Radio News

Question: What does talkSPORT mean to you?

talkSPORT is celebrating 20 years of broadcasting today and has released a video asking the question: What does talkSPORT mean to you? You can see a number of presenters from the News UK owned station answer, with some memories about the station over the last two decades.

Zoe Ball launches 500 Words live from Liverpool

Zoe Ball was live in Liverpool today to launch the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show competition 500 Words. The children’s short-story writing competition also celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, since it was first created and launched by Chris Evans in 2011. The live final will take place at Buckingham Palace on Friday 12 June and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall once again returns as an Honorary Judge. The short-story writing competition for children aged five to 13 years old was declared open for entries by Zoe Ball this morning with a special outside broadcast of the Breakfast Show from Four Oaks Primary school in Liverpool where pupils joined her live on air...

Shortlist out for Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020

The shortlist for this year’s Radio Academy’s ARIAs have been announced at an event at News UK headquarters in London. Presenters getting nominated include Chris Evans, Greg James, Stephen Nolan, Zoe Ball and Frank Skinner. Bauer leads the Commercial Radio nominees with just over two dozen, whilst we count that News UK has around 15. Global isn’t mentioned due to not submitting any entries once again this year. The rest of the shortlist includes newspapers, independent podcasts, independent producers and presenters, along with a few local radio stations including...

BBC Radio to close more medium wave transmitters

The BBC says it is closing a further 18 medium wave transmitters across England, Scotland and Wales in the next stage of its plan to cut costs. Services being closed range from BBC Radio Solent’s two AM frequencies on the South Coast to BBC Radio Scotland’s service in Aberdeen. Six more BBC Local Radio services will no longer be transmitted on AM – they are Three Counties Radio (630 and 1161 kHz), BBC Radio Merseyside (1485 KHz), BBC Radio Newcastle (1458 KHz), BBC Radio Solent and BBC Radio Solent (for Dorset) 999 and 1359 KHz, BBC Radio Cornwall (630 and 657 kHz) and BBC Radio York (1260 KHz)...

Who’s speaking at Radiodays Europe 2020 in Lisbon?

The latest speakers have been announced for Radiodays Europe 2020 and include people from the BBC, Global, and independent radio stations. They join James Purnell, Director Radio & Education, BBC who has already signed up for a leading session at the event in Lisbon this March. Some of the speakers announced so far include: George Mullen – Audience Research manager, Radio 4 & BBC Sounds Podcasts; Chris Stevens – Chris Country; Mukul Devichand – Executive Editor of Voice & AI at the BBC; Siobhan McMenemy – Audience Research Manager, Youth Radio Networks at the BBC; George Mullen – Audience Research Manager, Radio 4 podcasts and BBC Sounds...

Steve Lamacq goes on tour with BBC Radio 6 Music

Steve Lamacq is taking his BBC Radio 6 Music show to five UK cities during Independent Venue Week 2020. The programme will be live from a tour bus in Newcastle, Sheffield, Cardiff, Exeter and Brixton, and Steve will be welcoming Mercury Prize-nominated Anna Calvi, Nadine Shah and Gruff Rhys, and Self Esteem and Frank Turner on his show from Monday 27 to Friday 31 January. Also appearing on the show are venue owners, movers and shakers and music fans, talking about the importance of independent venues in supporting new, emerging and more established artists and for local audiences too...

New direction for the sound of BBC Local Radio

All BBC local radio stations are getting a different sound for 2020 with a new jingle and imaging package from ReelWorld Europe. The first station to broadcast the new sound was the first BBC local radio station – BBC Radio Leicester – on Monday 6th January. A new strapline has been created “The Sound of [area] and all the music you love” along with an updated six-note logo. The previous network-wide package, produced by Mcasso, also featured a six-note logo, with listeners left to work out the words to match...

Jenni Falconer moves from Heart to Smooth Radio

Jenni Falconer joining Smooth Radio to present the breakfast show in London and nationwide on Smooth Extra after leaving Heart last year. She takes over from Gary King, who will present Smooth’s new, national early breakfast show from Monday to Friday, as well as continuing to host Saturday afternoons across the network. Angie Greaves, who joined Smooth last September to host the brand-new nationwide Smooth Drive Home, will present a new three-hour Sunday morning show. The Smooth Sanctuary at Seven will now run seven days a week till 10pm hosted by Gary Vincent from Sunday to Friday and Tina Hobley every Saturday...

Opinion: RadioToday industry predictions for 2020

One thing is for sure – radio is changing at an incredible pace. Keeping up with emerging products and making full use of smart technology is key. But whilst the art of ‘input’ is changing, the ‘output’ has remained fairly static for many decades. Listeners can still hear a friendly voice on the radio at all hours of the day – the major difference is where the voice is located and when they were recorded. But let’s dig deeper down into the industry and see what 2020 might bring...

Radio broadcasting into the new decade

Opinion: Michael Walbach, CEO, Central Media Group, writes about radio broadcasting into the new decade. “The media landscape may be in near-constant flux, but radio remains one of the most effective ways to reach an audience. In a time when the power of telling your own stories and news directly to audiences has arguably never been more important, radio’s reach and ability to engage not just one person but potentially whole offices of individuals at once is unparalleled. It can bring people together, and its often easy to overlook its amazing diversity of channels that speaks to very specific audiences."...