Radio News

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...

BBC exec announces ‘ambitious plans’ for Radio 3

The BBC’s Director of Radio and Education, James Purnell, has announced what he called ‘ambitious plans’ for Radio 3 to help audiences develop a lifelong love of classical music. Speaking at the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) Conference in Manchester, he announced a collaboration with Sport Relief and a showcase of female creativity. “Beat Beethoven’ will see the composer’s music taken out of the concert hall and onto the running track, while “Seven Ages of Woman’ to mark International Women’s Day will see the world premiere broadcasts of work from seven composers, specially commissioned for Radio 3...

Manveen Rana joins The Times for daily podcast

BBC Radio 4 Today reporter and BBC News journalist Manveen Rana is joining The Times and Sunday Times to host a new daily podcast. News UK and Wireless Studios are working together on the new show, called The Stories of Our Times, which will be available each weekday at 6am. Times columnist David Aaronovitch will also be hosting the podcast once a week. Rana is joining from the BBC where she is an investigative reporter for Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC News, including Panorama and the News at Ten...

KISS and Radio 1 team up for the Young Audio Awards

Presenters Matt Edmondson and Mollie King from BBC Radio 1 and KISS FM’s Swarzy and Tyler West are joining forces for the Young Audio Awards 2020. The national presenters are ambassadors for the event which takes place on March 17th in London. There’s just one week left to submit entries for the competition, which celebrates radio and audio created by under-18s and school radio stations. KISS FM’s Swarzy, who presented an award last year, said: “I am so excited to be returning to the Young Audio Awards, this year as an Ambassador, after the thrill of 2019’s event where I got to meet so many talented future stars.”...