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Autumn scheduling plans on BBC Radio 3

2019-03-14T13:45:00+00:00

Today we’ve put out to tender a number of programmes for Radio 3 beginning in the Autumn. The eagle-eyed among you will see that these imply some changes to the overall shape of the schedule.

Some of the changes are brought on by opportunity and creative renewal - and some as a result of us having to play our part in finding the £800m of savings the BBC needs to make by 2021/22. In making changes we have tried to enhance the distinctive nature of the network, and to make sure we continue to offer a rich mix of music and culture to existing and future audiences. It’s what makes the network the great thing it is.

In every tweak I’ve made to the schedule since I’ve been controller, I have sought to provide clarity to the breadth of the genres and to celebrate the unique combination of things we do, making sure the brilliant parts of BBC Radio 3 work together to make sense of the whole. BBC Radio 3 is proud to connect audiences with the human achievements of music and culture of the past, the present, and the future. It remains the most distinctive cultural music radio station anywhere in the world.

From Monday to Wednesday in our After Dark zone we will establish a new classical music programme designed for late night listening. In addition to the new After Dark classical programme, Unclassified presented by Elizabeth Alker, will become a permanent strand Thursday evenings from 11.30pm-12.30am. The show explores a range of music that can be called neo classical and ambient but which remain rather hard to classify, as the name suggests. We’ve had a really positive response since we aired the initial short series and I’m delighted the programme will now have a more permanent home.

On Fridays, Late Junction, a programme that explores the experimental boundaries of music, will move to a single two hour programme in a key slot on Friday evening, to kick start BBC Radio 3’s weekend for listeners. It will run from 11pm-1am. Jazz will continue to be well represented through Jazz Record Requests, J to Z, and on BBC Sounds which will bring together the best of Jazz performances and programmes from across the BBC. We will be resting Jazz Now and Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz. Music Planet will move from its Friday evening slot in turn, to Saturday nights from midnight-1am. We will also be making use of our unique partnership with The European Broadcasting Union to expand the Sunday night In Concert programme by 30 minutes, bringing listeners more of the very best of European music-making.

These plans are designed to ensure we remain distinctive. BBC Radio 3 must always be a place to be stimulated by everything from core classical to ambient and neo-classical, world to jazz, sound art to electronica, not forgetting Slow Radio, as well as a breadth of arts content from dramas to topical arts, documentaries and poetry, a place to escape the frenzy of the everyday.

Come and dive into the world of Radio 3.

The Voice of a Nation: Colin Paterson on BBC Radio Wales at 40

2018-10-23T08:19:31+00:00

This is a big year for BBC Radio Wales. On 13 November, we celebrate the station’s 40th birthday, and this has given us an opportunity to listen to our audiences, reflect on what the station means to them, and to redefine the way we communicate with them.

On-air, that has given us the opportunity to celebrate with some special one-off events. During our birthday week in November, we’ll be taking to the roads on our 40th birthday celebration bus to meet as many listeners as we can in communities the length of breadth of Wales. We’ll also be broadcasting a number of special celebratory programmes and the centrepiece to our celebration will be a night of music and comedy at Swansea’s Grand Theatre, hosted by Owen Money.

But there are also some big changes happening off-air as we extend BBC Radio Wales’ reach on FM further than ever before. Over the years, audiences have told us that they are often frustrated by some BBC Radio Wales FM blackspots. By the end of the month we will have extended FM coverage to an additional 400,000 people across Wales, and around 550 additional miles of road. Areas set to benefit from the boost to Radio Wales on FM include Welshpool, Llandrindod Wells, Ruthin, Brecon and the A55 and A470 road networks as we bring the area of Wales where Radio Wales is available on FM up from 79% to 91%.

Changes will impact on some BBC Radio 3’s listeners who may have to retune or access Radio 3 digitally in order to continue to access the station.

Also in November, BBC Radio Wales will be part of the launch of BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds is our brand new audio app and website, bringing together live and on-demand radio, music and podcasts into a single personalised app. Your BBC Sounds app will be completely unique to you, as it’s designed to learn from your listening habits. Along with the FM reception extension, BBC Sounds is another exciting development, making it easier to access BBC Radio Wales and other BBC services.

As a national broadcaster, BBC Radio Wales has an important role to play in giving a voice and a platform to the people of Wales. As we celebrate our 40th birthday, we will continue to listen to our audiences and implement the changes that they want to see. And I’m pleased that as we celebrate our birthday, we have been able to make changes that if you’re at home or in the car, more listeners than ever can tune in to enjoy the unique mix of entertainment, music and sport Radio Wales has to offer.

'If Europe's ports are underwater, Brexit may seem less important': we're expanding climate change coverage

2018-09-27T09:50:00+00:00

From 3 October The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 and Newshour on BBC World Service will be covering climate change every week.

The BBC’s been reporting for a long time that climate change is not some distant issue whose effects that will only be felt by our grandchildren.

Temperature rises are affecting crops, changing the rainforests, and putting massive amounts of extra energy into the world’s weather systems. Rising temperatures are pushing malaria into parts of Africa that have never had the disease.

The increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has made the oceans more acidic, so much so that we can actually observe the shells of tiny snails being dissolved by the water, threatening the entire marine food chain.

While the BBC has been consistently covering all of this, and investing heavily in specialist correspondents, climate change doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.

One reason for this is the way daily news programmes tend to work. We’re very good at covering the events of the day. The problem, which all editors and news organisations face, is that some of the most important things happening in the world aren’t always events.

They’re often a process, a trend, a gradual change. They don’t always compete well against daily news events that feel more urgent – explosions, elections, Presidential tweets.

So to make sure climate change doesn’t get crowded out, we’re committing ourselves and our programmes to covering it at least once week.

However, we’re not intending to give you a weekly update on Doomsday.

