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BBC Radio 5 Live

{{Short description|British national radio station}}

{{For|other stations known as Radio 5|Radio 5 (disambiguation){{!}}Radio 5}}

{{Redirect|Five Live|other uses|Five Live (disambiguation)}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}

{{Infobox radio station

| name = BBC Radio 5 Live

| logo = File:BBC Radio 5 Live 2022.svg

| logo_caption = Logo used since 2022

| city = Salford

| area = United Kingdom

| branding =

| airdate = {{start date and age|1994|3|28|df=y}}

| frequencies = MW: 693 kHz, 909 kHz, 990 kHz and on BBC Local Radio stations' frequencies overnight.
DAB: 12B
Freeview: 705
Freesat: 705
Sky (UK only): 0105
Virgin Media: 905
Virgin Media Ireland: 911
Astra 2E (28.2°E) satellite
Telstar 12 Vantage (15.0°W) satellite

| former_callsigns = BBC Radio 5

| format = News/talk/sport

| language = English

| operator = BBC North

| sister_stations = BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

| owner = BBC

| licensing_authority = Ofcom

| website = [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_five_live BBC Radio 5 Live] via BBC Sounds

}}

{{BBC Radio sidebar}}

BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day.{{Cite web |title=BBC Trust Significance Test – BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra proposals |url=https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/tv-radio-and-on-demand/bbc/bbc-tests/bbc_trust_significance_test.pdf?v=333878 |website=www.ofcom.org.uk}} It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcasting virtually all major sports events staged in the UK or involving British competitors. The station broadcasts from MediaCityUK in Salford, England,{{Cite news |last=Plunkett |first=John |date=2010-03-19 |title=Radio 5 Live move to Salford delayed |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/mar/19/bbc-radio-five-live-salford |access-date=2025-05-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} and is a department of the BBC North division.

Radio 5 Live was launched in March 1994 as a repositioning of the original Radio 5, which was launched in 1990.{{cite web |url=http://www.transdiffusion.org/rmc/features/launches2.php |title=Radio launches 2 |access-date=30 May 2010 |work=Radiomusications |publisher=Transdiffusion |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100825175208/http://www.transdiffusion.org/rmc/features/launches2.php |archive-date=25 August 2010}} It is transmitted via analogue radio in AM on medium wave 693 and 909 kHz and digitally via digital radio, television and on the BBC Sounds service. Overnight programming of 5 Live are also simulcast on BBC Local Radio stations throughout the UK.{{Cite web |title=BBC Trust Changes to Local Radio Assessment of significance May 2012 |url=https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/review_report_research/dqf/final/significance_tests/local_radio.pdf |website=downloads.bbc.co.uk}} Due to rights restrictions, coverage of some events on Radio 5 Live, particularly live sport, is not available online or is restricted to UK addresses.

According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 4.8 million with a listening share of 2.9% as of March 2024.{{cite web |url=https://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php |title=RAJAR }}

History

File:BBC Radio 5 Live logo 1994 animated.gif

{{further|Timeline of BBC Radio 5 Live}}

The success of Radio 4 News FM during the first Gulf War (1991) led the BBC to propose the launch of a rolling-news service. Initially the plan was to broadcast a rolling news service on BBC Radio 4's long wave frequency; but this met with considerable opposition, both internally and externally,{{cite press release |title=Jenny Abramsky Oxford lecture two |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/speeches/stories/abramsky_oxford2.shtml |date=3 April 2007 |publisher=BBC}} so the BBC decided to close BBC Radio 5 and replace the old service's educational and children's programmes with a new news service, while retaining the sports programmes. BBC Radio 5 Live began its 24-hour service at 5{{nbsp}}am on Monday 28 March 1994. The first voice on air, Jane Garvey, later went on to co-present the breakfast and drive-time shows with Peter Allen. The Times described the launch as "slipp[ing] smoothly and confidently into a routine of informative banter"{{cite news |last=Frean |first=Alexandra |title=Radio's new voice greets the dawn |work=The Times |location=London |date=29 March 1994}} and The Scotsman as "professionalism at its slickest".{{cite news |last=McAlpine |first=Joan |title=Alive and kicking |work=The Scotsman |location=Edinburgh |date=29 March 1994}}

The news of the first day was dominated by the fatal stabbing at Hall Garth School near Middlesbrough, the first of many major incidents which the network covered live as they unfolded.

The tone of the channel, engaging and more relaxed than contemporary BBC output, was the key to the channel's success and set the model for other BBC News services later in the decade. The first audiences were some 4 million, with a record audience of 6.25 million. Among the key editorial staff involved in the design of programme formats and recruitment of staff for the new station were Sara Nathan, later editor of Channel 4 News, and Tim Luckhurst, later editor of The Scotsman newspaper and professor of journalism at the University of Kent.[http://www.kent.ac.uk/journalism/staff.html "Our Staff"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310192146/http://www.kent.ac.uk/journalism/staff.html |date=10 March 2009 }}. University of Kent.

