Radio News

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...

Bauer to launch Magic at the Musicals on DAB+

Bauer is launching another new radio station from Golden Square, this time playing music from musicals. Magic at the Musicals will be available on DAB+ in and around London from Thursday 21st November with presenters including Ruthie Henshall (Chicago, Cats) and Jonathan Bailey (Broadchurch, Doctor Who, W1A, Company) The schedule will also include Louise Dearman (Wicked) John Owen-Jones (The Phantom of the Opera), alongside Julian Bird (CEO of SOLT and UK Theatre) and special shows from Luke Evans (film: Beauty and the Beast, Clash of the Titans; Stage: Rent, Miss Saigon), Alfie Boe (Les Miserables) and others.

Kenneth Branagh returns to Radio 4 in Stalingrad

Kenneth Branagh, Greta Scacchi, Mark Bonnar, Ann Mitchell, Doon Mackichan, Kenneth Cranham and more star in a dark and honest account of the epic battle of Stalingrad by celebrated war reporter and author, Vasily Grossman. Two part drama based on war reporter Vasily Grossman’s account also stars Greta Scacchi and Mark Bonnar. Anton Lesser reads Grossman’s private journal - translated into English for the first time - in a Book Of The Week special. Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, Stalingrad is a prequel to Grossman’s novel Life And Fate which was adapted by Radio 4 in 2011 and featuring many of the same acclaimed cast.

Kemp, Garraway, Roberts and Wright rumoured for I’m A Celeb

Radio presenters Roman Kemp, Kate Garraway, Adele Roberts and Ian Wright are being tipped to appear on this year’s series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, which starts next weekend. The Sun lists the four as part of it’s rumoured line-up for the ITV reality show. Roman was on air on his Capital breakfast show with Vick Hope and Sonny Jay yesterday (Friday) as normal, but next week’s schedule lists Rob Howard and Lauren Layfield as covering breakfast across the UK...

Student Radio Award winners to host BBC Radio 1 shows

A number of winners from the Student Radio Awards 2019 will be hosting their own programmes on BBC Radio 1 next month. The winners of the Best Student Radio Chart Show will be hosting the Official Top 40 between Christmas and the New Year, as announced by Scott Mills whilst giving out the award to URY. Also, some of the winners from Station of the Year Smoke Radio will also get their own shows over Christmas. The special shows are in addition to the 20+ people who will be chosen from a previous initiative to put more local and community radio presenters on the network.

Nominations out for BBC Local Radio’s Gillard Awards 2020

The shortlist is out for the annual BBC Local Radio awards event, the Gillards. The awards will be announced and handed out at a ceremony in Sheffield on February 5th 2020. Last year, Radio Sheffield won the most Gold awards, taking home three in total. Kat Harbourne and Jenny Eells won Best Presenter for their Naked Podcast, Toby Foster won Best Breakfast, and the whole team won Station of the Year. Here’s the full list: ...