Mitigating climate change, and adapting to the consequences of what we’ve already done to the atmosphere, is driving huge changes in technology, business, and increasingly, politics.

Our first edition will come from Norway, a country that’s grown rich on fossil fuels, but now hoping to become Europe’s renewable energy “battery.”

We’ve also signed up some climate change diarists from around the world: people on the front line of a changing planet who will keep us posted on what they see around them, from the polar ice caps, to the Amazon, to the Pacific islands, via the Scottish Highlands.

Rest assured – we’ll still cover the daily news. It’s just that if climate change leaves Europe’s ports underwater, Brexit may seem a bit less important.

Delivering a vibrant future for UK radio

2018-09-25T08:24:32+00:00

Last week Tony Hall talked about an ’agile, creative, bold’ future for the BBC, including its online services, ‘made available and relevant to everyone’. Today the radio industry meets in central London for the Drive to Digital conference looking at the future of radio.

I also spoke to the Digital TV Group (DTG) earlier this year, outlining how the BBC could take a lead in creating an IP future that works for all.

In that speech I noted that a move to an internet future wouldn’t happen overnight, and nor would we want it to. The BBC remains committed to the broadcast technologies that have been central to our direct, unmediated and intimate relationships with audiences.

While IP technologies will be increasingly important in all sectors, some industries and audiences will move faster than others. Our challenge is to manage this transitional period as effectively as possible.

Radio was the BBC’s first platform for communicating with audiences, and although the world has changed dramatically since our first broadcast in 1922, the ability of live radio to inform, educate and entertain has remained constant. Today 89% of the UK population listen to live radio weekly, whether that is to the BBC or to the UK’s thriving commercial radio sector. What’s more, 91% of that listening is still delivered via broadcast technologies.

We recently reached a milestone in radio consumption: in 2018 so far, 50% of radio listening has been delivered by digital for the first time, inclusive of both IP and DAB. This was one of the criteria set by the government for reviewing whether there should be a digital radio switchover.

It is right that we take this moment to reflect on the future for radio, the success of DAB - which now makes up 36% of the UK’s radio listening - and how we best guarantee the next generation of radio listeners.

DAB, analogue and IP radio all provide significant national value. The BBC believes that in today’s environment, the best way to deliver universality, value for money and to appeal to radio listeners of the future is not to set a date for analogue closure, but to maintain a mixed economy of these valuable platforms.

In doing this we should also explore how we can accelerate digital take up, while protecting the radio industry and audiences from the damaging effects of switching off analogue radio.

First, we need to build up digital radio listening amongst younger audiences who are rapidly adopting IP streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. In the last year alone listening to on-demand music services amongst 15-24 year olds has increased by 50%.

But many younger audiences rely on FM services, so removing them would risk losing more young audiences to non-UK streaming services.

Second, we must see the growth in IP listening not just a competitive threat but as a huge opportunity for the UK radio sector to innovate further and faster, offering greater discovery, services and functionality to audiences. The BBC will invest in IP technology and services to support the future of a vibrant radio industry.

The BBC has always been an investor, supporter and leader in DAB radio. We’ve been integral to founding, funding and implementing the rollout of DAB over the last twenty years and have invested millions in DAB distribution.

We’ve also launched compelling new services such as 6Music, the UK’s largest digital-only radio station, to expand audience choice.

At the same time the commercial sector has launched their own digital-only services and seen record revenues. The value that DAB provides to the industry, audiences, and the BBC is clear which is why we have commitments to fund DAB that extend beyond the current charter period.

Analogue radio, strongly driven by FM, remains the UK’s most popular, universal and reliable method of listening to radio. It accounts for 50% of time spent listening to radio in the UK, and is used by 70% of the population.

For 30% of all radio audiences it is the only way in which they consume radio today. In the event of a switchover many audiences would make the transition to digital, but we know a substantial proportion would not. We have seen radio consumption in Norway drop by over 10% in 2018 after last year’s analogue switch off, and it has yet to significantly recover.

Switching off FM radio in the UK when it is still the most popular form of listening, and the most resilient of all our communication networks, would raise similar risks.

At the beginning of this year we closed AM services where we saw declining relevance and usage, and may well continue to do this across our AM estate over the next few years. This exit from AM services, which provide significantly less audience benefit than FM, is a natural market evolution, with the same strategies being undertaken by commercial radio players.

The BBC supports a digital radio future and, in line with its Charter Agreement obligations, the transition to get there. But it must be the right digital future that does not remove platforms that provide significant audience, industry and national value.

We believe that the radio industry should focus on providing compelling digital radio services and devices that convince audiences increasingly to adopt digital radio. To this end the BBC is looking to work with industry partners to launch new digital services - such as BBC Sounds, which you’ll hear more about soon - to help secure the next generation of radio listeners.

We passionately believe in a universally accessible digital radio future. We want one that strengthens radio, not weakens it. We want one that draws younger audiences to radio, not one which pushes them away.

We look forward to working with Government, industry, and audiences, to ensure that together we deliver a vibrant future for UK radio.

Serving everyone, rather than being everything to everyone

2018-07-24T13:00:00+00:00

Greg James and Nick Grimshaw

Ofcom published a report last week about UK media consumption.

It tells a now familiar tale of the continued rise of on demand digital, especially among the young, accelerated by powerful internet companies.

If you take audiences as a whole most of their time spent watching and listening is to broadcast TV (71%) and live radio (75%).

For 15-24s the figures are 46% for TV and 36% for radio.

What should traditional broadcasters do to remain relevant to all audiences and especially younger ones?

Announcing the report, Ofcom Chief Exec Sharon White said UK broadcasters “have a history of adapting to change. By making the best British programmes and working together to reach people who are turning away from TV, our broadcasters can compete in the digital age.”

That’s true. The British creative industries need to collaborate to compete.