File:BBC Radio Five Live 2000-2007.svg

In 2000, the station was rebranded with a new logo which would remain with the station for another seven years. In addition, on 2 February 2002 a companion station, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, was launched as a digital-only service to complement the range of sport and to avoid clashes; previously BBC Local Radio stations and the long-wave frequency of BBC Radio 4 were used.[http://www.transdiffusion.org/rmc/bbc/the_many_lives.php The Many Lives of BBC Radio Sport] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613201401/http://www.transdiffusion.org/rmc/bbc/the_many_lives.php |date=13 June 2010 }} Transdiffusion Throughout this period, Five Live gained several awards including five Sony Awards in 2005; the single gold award was for its coverage of the 2004 Asian tsunami in the News Story Award category alongside another four silver awards and six nominations. The station also began to further its boundaries with the publication of the Radio Five Live Sporting Yearbook.[http://librarycatalogue.barnsley.gov.uk/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1S24S41L98378.431&profile=aa&uri=full%3D1100001~!466218~!0&booklistformat= Radio Five Live sporting yearbook 2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721194029/http://librarycatalogue.barnsley.gov.uk/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1S24S41L98378.431&profile=aa&uri=full=1100001~!466218~!0&booklistformat= |date=21 July 2011 }} Barnsley Libraries, {{ISBN|0-00-721598-3}} In August 2007, BBC Radio 5 Live was given a new logo in line with the rest of the BBC Radio network,{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2007/aug/08/newlogosforbbcradiocoolo |title=New logos for BBC Radio – cool or balls? |work=The Guardian |location= London |date=8 August 2007}} and a new background design featuring diagonal parallel lines.

File:BBC Radio 5 Live.svg

In 2008, the BBC announced that the station would move to MediaCityUK in Salford.

{{cite press release |title=BBC appoints Head of External Affairs to world-class media project

|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/07_july/21/salford.shtml

|access-date=6 February 2012 |publisher=BBC |date=21 July 2008}}

In 2017/18, it was noted the station not only remained as having the fourth highest cost-per-user of all the BBC radio output, but whose costs also increased – rising from 2.3p per hour the previous year to 2.5p per hour, therefore equal to 1Xtra. The audience Appreciation Index figure did not increase, remaining at 79.9; and the average length of time spent on the channel fell from 06:41 to 06:34 – the fourth lowest fall of all of the BBC's radio stations.{{Cite web|url=http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/reports/pdf/bbc_annualreport_201718.pdf|title=BBC Annual Report 2017/18}}

Broadcast

BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts in AM on the medium wave frequencies 693 and 909 kHz nationally, with the frequency 990 kHz used in Cardigan Bay in west Wales; these frequencies had been utilised by the old BBC Radio 5, which in turn had taken over the frequencies from BBC Radio 2. Uniquely to the BBC Radio network, it is the only station that is neither purely digital (such as 1Xtra, Radio 4 Extra and 6 Music) nor broadcast in analogue on FM. It is however broadcast in stereo on FM and DAB on BBC Local Radio frequencies overnight, usually from 1am until BBC Local Radio commences morning broadcasts, usually from 6am. BBC Radio 5 Live is also broadcast on BBC Radio Cymru in stereo from midnight until 5:30{{nbsp}}am, on BBC Radio Scotland from 1{{nbsp}}am until 6{{nbsp}}am and on BBC Radio Ulster from midnight until 6:30{{nbsp}}am. In addition to the AM output, the station also broadcasts digitally in mono on DAB Digital Radio, and on television through satellite services such as Sky, cable services such as Virgin Media, DTT services such as Freeview, Freesat and through IPTV. The station also broadcasts programmes live through BBC Sounds, which allows replaying programmes up to a month after the original broadcast. The service is also available on the Radioplayer internet site partially run by the BBC.

For many years, the station operated from four floors within the News Centre at BBC Television Centre,{{cite web|last=Smith|first=Nigel|title=A peek inside 5 live's new HQ|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/5live/2010/12/a-peek-inside-5-lives-new-hq.shtml|work=BBC Radio 5 Live Blog|publisher=BBC|access-date=6 February 2012}} because of the close connections between the station and BBC News, and the co-location of BBC Sport. However, as part of the corporation's plan to sell off Television Centre, the decision was made in 2008 to move BBC Radio 5 Live to the new broadcast hub at MediaCityUK. The move itself began in September 2011 and took two months.{{cite web|last=Van-Klaveren|first=Adrian|title=The Salford move and the latest RAJARs|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/5live/2011/10/the-salford-move-and-the-lates.shtml|work=BBC Radio 5 Live Blog|publisher=BBC|access-date=6 February 2012}} The new studios occupy a single floor in Quay House, with two studios large enough for several guests and a separate studio for large groups. The station continues to have a studio presence in London, with Studio 51A at BBC Broadcasting House in London used for programmes and interviews made in London for the station such as "Kermode and Mayo's Film Review".

