Radio News

Nominations for the 2020 IRN Awards revealed

The nominations for the 2020 IRN Awards have been announced by Sky News presenter Kay Burley. There are 12 categories including the Student Journalist of the Year prize which is supported by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council. The awards event itself will take place at Sky Cinema in west London on Thursday 26th March 2020, also hosted by Kay. IRN Editor and Chair of Judges, Dave Terris said: This is a stellar list of nominations representing the gold standard in commercial radio news and sport...

BBC Radio 3 announces star-studded dramas including a never before produced Anthony Burgess script starring Christopher Eccleston

The new audio dramas will feature leading voices in British theatre and television including David Suchet, Maxine Peake, Christopher Eccleston and Toby Jones, and award-winning 20th century writers, thinkers and playwrights including Roy Williams OBE. The forthcoming commissions tackle bold issues ranging from a women’s journey joining an all-female militia in Northern Syria, to Shakespeare’s play Othello staged in a contemporary world and a drama following the social history of a Notting Hill neighbourhood and location of the Grenfell Tower fire, Notting Dale, told through the eyes of one family...

Capital’s Summertime Ball moves to Tottenham

Capital’s Summertime Ball is moving from its previous home at the Wembley Arena to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2020. The date has also been announced today by Global, as Saturday 6th June. The largest football club stadium in London has been created as a home for both sport and entertainment, and is also one of the most technologically advanced in existence, with fully cashless payment systems, high-density Wi-Fi and 100% mobile coverage...

RAJAR Q4 2019: New record for digital radio listening

Digital listening share has increased by 11% to a new record of 58.5%, up from 52.6% in Q4 2018 in the latest figures for Q4 2019. They were boosted by the launch of new national commercial digital stations, and the growth of listening online via smart speakers in home and DAB listening in car. Overall digital listening grew by 43.4 million hours or 8% year on year. Listening via online and apps grew by 28.5 million hours (or by 30%) to now account for 12.5% of all listening and 21.5% of digital listening...

RAJAR Q4 2019: London and national brands round-up

Coverage of the general election helped 5 Live, Radio 4 and LBC each add half a million listeners across 2019. 5 Live is up from 4.9m to 5.4m in the Q4/2019 RAJAR listening figures, while Radio 4 has added a similar amount, rising from 10.4m a year ago to 10.9m now. LBC, including new digital station LBC News, posts a record high of 2.7m listeners (up more than half a million year on year), while talkRADIO is up more than 40% from 12 months ago to now have 433,000 listeners a week – another record high for the Wireless station...

RAJAR Q4 2019: Regional and local radio facts and figures

The big stories from around the regions this quarter include Capital Scotland shedding 104,000 listeners, whilst Hits Radio and Greatest Hits Radio increased listeners in the North of England. Global brands - The majority of regional and local Capital stations are down – including Capital Scotland which falls from 513,000 to 409,000 weekly reach, Capital South Wales going from 213,000 to 180,000, Manchester down from 493,000 to 437,000 and Yorkshire down to its lowest figure of 849,000. Recently acquired and...

Louise Cooper and Mickey Clarke to leave 5 Live

Sean Farrington will be the sole presenter of Wake Up To Money from March as BBC Radio 5 Live confirms Louise Cooper and Mickey Clarke are leaving. The changes are part of the ongoing BBC cuts, which also includes the end of Mornings Reports, as revealed by RadioToday last week. A BBC spokesperson told us: “Louise and Mickey are brilliant journalists who will be missed by listeners and colleagues alike. Mickey has been at the station since it started in 1994 and is a 5 Live legend...

Bauer no longer has to sell Wolverhampton licence

The CMA has published additional findings in its investigation into Bauer owning the Wolverhampton licence for Signal 107. It now says there is no problem with Bauer keeping the service, having revised its view to provisionally conclude that no SLC has occurred or may be expected to occur in the supply of local radio advertising in the Wolverhampton area. With the SLC – or substantial lessening of competition – no longer being an issue, it means Bauer can keep 100% of the radio licences it bought 12 months ago...

Duncan Leven to leave Radio Clyde after 26 years

Bauer Media’s Content Controller for the Greatest Hits Network in Scotland, Duncan Leven, is leaving the company next week after more than 26 years at Radio Clyde. The team at Clydebank in Glasgow was told earlier today that Duncan has decided the ‘time is right to look for some new challenges’. He’s been at Clyde since 1993 and has had a variety of roles both on and off air at the station and subsequently with Clyde 2 and the other Greatest Hits stations in Scotland...

Downtown Radio moves country music off FM

A new evening show is launching on Downtown Radio’s FM frequencies next month with Kirstie McMurray. At the moment, Big T hosts Classic Country on both Downtown Radio and Downtown Country. But starting in March, former Cool FM and Downtown Radio breakfast presenter Kirstie McMurray, who currently hosts breakfast on Downtown Country, will be on-air 7pm till 10pm on Downtown Radio’s FM service...