Netflix was described in the FT last week: "[Netflix] doesn't want to be a leader in video, or even the leader in video - it wants to monopolise the consumption of video; to become TV."

Monopolisation plays no part in the BBC’s mission. We’re proud that the iPlayer helped create the video-on-demand market - with space for other PSBs to have their own players.

We do want to serve everyone – the BBC is owned by all of us so we feel a moral duty to do that. A lot of that’s about entertainment (which has always been part of our mission).

Radio One’s Greg James and Grimmy hit the spot with their inspired game of hide and seek last week. As schools broke up it was an end of term prank that perfectly captured the mood of its audience.

But we’re matching other teenage mindsets and needs in really distinctive ways too. We’re commissioning a range of new content for 13-15 year olds which offers insights into teenage lives, gives them a platform to express their thoughts on sex education, relationships and parents.

We’re expanding BBC Bitesize beyond exam revision into helping students with career orientation or emotional skills like resilience.

And we’ve launched BBC iReporter, an online interactive game to help young people in the UK identify ‘fake news.’

That’s how we can serve everyone without being a monopoly – by making a difference. A difference to your day – with that show or prank that makes your day. A difference to you as an individual, whether by helping you pass your exams or discovering a lifelong passion for classical music. Or a difference to society by combating fake news or disinformation.

BBC Soundstart 2018 - the Carleton Hobbs Bursary & Norman Beaton Fellowship

2018-07-19T13:30:00+00:00

BBC (((soundstart))) Carleton Hobbs Bursary & Norman Beaton Fellowship winners 2018

Winners of BBC Radio Drama’s (((soundstart))) 2018 awards were celebrated at a ceremony on Wednesday 20 June at BBC Broadcasting House in London with Radio Drama veteran Adrian Scarborough as guest speaker with ALison Hindell, Head of Audio Drama hosting. Among the attendees were judges actor Jason Barnett and agent Geoff Stanton.

(((soundstart))) comprises two important awards: The BBC Norman Beaton Fellowship and BBC Carleton Hobbs Bursary, both exist to bring new voices into radio drama.

The Carleton Hobbs Bursaries are aimed at students graduating from regular (or post-graduate) courses run by accredited drama schools across the country, : ALRA, Arts Educational Schools, Birmingham School of Acting, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Central School of Speech and Drama, Drama Studio London, Drama Centre, East 15, Guildford School of Acting, Guildhall, Italia Conti Academy, LAMDA, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), Manchester School of Theatre, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, The Oxford School of Drama, RADA, Rose Bruford College, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

The Norman Beaton Fellowship is for applicants from non-traditional training backgrounds, and run in partnership with a range of theatres across the UK to source the winners. This year's theatres were: Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Freedom Studios, Bradford, Kabosh Theatre, Belfast, Kneehigh Theatre in collaboration with Hall for Cornwall, National Youth Theatre Rep, London, Talawa, London, Tamasha, London, Theatr Clwyd, Mold and Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.

The winners of both the Bursary and the Fellowship are each given a five-month contract with the Radio Drama Company, beginning on the 21 July 2018.

Adrian Scarborough and Alison Hindell at the BBC (((soundstart))) Awards 2018

Five 2018 Carleton Hobbs bursaries have been awarded to:

ALEXANDRA CONSTANTINIDI (East 15)
LUCY DOYLE (RADA)
SAFFRON COOMBER (RADA)
CAMERON PERCIVAL (Italia Conti)
LIAM LAU FERNANDEZ (Drama Centre London)

Four finalists receive runners-up awards - and each of them will be cast as a freelance actor in one of our autumn/winter productions:

ALEXANDRA MEYRICK (Italia Conti)
ANNABEL FACER (Oxford School of Drama)
FRANCHI WEBB (Royal Welsh College of Speech & Drama)
KATE DONNACHIE (Italia Conti)

Chaired by Mary Peate, Producer Radio Drama, the judges comprised Peter Kavanagh, Malcolm Browning, Adrian Scarborough and Rebecca Wilmshurst.

The winners of the BBC Norman Beaton Fellowship 2018 are:

JEANETTE PERCIVAL and LEWIS BRAY

Both Jeanette and Lewis came to the event via a workshop with Freedom Studios, Bradford. They join the Radio Drama Company on Saturday 21st July 2018, along with this year’s BBC Carleton Hobbs Bursary Award winners.

This year, the judges awarded two runners-up prizes to NBF finalists. ELINOR COLEMAN – Birmingham Repertory Theatre and NYLA LEVY – Tamasha, London. Each of them will be cast via a freelance engagement in one of Radio Drama's 2018-19 productions.

This year's Norman Beaton Fellowship judges were Emma Harding (Drama Producer and Chair), Gemma Jenkins (Drama Producer), Geoff Stanton (agent), Lucian Msamati (actor) and Rebecca Wilmshurst (Drama Production Executive).

Congratulations to all the winners and runners up. Find out more about BBC Radio Drama (((soundstart))) on the website.

Read BBC Soundstart 2017 - the Carleton Hobbs Bursary & Norman Beaton Fellowship
Adventures with the BBC Radio Drama Company & the BBC Norman Beaton Fellowship
A day in the life of the Radio Drama Company
and a selection of Radio Drama blogs on About the BBC
Follow @BBCRadioDrama on Twitter

Welcoming BBC Sounds to the family

2018-06-29T11:00:00+00:00

This week we welcomed BBC Sounds into the BBC Radio & Music family and I’m delighted to say that it’s been really well received and is getting great product reviews.

BBC Sounds brings together all that we love and cherish about BBC Radio & Music in a new app which will transform the way audiences discover, listen to and enjoy our output.

We’re on a mission to reinvent the BBC and help make a more personalised experience for everyone. BBC Sounds is a big part of that.

It makes it easier to discover and enjoy more BBC audio than ever before from any genre across our live schedules, podcasts and music programmes.