{{cite web|last=Cooper|first=Will

|title=Tony Livesey's guide to the 5 live studios

|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/5live/2011/11/tony-liveseys-guide-to-the-5-l.shtml

|work=BBC Radio 5 Live Blog|publisher=BBC|access-date=6 February 2012}}

List of programmes broadcast on 5 Live

Programming

=News=

File:BBC Radio 5 Live @ Quay House, MediaCityUK.jpg]]

BBC Radio 5 Live's remit includes broadcasting rolling news and transmitting news as it breaks. It offers news bulletins every half an hour, apart from during live sports commentaries. The BBC's policy for major breaking news events revolves around a priority list. With UK news, the correspondent first records a "generic minute" summary (for use by all stations and channels); the subsequent priority is to report on Radio 5 Live, then the BBC News Channel, and then any other programmes that are on air. For foreign news, first a "generic minute" is recorded, then reports are to BBC World Service radio, then the reporter talks to any other programmes that are on air.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/review_report_research/impartiality_business/f2_news_submission.txt|title=Editorial Processes – How BBC News Works|access-date=19 June 2007|date=22 January 2007}}{{update after|2013|11|5}}

Due to COVID-19, the hourly news bulletins were shared with BBC Radio 2 from April 2020. Three minute bulletins are broadcast on the hour, with extended five minute bulletins at 06:00, 07:00, 08:00, 13:00 and 17:00 on weekdays, at 07:00 and 08:00 on Saturdays and at 06:00, 07:00, 08:00 and 09:00 on Sundays.

Half-hour news headlines are mostly read by presenters and sports journalists, although newsreaders are used during weekday daytime programming between 10:30 and 15:30 and during 5 Live Sport evening and weekend programming.

=Sport=

File:Pure One 305.JPG

BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts an extremely wide range of sports and covers all the major sporting events, mostly under its flagship sports banner 5 Live Sport. In the event that the broadcast rights to a particular event are also on BBC Television and a technical fault were to ensue, the commentary of 5 Live is simulcast on the affected BBC channel until the problem is rectified. One such occurrence was during Euro 2008 where thunderstorms caused satellite disruptions, but BBC One simulcast the 5 Live commentary.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgDlZPhpZiY |title=Euro 2008 - Germany vs. Turkey technical difficulties - 06-25-2008 |date=2022-12-05 |last=Colorbar |access-date=2025-05-25 |via=YouTube}}

While football commentaries form the majority of live commentaries during the football season, the range of events covered by the station include:

Controllers

class="wikitable"
Years servedController
1997–1999Roger Mosey
2000–2007Bob Shennan
2008–2012Adrian Van Klaveren
2013 – September 2019Jonathan Wall
2019–presentHeidi Dawson{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/heidi-dawson|title = Heidi Dawson appointed as BBC Radio 5 live Controller}}

5 Sports Extra

{{Main|BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra}}

As 5 Live cannot accommodate all of the sports which they have rights to broadcast, some are covered on sister station Sports Extra, including:

Sports Extra typically emphasises full broadcasts of Premier League and Home Nations football, if games overlap each other. 5 Live carries the first-choice match in such cases.

Also, should 5 Live be needed to broadcast news coverage when scheduled sports programmes were to be aired, the sports coverage is shifted to 5 Sports Extra.

The station had originally launched in 2002 as Radio 5 Live Sports Extra but had its name changed in 2022 as part of a rebranding of the BBC.{{cite web |date=23 March 2022 |title=BBC Annual Plan 2022/23 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/documents/bbc-annual-plan-2022-2023.pdf |access-date=3 April 2022 |work=BBC}}

Awards

In January 2013, BBC Radio Five Live was nominated for the Responsible Media of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards.{{cite news |url=http://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/10197507.Winners_honoured_at_British_Muslim_Awards/|title=Winners honoured at British Muslim Awards|publisher=Asian Image|date=31 January 2013|access-date=1 November 2015}}

Notes

{{notelist}}

See also

{{Portal|BBC|Radio}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{Commons category-inline|BBC Radio 5 Live}}
  • {{Bbc.co.uk|5live}}

{{BBC Radio 5 Live}}

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Category:News and talk radio stations in the United Kingdom

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Category:Radio stations established in 1994

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Category:Mass media in Salford

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