Radio News

Record listening figures for Greg James and Dotty on Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra

Latest Rajar data (Q2 2019, 1 April - 23 June 2019) shows Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra have drawn in more listeners each week. BBC Radio 1 had a weekly reach of 10.56 million listeners aged 10+, an increase from 10.18m last quarter and 10.25m last year. BBC Radio 1Xtra also saw increases this quarter, with 1.17 million weekly listeners (10+) up on 1.13m last quarter and 1.11m last year. Highest number of listeners for Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James as he adds a quarter of a million new listeners since he started last year...

RAJAR Q2 2019: London and national brands round-up

Zoe Ball has lost more than three quarters of a million listeners to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, according to the latest audience research from RAJAR. The show’s reach is down 781,000 quarter-on-quarter to 8.266m for the three months survey period up to the 23rd June 2019. In Q1/19 she had 9.047m listeners; in Q2/2018 Chris Evans reached 9.038m. Radio 2’s audience at breakfast is now the lowest its been since Q3/2010, when Evans was fairly new in the job.

Kate Lawler to replace Matt Richardson on Virgin Radio Drive

Virgin Radio is making a few changes to its weekday schedule as Matt Richardson leaves to focus on his comedy career. Afternoon presenter Kate Lawler is replacing Matt on Drive, with Tim Cocker moving up from evenings to take over Kate’s slot. Kate said: ”Virgin Radio has an amazing buzz about it. With the legend that is Chris Evans getting the nation to work from Monday to Friday, it’s an absolute privilege to be entrusted with getting them home again at the other end of the day. I’m soooo excited to be bringing more rock and roll to the radio at drivetime!”

Arielle Free to host weekend early breakfast at Radio 1

DJ and TV presenter Arielle Free is joining BBC Radio 1 permanently to host weekend early breakfast show starting on Friday 6th September. The show is brand new to BBC Radio 1 and will air before weekend breakfast with Matt and Mollie from Friday to Sunday. Adele Roberts will host the show Mondays to Thursdays. Arielle, who also presents podcast Love Island: The Morning After and Scrambled! on CITV as well as previously fronting BBC Scotland coverage of T in the Park. She has previously covered Early Breakfast and Radio 1’s Dance Anthems...

The week in radio: BBC 5 Live and LBC as the new PM was announced

Stanley Johnson confessed to feeling strange now his son was to be PM, while Iain Dale declared the UK irreconcilably divided. A man kept shouting. On and on, over and over, bellowing words we couldn’t quite make out. He’d go quiet for a while and then return, louder than ever, apoplectic with incoherent rage. Such was the jolly atmosphere at Westminster on Tuesday, the day Boris Johnson was confirmed as the new leader of the Conservative party. “What is that gentleman shouting, can you hear?” asked 5 Live’s Emma Barnett...

Gold returns to AM in Peterborough and Northampton

Gold is returning to AM in Peterborough and Northampton using the frequencies currently used by Smooth Radio. Ofcom has approved two format change requests, to change the Character of Services from an easy listening featuring lifestyle oriented speech, targeting an audience aged 50-plus to classic pop hits targeted primarily at 35-54 year-olds. The move means all programming on 1332AM in Peterborough and 1557AM in Northampton will be shared with all other AM stations in the Gold network in England, rather than the Smooth network.

Here’s how BBC Radio 1 played #HideAndSeek

BBC Radio 1’s latest game of Hide And Seek latest over 24 hours, with Greg James and Nick Grimshaw being found in Weston-super-Mere on Wednesday. Breakfast co-producer Chris Sawyer has tweeted an insightful thread about how it all came about, including information on how Greg put the answer to the question “Where are they” under the studio desk before he left on Tuesday morning. He explains about fake train tickets, pre-planned billboards, driving along a pier and planes flying too high.

Training officer gets show at BBC Radio Leicester

A theatre graduate, who works in workplace training, is joining BBC Radio Leicester to host a weekly show. Twenty-nine-year-old Aminata Kamara from Leicester will present The Vibe every Wednesday night, where she promises “a dash of drama, a hit of sauce and whole heap of realness!” In May BBC Radio Leicester held open auditions to find original talent to front the Wednesday night programme, aimed at African and Caribbean audiences, which will also be broadcast on Radio2Funky, Leicester’s only radio station dedicated to Black music and arts...

Nicky Morgan appointed new DCMS Secretary of State

Nicky Morgan, Chair of House of Commons Treasury Committee, has been appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, replacing Jeremy Wright. The Loughborough MP previously served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities (2014 – 16); Financial Secretary to the Treasury (2014); Minister for Women (2014); Economic Secretary to the Treasury (2013 – 14); an Assistant Government Whip (2012 – 13); and the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Rt Hon. David Willetts MP, Cabinet Minister for Universities and Science (2010 – 12)....

The Hide and Seek game is back at BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is playing another game of Hide and Seek with its listeners starting on Tuesday afternoon. Greg James, Nick Grimshaw, Maya Jama and Jordan North were all taken away from the studio around 8am, leaving Scott Mills and Adele Roberts in the studio to continue hosting the breakfast show, along with Clara Amfo. The station says Greg and Grimmy are on their way to a hiding place but the eventual place will not be hospitals, fire stations, police stations, or anywhere they’d cause a nuisance...