We’ve kept the things people love about our BBC iPlayer Radio app and are building on them to give users a more personal experience.

It’s designed so that the more you use it the better it gets at understanding and leading you to content that you like. The Recommended for you section has a dozen great on-demand listens picked just for you from over 80,000 hours of content and constantly refreshed based on your listening.

We know one of the things audiences love about BBC Radio is our editorial expertise in introducing them to new things. So BBC Sounds makes it really easy to discover content you might not otherwise have tried through the Highlights section - hand-picked collections of podcasts and on demand music shows ranging from the exclusive Live Sessions to life tips in Upgrade Your Life.

We’ve decided to make an early version of the app available so we can learn from how people use it and improve it.

If you’ve signed into the BBC before, for example, to use BBC iPlayer, it’s just a single tap to sign in. And if you’re a BBC iPlayer Radio user the home page comes ready loaded with audio content you’ve already listened to.

If you haven’t got a BBC ID it’s easy to get one when you download BBC Sounds.

You can download BBC Sounds from your usual app store and tell us what you think of it here.

Bob Shennan is Director of Radio & Music

Read also Introducing the first version of BBC Sounds

BBC Radio 1’s Brit List in 2018

2018-06-08T08:00:00+00:00

Jorja Smith

Brit List was a radio first when it launched in February 2017, offering unprecedented and sustained playlist support for emerging, home-grown talent. By giving a three-single commitment to new artists, from Stormzy and Anne Marie to The Amazons and J Hus, we’re proud to have played a part breaking exceptional UK artists at home and internationally.

Just before Christmas we announced the first three Brit List artists of 2018 - Mabel, Isaac Gracie and Jorja Smith, whose stunning single Blue Lights is currently on the Radio 1 ‘A’ list ahead of her debut album release today. All three acts are steadily growing their stories, including stellar performances in Swansea last month for BBC Music’s The Biggest Weekend.

But artist development takes time and I wanted to highlight the success of an act we added to Radio 1’s Brit List back in July 2017 and that’s Tom Walker, a talented and rising singer-songwriter whose story is really beginning to grow internationally.

Like all Brit List alumni, Tom’s three-single playlist commitment included at least one ‘A’ List. Knowing that you have the long term support of a major national network in your home territory is a powerful calling card to help build your story outside the BBC, which is exactly what Tom has done.

His single Leave A Light On was added to the Radio 1 playlist for a second time last month and is now receiving widespread airplay across Europe. It will break the UK Top 15 this week and worldwide sales are set to break a million.

We’re always really encouraged by stories like Tom’s; of British artists using the springboard that the Brit List offers to open up other media and new territories. That’s exactly the international artist development ambition we had in mind when Brit List was conceived. You can read more about Tom’s story.

So I’m delighted to announce that Radio 1 is opening another Brit List submission window for three more exceptional, emerging UK acts. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Friday 22 June and you can find the submission guidelines here.

Good luck!

Chris Price, Head of Music, BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra

Some thoughts ahead of the RAJARs

2018-05-16T09:28:41+00:00

It’s RAJAR week - that’s when the Radio Joint Audience Research group publishes UK radio listening figures for the previous quarter, in Thursday’s case January-March.

The media tends to pick up on the performance of breakfast shows because they command the largest audiences on linear radio. In fact linear audiences are so big that marginal percentage changes translate into large numbers and that makes good copy.

The real story this week may be different, as it’s likely that this will be the first time digital listening overtakes analogue. This will trigger a Government review on whether to switch off the FM signal in the UK.

The BBC has played an important part in the success of the growth of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) by launching digital only stations like 5Live Sports Extra; BBC 6Music and BBC Radio 4 Extra.

We’re fully committed to digital, and growing its audiences, but, along with other broadcasters, we’ve already said that it would be premature to switch off FM.

RAJAR publish another quarterly piece of research called MIDAS, less widely reported, about the different ways people are listening recorded over a week.

The most recent edition of that research finds that 15 percent of all listening is on phones and for younger listeners that rises to 33 percent.

The lion’s share of digital listening remains live radio - 70 percent - but again, for younger audiences that drops to 40 percent.

Podcast listening is up a third across all audiences since the same time last year, accounting now for 40,000 hours a week - our new podcast commissioner Jason Phipps will be pleased about that.

The BBC’s mission is democratic – to bring the best to everyone. You fund us to be a positive force in society. To do that, we need to reach everyone. That’s not about chasing ratings or fighting over share. It’s about finding new ways to be that positive force and making sure we remain universal.

The BBC constantly needs to modernise. That’s why we’re making more of our content available on demand and investing in podcasts and later this year we’ll be making further changes to our app and website to make it easier for audiences of all ages to enjoy the full range of our audio how and when they want. It’s why we are taking part in the government’s trials of 5G technology, and why we will continue to look at ways that digital technology, from DAB services to IP, can help us make great radio.

#MumTakeover returns to BBC 5 live

2018-04-29T09:00:00+00:00

BBC Radio 5 live digital pilots senior producer and #MumTakeover editor Jo Deahl talks about engaging younger audiences and the return of the award-winning #MumTakeover.

“I’ve got this idea”. I’m certain the best and most interesting things start with this one sentence. And when you work in the most creative organisation in the world, there are a lot of people with a lot of ideas.

It can be hard in News, with its second-by-second deadlines, it’s 24/7 output demands and an environment of increasing demands, it can feel hard to make those big ideas a reality.

But I firmly believe things are changing. This is just the perspective of one producer - me - but those ideas are being actively sought out, and heard, and producers are being empowered to turn their ideas into great content for our audiences.

There is a clear vision – and most importantly supported by action – that has gone into hooking in younger audiences. From the guests that we choose, to our distinctive news agenda, podcasts like You, Me and the Big C, diverse co-hosts on Afternoon Edition, Outside Broadcast’s from Westminster to Nunneries, and harnessing the creativity of our staff – the whole team, from the people who answer the phones to the editors, are working to create bold new content, and get a diversity of voice on air.

