Radio News

Paul Gambaccini to host radio series on Absolute 80s

Absolute 80s is to broadcast a new series of programmes hosted by Paul Gambaccini to celebrate the station’s 10th birthday. £80,000 will also be up for grabs in a competition run by Dave Berry on the Breakfast Show. The four-part series with Gambo, called Tribes, will look at the sub-cultures that defined the decade, their cultural impact and how that still resonates today. Broadcast at 7pm from Monday 2nd December – Thursday 5th December, the series will see Paul taking a look at the musical icons of the era, and how their impact shaped popular culture...

£850,000 raised at Global’s Make Some Noise gala

A number of presenters from Global’s radio brands hosted the Make Some Noise annual charity gala at London’s Finsbury Square on Monday. The event raised £850,000 for charity, as music artists including Robbie Williams, Tom Walker and Freya Ridings took to the stage to perform live in front of almost 500 special guests. Global united all its radio brands for the event – Heart, Capital, Smooth, Classic FM, LBC, Radio X, Capital XTRA and Gold – to help children and young people living with illness, disability or lack of opportunity.

Aled Jones and Russell Watson switch on Smooth’s Christmas Lights

Aled Jones and Russell Watson joined Smooth North West breakfast presenter Darren Parks to switch on the studio’s Christmas lights. Over 2000 lights were turned on as the duo talked about taking part in the station’s Carols on the Cobbles event with Coronation Street: The Tour. Speaking to Darren Parks, Aled said: “I’m very excited to be singing on the cobbles. I found out that Chesney had named his baby Aled after it was born in a cable car above the Great Orme in Llandudno because he was Walking in the Air!”

Breakfast show presenters announced at BBC Radio Solent

Alun Newman and Louisa Hannan are taking over the breakfast show from Julian Clegg on BBC Radio Solent. Alun and Lou currently present the mid-morning show on the station and are moving to the new slot in the new year along with producer Warren Hayden. Earlier this year Julian announced he would retire at the end of the year and present his last show on 5th December – his 60th birthday. Managing Editor Sarah Miller told RadioToday: “Replacing someone like Julian after 23 years in the role was always going to be a challenge. Alun and Lou are well known and loved by our listeners, and this has grown since they came together as ‘radio’s newest couple’ on mid-morning”.

Magic to switch to all-Christmas music again this year

Bauer has announced its main Magic station will be flipping to 100% Christmas music from Monday 25th November. Magic 100% Christmas was announced at The London Palladium this afternoon (Sunday), at a special event hosted by the station. Robbie Williams will officially launch the festive move, ‘pressing the button’ in the studio at 9am Monday with regular Breakfast presenter Harriet Scott and guest host Rick Astley. Magic of Christmas saw performances by Robbie, Will Young, Simply Red, Jack Savoretti and Beverley Knight, and Harriet Scott was joined on hosting duties by Martin and Shirlie Kemp, who also performed a festive song for the sold-out audience...

Greta Thunberg to guest edit BBC Radio 4's Today programme

The Swedish activist will interview leading figures in the fight against global heating - Greta Thunberg is to swap leading the global fight against the climate crisis for the more stressful experience of directing a group of high-profile BBC presenters, after being announced as one of this year’s guest editors for Radio 4’s Today programme. The environmental activist will take control of an episode of the BBC’s flagship radio news programme at the end of this year, speaking to leading figures in the fight against global heating and hearing from indigenous, frontline activists...

Joel Ross joins Bauer to co-host Rock FM Breakfast

Former Heart North West Breakfast host Joel Ross is moving to Rock FM to present the breakfast show with Janine Marsh. Janine currently hosts the show with her husband Steve Marsh, but this show will come to an end on Friday 6th December 2019 as Steve leaves the station and Janine takes time off to have a baby. A new show with Joel and Janine will start next year when Janine returns from maternity leave. Joel Ross, who has previously worked at Virgin, Key 103 and Radio 1, was most recently on Heart North West with Lorna Bancroft, before...

It was Capital v BBC Radio 1 in the Celebrity Jungle

Capital’s Roman Kemp and BBC Radio 1’s Adele Roberts got their just desserts on I’m A Celebrity last night when they took part in their first bush tucker trial. OnTheRadio reports the pair had both been nominated by the public to do the trial called Just Desserts, which involved eating all sorts of nasty things. It seems Roman’s dad Martin voted for his son’s nomination as he tweeted: “Just voted for my boy to eat kangaroo bo***cks..That’ll show him!!” ...

Bauer to launch Absolute Radio 10s online

Dave Berry has just announced the launch of a new station from the Absolute Radio family, featuring music from the 2010s. Absolute Radio 10s joins 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and Absolute Classic Rock, and will also carry the Dave Berry Breakfast Show, Bush and Richie at Hometime and Frank Skinner and Jason Manford at the weekend. Bauer says the station will not be on DAB, instead forming part of its “digital innovation product strategy” by going online only...

BBC Radio 2 listeners raise £2,005,827 for Children In Need in 2019

BBC Radio 2 has so far raised an incredible £2,005,827 in aid of this year’s BBC Children in Need, with a range of fundraising events, competitions and - new for this year - an epic 24 hour karaoke challenge, completed by Radio 2 presenter, Rylan Clark-Neal. The Great Ka-RY-oke Challenge saw Rylan sing karaoke for 24 hours non-stop, from 9.15am on Tuesday 12 November to 9.15am on Wednesday 13 November and raise a staggering £1,086,261 for BBC Children in Need. Rylan belted out 236 classic karaoke numbers over the course of the day and...