra’ tag made it distinguishable from Smooth stations around the UK, but carried mostly the same playlist and shared some programmes with Smooth London. Heart extra launched nationally at the same time and also carried some of the same programmes as Heart London including Breakfast...

UK radio stations start restricting guests and visitors

The BBC has implemented a new policy for all visitors to the BBC requiring visitors, guests and contributors to declare themselves fit before entering its buildings. The corporation is also taking preventative measures to allow more flexible or home working, and has increased the number of cleaners. A dedicated Coronavirus Support Line is launching today for staff and team leaders who might need advice. In the commercial sector, Global is limiting guests to its buildings, and trialing a remote working operation for a number of employees...

Roman Kemp and Greg James retain TRIC awards

Roman Kemp has retained the Radio Programme award for Capital Breakfast whilst Greg James is once again voted best Radio Personality at the TRIC Awards. It’s the second year in a row both radio presenters have won the same award – see last year’s article. Roman’s dad Martin Kemp surprised Roman for his award him by presenting it to him on stage. 5 Live’s The Peter Crouch Podcast won Best Podcast. Television & Radio Industries Club event was held the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Tuesday afternoon, which also handed out a number of awards for television programmes and personalities...

Sara Cox & Frankie Wells host equality podcast series

BBC Radio 2’s Sara Cox and podcaster Frankie Wells are the hosts of a new series of podcasts to celebrate International Women’s Day. Each for Equal, produced by PodcastWorks, brings together women from the worlds of journalism, business and entertainment; including Katie Thistleton, Mariam Khan, India Willoughby, Shola Kaye, and Helen Lederer. To celebrate International Women’s Day, each episode will focus on a particular issue, deemed most relevant by each guest, concerning female equality in 2020...

Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020 – Winners

The winners at the Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020 have been revealed at an event at the London Palladium. The BBC took home 17 awards including Emma Barnett for Best Speech Presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James for Best New Show, The 1Xtra Breakfast Show with Dotty forBest Music Breakfast Show and Elis James and John Robins for Funniest Show on BBC Radio 5 Live. Bauer Media radio brands were recognised on the night with Absolute Radio winning Gold for their coverage for Mental Health Awareness Week as well as their regional station Forth 1 who won Best Local Radio Show...

Emma Kenny replaces Anthea Turner at Scala Radio

Anthea Turner has left Scala Radio after less than a year on the station, with Emma Kenny joining to take over her co-presenting role on Sunday mornings. Emma is ITV This Morning’s resident psychologist and a regular contributor to Radio 1’s ‘Life Hacks’ as well as Closer magazine. She joins Chris Rogers on Scala’s Sunday 10am-1pm programme, which includes newspaper reviews, guests and classical music. The show is also now going to be produced by Fresh Start Media, which Chris is the Creative Director of. Bauer says Anthea Turner has left to focus on other personal projects. She joined Scala just after its launch, at the end of March last year...

Kat Shoob joins Magic for weekend evenings

Former Big Top 40 presenter Kat Shoob is joining Magic to host the Mellow Magic strand on weekend evenings. She’ll begin on the Bauer-owned station from this Sunday (1st March) in the 8pm to Midnight slot on both Saturdays and Sundays. The show will also be simulcast on digital station Mellow Magic. Kat co-hosted the commercial radio chart show for almost a decade until the end of 2018, when she also departed the weeknight slot on Heart. Prior to that she’d presented other network shows on Heart and also did evenings on Capital with Rich Clarke...

Greg James to write for Waitrose newspaper

BBC Radio 1 Breakfast presenter Greg James has signed up to be a regular columnist for the Waitrose & Partners Weekend newspaper. Greg, who co-wrote the children’s book series, Kid Normal, will have his first column published today in which he talks about his love of flan and why he is a fan of Waitrose. Other columnists for the magazine include BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine and Phillip Schofield. Ollie Rice, Editor-in-Chief of Waitrose Weekend says: ‘We’re delighted to welcome Greg to the Waitrose & Partners Weekend team. His positivity and wit will be'...

talkSPORT and BBC win at Sports Journalism Awards

BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, talkSPORT and a number of BBC local radio stations picked up awards at the Sports Journalism Awards in London this week. talkSPORT won the blue ribbon Network of the Year award with Jim White and Natalie Sawyer’s mid-morning show, White & Sawyer winning Best Radio Show/ Audio of the Year. The station’s Bloodgate documentary was highly commended with a silver accolade for its investigation into the rugby fake blood scandal following talkSPORT’s move into specialist documentaries this year...