We have too our Under 44’s champions, a group made up of younger staff, who meet monthly to share their ideas and to support each other in pitching those ideas successfully.

BBC 5 live digital pilots team - Jo Deahl, Al Entwistle, Ellie Layhe, Jessie Aru-Philips, Paul Carter - and #mumtakeover producer Davi Ramos, along with 5 live presenter Anna Fosterr backstage at the Radio and Music awards.after winning Best initiative for reaching new audiences

It's this energetic, creative powerhouse that is being recognised by the rest of the BBC. At the recent BBC Radio and Music Awards, Bob Shennan commented that “5 live stole the show”. One of those wins was BBC 5 Live’s #MumTakeover which won best initiative for reaching new audiences.

BBC 5 live’s #MumTakover was my "I have an idea” moment. I work on the 5 live digital pilots team – a small team of four people who make brilliant content aimed directly - and featuring - young northern women who are less likely to engage with the BBC. We produce short films for BBC News' Facebook pages, write blogs for BBC Three as well as 5live, and programme content for 5 live radio, on subjects as diverse as the nappy free baby movement, wheelchair pole-dancing, vaginal steaming to body dysmorphia.

Success for us is engagement. The subjects we choose and the distinctive style of what we do means our content gets above-average viewing times, comments and shares as well as impressive viewing numbers, mainly by women under 40. It was reading those comments and the way women opened up about mental health that made me think, we need a #Mumtakeover.

So the idea was to create the UK’s biggest conversation around young motherhood and mental health from post-natal depression, to loneliness, to work/life balance and the pressures facing women to do it all – the mental load of motherhood. With the Pilot's remit in mind I wanted young northern women to be at the heart of it – on air and on social, talking candidly, with a focus on positive solutions and accessing support. And I wanted it to be BIG, reaching those audiences that don’t traditionally engage with BBC News. I banged on about it at home:” We SHOULD do this. It’s important, it will be amazing”. Until my partner – pretty bored of me by this point - said: “just do it for goodness sake!”.

And we did it. On 28 November 2017 we brought together 400 northern mums – some with incredible stories they had never shared before - to Blackpool Tower. We persuaded three key influencers of young women to co-host - Stacey Solomon, Rochelle Humes, and Giovanna Fletcher, alongside 5 live’s Anna Foster. And we brought in three outside organisations, Netmums, Better Start Blackpool, and the Maternal Mental Health Alliance to be official supporters. AND we persuaded 100+ social influencers to get everyone talking about it on social. Every programme on 5 live bought into it - showcasing female stories throughout the day on a range of topics.

Stacey Solomon

We had huge support from the rest of the BBC too, from Women’s Hour to the World Service, BBC Three to BBC News Online, including a special programme on the BBC News Channel, a live page and a full ‘takeover’ of the BBC Home Page. And 5 live had itself a #MumTakeover.

The engagement was unprecedented. On Facebook, #MumTakeover delivered almost half a million engagements (with an 85% female audience mostly in the 25-34 age category) and our content on the BBC News website produced almost a million page views. To win the best initiative award was the icing on the cake.

Of course, it took a lot of people to achieve this. It feels like one of those alchemy moments where everyone involved just seemed to be brilliant and passionate about the project. From my head of news, Rozina Breen, who commissioned the idea; my partner in crime Al Entwistle, a digital ninja who led on the digital and social strategy; my own small team – the 5 live digital pilots, who are experts in shaping content to engage young northern women; to the events team at BBC North HQ and 5 live’s programme teams who embraced the on-air content; as well as the core team on BBC 5 Live who worked up a great news story and co-ordinated our guests across the BBC; plus our comms and marketing teams and Editorial Policy. And of course 5 live presenter Anna Foster who made it all look so easy on the day.

During #MumTakeover 2017 BBC 5 live pledged to continue the mums and mental health story. And we have. Tomorrow (Monday 30 April 2018) #MumTakeover is back to support the start of the UK’s Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week. From Wake Up to Money to Up All Night, 5 live will bring mums, celebs and experts together to talk candidly about a whole range of issues.

DJ Simone Riley will author a special report for Breakfast on Post Natal Depression in BAME women. MTV star Lateysha Grace will guest edit on Afternoon Edition asking How Do I Co-Parent with my Ex? Anna Foster will be with mums including actress Jennie McAlpine asking ‘what needs to change’, and will feature an exclusive interview with Sky Sports presenter Celina Hinchcliffe about her experience of Post Natal Depression. Pop Star Jamelia will be talking mum-shaming on Drive, and Phil Williams will be handing over to the dads with a panel of fathers including comedian Russell Kane. There’s also loads of brilliant digital content including a video for 5 live from You Tube star Tova Leigh on our special #MumTakeover page at http:www.bbc.co.uk/mumtakeover.

#MumTakeover is part of 5 live’s State of Mind season looking at mental health in the UK. You can get involved tomorrow by listening to 5 live and texting your thoughts to 85058, supporting the day on social by commenting using our two hashtags #MumTakeover and #maternalMHmatters

And where next for the 5 live digital pilots team? Watch this space.

#MumTakeover is on BBC 5 live all day on Monday 30 April 2018

Jo Deahl is 5 live digital pilots senior producer and #MumTakeover editor

Find out more about #MumTakeover

Reinventing Radio for the Alexa Age

2018-04-27T09:00:00+00:00

As a teenager my Saturday afternoons were taken up walking between three record shops in the high street of my small home town. What would I spend my pocket money on - a special edition vinyl 7’ or a 12’ with a great remix on the B-side? Fast forward to last Saturday and I found myself in my kitchen with my young children shouting at Alexa to play their favourite new songs.

