Radio News

DJ Spoony to present Classical Garage on Scala Radio

Former Radio 1, 5 Live and Kiss presenter DJ Spoony is joining Bauer’s classical station Scala Radio to present a four-part series. Spoony’s Classical Garage will start on 9th June in the Sunday 1-3pm slot on the station and will be repeated on Tuesday evenings. Bauer says the show will ‘explore the trailblazing DJ’s passions for classical music in Sport, Film and TV as he plays an eclectic range of artists including Beethoven, Wookie, Vivaldi and Twister’. He’ll also play exclusive previews of his upcoming studio album...

George Galloway sacked by talkRADIO over Israel tweet

talkRADIO has terminated George Galloway’s contract following his tweet at the weekend after Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League final. Not long after the final whistle on Saturday night, Mr Galloway wrote: “Congratulations to the great people of Liverpool to the memory of the socialist miner Bill Shankley to the fallen 96 to those who fought justice for them and to the Liverpool dockers. No Israel flags on the Cup!”

Emma B to replace Angie Greaves on Magic afternoon show

Former Radio 1, Heart and Smooth presenter Emma B is taking over the afternoon slot on Magic next month as Angie Greaves heads to Smooth. Emma is currently on the weekend schedule on the Bauer station, but will move to weekdays 2-5pm from 1st July. She told RadioToday: “I am so totally thrilled to be presenting Magic Radio Afternoons. The station has been a dream to work on whether chatting on-air with the listeners, playing out their favourite tracks or getting out and about hosting the stage at"...

Gethin, Gemma and Dave exit Hits Radio Breakfast Show

Breakfast presenters Gethin Jones and Dave Vitty, plus afternoon presenter Debbie Mac, are leaving the station, whilst Gemma Atkinson will move to Drive. The major changes come just 12 months since the station launched amid much fanfare with a large marketing campaign and almost national coverage on DAB. Gemma will co-host with Wes Butters when she returns from maternity but in the meantime, Wes will move to breakfast to present with Dave Vitty and former Emmerdale actress Sherree Murphy.

LBC puts Tory leadership candidates on-air with Iain Dale

Conservative Party leadership candidates will each go head-to-head with LBC’s Iain Dale in a series of one-hour programmes next month. In the race to be the next Prime Minister, the candidates will be live during Iain Dale in the Evening, starting with Rory Stewart, the Secretary of State for International Development and the MP for Penrith and The Border, on Monday 10th June.

Smooth Radio poaches Angie Greaves for national Drive

Smooth Radio is changing tactics and keeping its regional breakfast shows, as Magic’s Angie Greaves joins Global to present a national drivetime show. The UK’s biggest radio group had planned to network everything except the 4-7pm slot on Smooth as it has done with Capital – and is about to with Heart, which launches its national breakfast show next week. But now Global says breakfast shows on Smooth will be locally-produced as the drive show goes national instead.

James Cridland’s International Radio Trends: Where should a radio station be? And RAJAR Q1 2019

James Cridland, radio futurologist, is a conference speaker, writer and consultant. He runs the media information website media.info and helps organise the yearly Next Radio conference. He also publishes podnews.net, a daily briefing on podcasting and on-demand, and writes a weekly international radio trends newsletter, at james.crid.land.

Tina Hobley leaves Smooth Radio’s London drive show

Smooth Radio’s drivetime presenter in London, Tina Hobley, is leaving the show after two and a half years but will keep her weekend slot. The former Coronation Street and Holby City actor joined the station in 2013, and added the weekday 4-7pm programme in the capital in January 2017 when she replaced Anthony Davis. Global has told RadioToday she’s leaving the daily show in mid-July to spend more time with her children, but will remain on the Sunday 10am-2pm slot across the Smooth network.

Tony Dibbin leaves Gold ahead of upcoming station changes

Gold’s breakfast show presenter Tony Dibbin is leaving the station after 10 years on the programme. Staff were told of the changes today and Tony will host his last show on Friday morning (24th May). Weekend presenter David Andrews will cover the show ‘for the next few weeks’ ahead of further changes expected to be announced by Global.

Extra Welsh programmes and presenters for Capital Cymru

Capital Cymru is dropping networked programmes in favour of providing more Welsh programmes and presenters. The weekday line-up from tomorrow, Thursday 23rd May, includes Alistair James (current breakfast presenter) on from 6am till 10am. He’ll be followed by a new Welsh mid-morning show from 10am with Dafydd Griffith, before Kev Bach’s 2pm – 7pm weekday show. Kev was previously on-air for six hours weekdays from 1pm till 7pm.