Tech companies may have won the battle to be the new record shops of the world, they may have won the battle to be my family’s record collection, but we are now entering into the heat of battle when it comes to who in the future can be your radio station – and the war is far from won.

BBC Radio 1, which has just celebrated being 50 years young, gets 10.7 million listeners a week in the UK. Its Breakfast show has an audience of just over 6 million. Five decades of playing great new British music and it still remains the most listened to youth station in the UK. Reports of the death of radio have been greatly exaggerated. Television was supposed to kill off radio, as was the Walkman, as was MTV and more recently the iPod. The latest competitor to enter the celebrity death match ring is the streaming service.

Ten years ago the radio industry did sleepwalk into the age of the smart phone. The monopoly of being the only bit of tech in your bedroom that connected you to the outside world was gone in one simple swipe. And as an industry we still suffer in parts from comparing how we are doing with each other, rather than what you can do with that time. Radio needs to be careful it is not like a McDonalds just comparing it’s sales with Burger King or a gourmet burger chain, rather than looking at all the options its customers have to spend their money on fast food (or a sandwich or, if you are reading this in the UK, a hot sausage roll – God they taste good!).

A very high up Radio Executive told me recently with a straight face that streaming services are just replacing the listening to your record collection. No need to worry. But the tech companies and streaming services want my listeners’ ears. The critical success of podcasts for speech and streaming for music all point in that direction. Plus, the streaming services need to create some of their own content because the business model requires more revenue and you can’t build stability on purely the music industry’s assets.

Added to this, the young on-demand generation get what they want, when they want it, on whatever device they want, so surely that means the radio industry is about to suffer it’s ‘Netflix’ moment?

I believe there are three reasons why radio’s future will actually be stronger in the long run. The reasons are ‘live’, demographics and distribution.

Firstly, I haven’t heard on a tech company’s platform anything which has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Nothing beats listening to ‘live’ radio when your favourite artist is performing in the Live Lounge, or to the commentary when your team scores a winning goal, or to an interview when a politician’s career ends in front of your very ears. This instant access to the zeitgeist from your favourite presenter, mixed with the modern plague of FOMO, is radio’s biggest asset.

Another huge asset is human behaviour. This gives the industry a bit of time to rethink and reinvent because people’s listening habits are hard to change. Especially when the majority of radio listening is coming from older generations, ie demographics.

And thirdly, distribution. Recent thinking has it that traditional broadcasters create quality content but aren’t great at creating new platforms, whereas tech companies are great at creating new platforms but aren’t good at creating quality content. With the wisdom being that the two will eventually meet in the middle as we see converging evolution take place in our lifetime. Radio, therefore has a huge opportunity with new platforms and technology. Radio 1 has excelled at doing this over the last six years, becoming the biggest radio station in the world on YouTube. Our channel has had over a billion views and now gets over 10 million views a week. I hope we can take what we have learnt and have the same success with voice protocol.

If radio can evolve quickly on voice, its quality output will mean it can remain the trusted companion in the kitchen and the car, and maybe even reclaim the bedroom. Younger audiences have grown up always knowing and using IP, a wireless set to them is broken. It isn’t connected. Whereas a speaker which can answer your maths homework, tell you how to spell ‘Disestablishmentarianism’ and get your favourite radio station is cool. And that is an important element that often gets overlooked in discussions about platforms and content. It might be practical. It might be good. Is it aspirational?

Radio can be, if it plays to its strength of creating unmissable live moments with a great presenter; uses the time that demographics gives it to innovate and distributes in different ways for different audiences.

They say if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen but radio is staying put, it just might be on a different device. ‘Alexa, play BBC Radio 1...’

Ben Cooper, Controller BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network

Ben will be speaking at both the Musexpo and Worldwide Radio Summit 2018 in LA next week.

At Musexpo, BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 will be presented the “International Music Icon of the Year” award for 50 years of contributions to the global radio and music business.

Weekend starts early on Radio 1

2018-04-10T11:00:00+00:00

'Weekend Breakfast with Dev and Alice' to start on Fridays from June

Today (Tuesday 10 April) BBC Radio 1 announced a new schedule for Fridays, due to start in June 2018. Controller of the station, Ben Cooper, explains how he came to say 'yes' to a four day week:

When Chris Evans presented the Radio 1 Breakfast Show he asked for Fridays off. The conversation didn’t go well. The then Controller Matthew Bannister said ‘No’ and the dramatic consequences were played out on the front pages of the national press.

As today’s Controller of Radio 1 I can now, twenty one years later, say ‘yes’ to the idea. Why? Because I believe by having a four day week and a three day weekend, it will grow weekend audiences, allowing week day listeners the chance to hear our fantastic set of new weekend shows on a Friday and pull them across into Saturday and Sunday.

Plus, who doesn’t like weekends? Fridays are different from the rest of the week. You are in a better mood. You are planning how to have fun, who to meet up with and where to go. And I want us to capture that feeling and excitement on air.

Radio 1’s objective is to attract new, young and diverse audiences into the BBC. And in today’s digitally disrupted market place Radio 1 needs to innovate and reinvent the way it attracts audiences to its programmes and content.

Our strategy of ‘Listen, Watch, Share’ has been working to great effect and has meant that not only have we got over 10 million listeners a week to our radio station, but also we have over 10.7 million views a week on our YouTube channel and 10 million followers on social media. Today though is not about views or likes, it is about looking at our radio schedule and being brave, surprising the industry and most of all trying something new that we believe our listeners will enjoy and love.

Growing new young audiences for the BBC and developing new talent for the industry is what I want Radio 1 to be famous for, alongside its mainstay of breaking new UK artists. The three ambitions though are symbiotic. Radio 1 can keep attracting new audiences if it keeps making noise and trying new things with presenters that reflect youth culture and that are passionate about the new music they play.

Radio 1 is a world famous brand and I want it to stay that way — for the BBC, for the UK Music Industry and most of all for young audiences. By never being boring, always innovating and by celebrating the weekend a day early, I strongly believe we can achieve that. As Chris Evans would say TFI Friday.

Ben Cooper is Controllerof BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network.

Nicholas Parsons honoured at the BBC Radio & Music Awards

2018-03-20T21:00:00+00:00

It was a night of celebration for the radio and music industry tonight (Tuesday 20 March) as the Radio Theatre played host to the annual BBC Radio & Music Awards.

Now in their fifteenth year, the Awards recognise the people behind the world-class content we produce 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

And these Awards were extra special as they were open to colleagues from BBC Music and independent production companies for the very first time.

It was great to look out from the stage and see familiar faces from both indies and BBC teams seated together. It’s almost a year since we started opening up more of our radio output to competition and tonight showed that a bit of healthy competition is good for all of us – it keeps us on our toes, ensures the audience is always front of mind, and drives us to be the best we can be.

Tonight was as much about celebrating the wonderful community that exists within UK radio as it was about recognising the individuals who, in 2017, went above and beyond to produce ground-breaking programmes, podcasts and productions.

The year in question saw us celebrate a string of anniversaries. It’s fitting that our Gold Award went to broadcasting legend Nicholas Parsons who has hosted Just a Minute for five decades. But 2017 also marked 60 years of the Today programme, 15 years of 1Xtra and 50 years of Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4. The radio revolution that began in 1967 continues today as we reinvent and grow radio for a new generation.

Nicholas Parsons accepts his Gold Award while Paul Merton smiles on in the background

Leading the way is 5 live with chart-topping podcasts, innovative outside broadcasts and candid conversation. They stole the show picking up five awards in total.

In the Outside Broadcast category they shared the honours with One Love Manchester. This poignant BBC Music production was a true collaboration of BBC teams, involving not just Music colleagues but BBC Studios, Radio 1, Radio 2, 5 live, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Operations, BBC Radio Outside Broadcast Unit and BBC Music News. It was no surprise then that it also won Best Collaboration as well as Moment of the Year.

The Manchester Arena attack was, sadly, one of several moments that tested us in 2017. Our teams faced every challenge with dignity and professionalism, providing responsible and incisive journalism, and pulling off incredible feats like the One Love Manchester broadcast in just seven days, helping to raise £2m for the victims’ families. Never before have I been prouder or more inspired by the people I work with.

Greg James hosted the BBC Radio And Music Awards

And speaking of inspirational people, I must thank Greg James who hosted the Awards, just a few days after completing his Pedal to the Peaks challenge for Sport Relief, raising over £1 million and encouraging young people to open up about mental health in the process. Like all of our award winners Greg has gone the extra mile, and then some.

Thank you to the judges and congratulations to all the winners, listed below.

Gold Award

Nicholas Parsons

Production Team of the Year

5 live Lates and 5 live Summaries

Non-content making Team of the Year

Central Planning Unit, Radio Factual

Unsung Hero

Emma Newman

Best Technical Production

Welcome To Wherever You Are – BBC Studios

Best Music Production

Exploring Life on Mars – Sue Clark Productions

Best Documentary

The Untold: In the Grip of Anorexia – BBC Radio & Music Documentaries Unit

Best Drama Production

On Kosovo Field – BBC Radio Drama North

Best Comedy Production

Who do I think I Am? – BBC Studios/Mark Steel

Best Podcast

Brexitcast – BBC Radio 5 live

Interview of the Year

Clarke and Carrie Carlisle – BBC Radio 5 live Daily

Best Storytelling

The Untold: Missing – BBC Radio & Music Documentaries Unit

Best Outside Broadcast

One Love Manchester – BBC Music, BBC Studios, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Operations, BBC Radio Outside Broadcast Unit, BBC Music News

AND

5 live at Stanbrook Abbey – 5 live Daily

Best Sports Production

Skating to Gold – USP Content

Best Initiative for Reaching New Audiences

BBC Radio 5 live's #mumtakeover – BBC Radio 5 live News Digital Pilots

Best Collaboration

One Love Manchester – BBC Music, BBC Studios, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Operations, BBC Radio Outside Broadcast Unit, BBC Music News

Best Digital Innovation

CBeebies Radio iSpy Sound Detective – CBeebies Radio and BBC Research & Development

Moment of the year voted for by staff from BBC Radio & Music and independent production companies

One Love Manchester – BBC Music, BBC Studios, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Operations, BBC Radio Outside Broadcast Unit, BBC Music News

All entries were judged blind, without details of producers or production companies.

Bob Shennan is Director of BBC Radio & Music.

BBC Radio and Education – how are we doing?

2018-03-14T17:00:00+00:00

We’ve got the latest data in about our audiences for BBC Radio and BBC Children’s and if you’ve read my blog before you’ll know that for radio we’ve set ourselves a target of stabilising audiences who are in the 15–44 age bracket, because in recent years that number has been in decline.

So in the last quarter (Oct-Dec 2017) 55% of this age-group listened to BBC Radio. That’s down a smidge (1.2%) on the previous quarter but broadly stable.

Across all audiences more people were listening to BBC Radio than in the previous quarter with Radio 1’s Breakfast Show doing especially well.

But we shouldn’t forget Radio 1 is getting 1.95m views a day on YouTube and Vevo and a million views a month on its BBC iPlayer channel.

In Children’s we’ve got the data in for December – we measure the number of parents with children under 6 for CBeebies and 6–12 year olds for CBBC.

On TV CBeebies did a little bit better than November (+1.6%) but is slightly down year on year. And although CBBC claimed the top 5 most-viewed TV programmes viewing was down 5% compared to the previous year. Traffic to the CBBC website was more or less stable.

Our online study service BBC Bitesize continues to make a real difference to young learners with 82% of users saying it has helped them to understand their schoolwork or homework more and 58% of GCSE users saying it helped them to achieve better grades in their GCSEs. BBC Food had a great quarter – with use up across a range of metrics.

There aren’t any surprises in these numbers – gradual linear decline coupled with gradual digital growth.

The reach of the BBC’s TV and Radio services is measured by people listening live and the success of those services is often judged by those measurements.

And don’t get me wrong, we celebrate when the linear numbers go up as they did with Nick Grimshaw’s Breakfast Show.

But if we really want to understand the true value of the BBC then we need to take account of and talk about how audiences consume and interact with content across our services, both inside and outside the linear schedules; downloading and streaming.

That’s why we want to get all our audiences signing in to BBC ID – the more we know about what they enjoy when, the better we can offer everyone a personalised service.

And it’s why we’re developing a new measurement system that will capture and compare all the ways in which our audiences consume, across linear, on-demand and online. We’ll have more to say about it later this year.

James Purnell is Director, Radio & Education

A minute of inspiration on International Women’s Day

2018-03-08T12:35:00+00:00

Four inspiring women from across the BBC have taken part in 60-second quickfire video interviews for International Women’s Day - discussing their own inspirations and tips for the next generation wanting to follow in their footsteps.

The videos feature television presenter and journalist, Stacey Dooley, BBC Radio 1 DJ and presenter, Clara Amfo, a producer on Blue Planet II, Orla Doherty, and Newsbeat Editor, Debbie Ramsay.

In each one minute clip, the women also discuss their career highlights to date, their most challenging moments and their most valuable advice on how to succeed in their line of work.

Known for her intrepid and tenacious reporting style, television presenter and journalist, Stacey Dooley, has become a household name with a string of gritty and hard-hitting BBC Three documentaries under her belt. In her interview, Stacey reveals the scariest moment of her career so far, the biggest influence in her life and gives her professional advice to aspiring reporters: “Pick projects that you’re passionate about, and don’t feel like you’ve got to conform or behave a certain way.”

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/bbcthree/status/971672009615831040

BBC Radio 1 DJ and presenter Clara Amfo has had a glittering career in the music industry. With a voice that can be recognised across the nation, Clara has a regular presenting slot on the Radio 1 weekday schedule, she has interviewed the biggest names in the music industry, and presented from some of the most prestigious music festivals and awards ceremonies. Watch the clip to discover Clara’s scariest interview, the DJ who inspires her the most, and, most importantly, her top advice for aspiring music presenters and DJs: “Keep creating your own content, don’t wait for the door to knock.”

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBC/status/971664316712849408

Fearless, adventurous, and with a lifetime pursuit to unearth and explore the undiscovered secrets of the ocean, Orla Doherty is one of the producers behind the breath-taking Blue Planet II on BBC One. In her interview, Orla shares what inspires her, the best and worst thing about travelling in a submarine, and gives her advice to aspiring film and nature enthusiasts - including why all you need is a smartphone to hone in on your skills.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBCEarth/status/971686966726156289

One of the BBC’s most experienced multi-platform editors, Debbie Ramsay is currently the editor of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra’s Newsbeat. In her one minute clip, Debbie gives an insight into her job, reveals who inspires her, and offers her top three tips to aspiring editors who have a drive to succeed in the media industry.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBCNewsbeat/status/971724719782166529

And if you are in search of further inspiration look no further than the BBC:

BBC Somali: For the first time, BBC Somali hosts an all-female discussion and tells the stories of women across the region as part of a week of special content to coincide with International Women’s day. Running from the 3-8 March 2018, special content can be heard and seen on BBC Somali TV, Radio and BBCSomali.com.
BBC Radio 6 Music: On BBC Radio 6 Music, in her show this Friday night (midnight-2am), Nemone interviews with The Black Madonna - DJ Marea Stamper - who picks her five favourite tracks by female artists. Singer-songwriter and composer Mary Epworth will be the guest Resident sound-tracking the show. Plus, all the music played during the whole show will be tracks by female artists including: Sounds of Blackness – the pressure (Frankie Knuckles mix), The Black Madonna – He is the Voice I Hear; Robyn – Indestructable (the Black Madonna remix) and Loleata Holloway – We’re Getting Stronger.
More on BBC Radio 6 Music: From Time’s Up to "Step Up?!” - An International Women’s Day Investigation. In recent months the conversation about inequality in the music business has been louder than ever. To mark International Women’s Day, 6 Music’s Georgie Rogers takes a look at representation of females in music: Shirley Manson, Wolf Alice, Royal Blood, Jessie Ware, music writer Jessica Hopper (Pitchfork, Spin, Guardian) and many more chat about the changes afoot in the music business.
Even more of BBC Radio 6 Music: This weekend, 6 Music is celebrating three of Mary Anne’s favourite new female artists as part of a post-International Women’s Day show. There's profiles of Anna Von Hausswolff, Flohio and Aldous Harding, and also a look at an exhibition in Manchester, ‘Suffragette City’, which champions the continued role of influential females in making Manchester world-renowned for melody.

BBC Radio 5 Live: Three young women with cancer are launching a brand new podcast with BBC Radio 5 live. You, Me and The Big C explores life with cancer through the eyes of three friends who are too busy living to worry about dying. Presenters, Rachael Bland, Deborah James and Lauren Mahon are the powerhouses behind the pod, talking about how they all juggle jobs, parenting, and busy social lives with The Big C. You, Me and The Big C is available to download for free via the BBC Radio 5 live website or your usual podcast store.
Technology and Creativity blog: Meanwhile, over on the Technology and Creativity blog Angela Stevenson, Senior Technologist, BBC Design & Engineering describes some of the inspirations for her career choices to mark International Women's Day in Inspiring the next generation.
BBC Radio 4 Extra: R4 Extra presenters introduce the voices of inspirational women from the BBC archives in International Women's Day: Voices of Inspirational Women.