BBC RADIO 2

'BBC Radio 2' is one of the BBC's national radio stations and is by far the most popular station in the UK, reaching some 27% of the available audience in 2006^[1]. It broadcasts throughout the UK on FM radio between 88 and 91 MHz from its studios in Western House, adjacent to Broadcasting House in central London. Programmes are also relayed on digital radio via DAB, Sky Digital, Cable TV, Freeview and the Internet. The station's FM reception is well known for exceptional quality; it is broadcast on a network of powerful transmitters of 250 kW or more, the strongest radio broadcast signals in Europe on FM.^[2]
The station started at 7:00am on 30 September 1967, and succeeded the Light Programme, with some of the Light's music shows transferring to the newly-launched Radio 1. The first show however had actually started at 5.30am (on the Light programme) but continued on with ''Breakfast Special'' from Paul Hollingdale as Radio 1 split off.

Contents

History

Current Presenters and shows (from 16 April)

Mainstream shows

Specialist shows

Mondays

Tuesdays

Wednesdays

Thursdays

Fridays

Saturdays

Sundays

Others

Radio 2 breakfast show presenters

Newsreaders (current)

Controllers of BBC Radio 2

Logo History

References

External links

History

In the early years, much programming and music was common to both stations, particularly on the shared FM frequency. Radio 2 gradually settled down as a middle of the road station playing a mixture of laid-back pop/rock, folk and country, jazz and big-band music, easy listening, light classics, and 'oldies', with significant amounts of comedy and sport; this policy continued until April 1986 when Frances Line, then its head of music, repositioned the station (she would become controller in 1990). An increasingly ageing Radio 1 audience was sticking with that station; Line repositioned Radio 2 to appeal exclusively to older listeners and introduced a lineup of older presenters and "light music" pitched squarely at a 50+ audience. Although popular with its target audience, this policy alienated younger listeners who had previously time-shared between Radio 1 and Radio 2; the station's audience fell drastically, taking another hit when sport coverage was moved to Radio 5; the rise of album-rock commercial stations (particularly Virgin Radio), also impacted Radio 2's audience, taking younger listeners away. Radio 2 was neglecting the fact that by the mid-nineties a substantial audience in their forties, fifties and early sixties had grown up with rock and modern pop, and were still listening to contemporary music; they and the generation that had been abandoned by Radio 1 had largely deserted the BBC for commercial stations.
Line was replaced by James Moir in 1996. Moir repositioned Radio 2 as a station with an AOR/contemporary playlist by day and more specialist broadcasting in the evenings, moving many presenters across from the increasingly youth-oriented Radio 1. The schedule (particularly on Friday evenings and Sundays) still bears some hallmarks of the "easy listening" era, but Radio 2 is now firmly established as "the nation's favourite", a title the BBC has started using to describe it rather than Radio 1.
Today Radio 2 is the most listened to radio station in the UK, with its schedule filled with well-known and respected broadcasters like Sir Terry Wogan, Steve Wright, Chris Evans, Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie, Janice Long, Johnnie Walker, Russell Brand, Bob Harris, and Jonathan Ross.
The station now has a demographic of adult listeners, generally from 30 and up, and its daytime playlist tends to feature music from the 1980s and 1990s as well as contemporary chart, album and indie music. The station's appeal is both broad and deep, with a mixture of accessible daytime programming and specialist programming for enthusiasts of particular types or eras of music
Weekday evenings tend to feature specialist music programmes -- a range of genres are covered including jazz, folk music, blues, country and western, reggae, classic rock, showtunes and also biographies and documentaries on various musical artists and genres. This specialist programming typically runs between 7 pm and 10.30 pm.
Brian Matthew's "Sounds of the Sixties" remains a popular fixture on the Saturday schedule, with Steve Harley's shorter "Sounds of the Seventies" running midweek.
On Sundays the schedule reverts for much of the day to something decidedly closer to its old style, with presenters like Malcolm Laycock and David Jacobs and long-standing programmes like Sunday Half Hour.
Whilst being adult-oriented, Radio 2 does not broadcast complete works of classical music, the domain of Radio 3, or offer in-depth discussion or drama, the job of Radio 4 (Jeremy Vine's weekday afternoon show does cover current and consumer affairs in a relatively informal way, in a style pioneered by his predecessor, Jimmy Young). Until the advent of Radio Five Live, Radio 2's medium wave frequencies were the BBC's main radio outlet for sports coverage (before becoming Five Live, Radio 5 was originally created by splitting off Radio 2's mediumwave frequencies, leaving Radio 2 on FM only).
Like all BBC radio stations broadcasting to UK audiences, Radio 2 is funded by the television licence fee, and does not broadcast commercials.
BBC Radio 2's last closedown was at 02:02 GMT on 27 January 1979. Sarah Kennedy (who, following the fading of her 1980s television career, has been a daily early morning presenter on Radio 2 since 1993) was at the Newsdesk after Brian Matthew finished the "Round Midnight" programme. From 02:00-05:00 GMT the following night onwards, late-night listeners could listen to "You and the Night and the Music". (Although, throughout the 1980s and early 90s, a programme called "Nightride" also broadcast at this time). Radio 2 has therefore had the longest period of continuous broadcasting of any national radio station in the UK - more than twenty-five years to date.
On this station, the BBC Pips are broadcast at 07:00 and at 08:00 on weekdays between gaps in Terry Wogan's self-styled banter, then again at 1700 at the end of Steve Wright's afternoon show. When Jonathan Ross sat in for Wogan in 2004, he failed to cut his own banter and consequently spoke over the pips.
BBC Radio 2 moved its studios from Broadcasting House to the adjacent Western House in 2005 [1], although many shows are broadcast from Birmingham (e.g. Janice Long) or Manchester (Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie).
Radio 2 has recruited Jeff Smith, currently director of UK and International programming at Napster and a former head of music at Radio 1, as its new head of music. [2]

Current Presenters and shows (from 16 April)

Mainstream shows

★ Janice Long: ''Weekday Overnights''

★ Alex Lester: ''The Best Time Of The Day''

★ Sarah Kennedy: ''The Dawn Patrol''

★ Terry Wogan: Wake Up to Wogan

★ Ken Bruce including the Popmaster quiz

★ Jeremy Vine current affairs; successor to Jimmy Young

★ Steve Wright ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' (''The Big Show'')

★ Chris Evans ''Drive Time''

★ Mark Radcliffe & Stuart Maconie ''Monday - Thursday Evenings''

★ Simon Mayo: ''The Radio 2 Music Club'' (Monday Late Night)

★ Steve Lamacq: ''Wednesday Late Nights''

★ Mark Lamarr: ''Friday Night/Saturday Mornings''

★ Pete Mitchell: ''Late Friday/Early Saturday & Late Saturday/ Early Sunday''

★ Mo Dutta: ''Early Saturday & Sunday Mornings''

★ Jonathan Ross: ''Saturday Mid-Mornings''

★ Stuart Maconie: ''Saturday Afternoons''

★ Dermot O'Leary: ''Saturday Evenings''

★ Paul Gambaccini: ''America's Greatest Hits''

★ Russell Brand: ''Saturday nights''

★ Bob Harris:''Saturday Late nights''

★ ''Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs'' (request show)

★ Michael Parkinson (jazz/easy listening, entertainment news and reviews, Sunday papers)

★ Dale Winton ''Pick of the Pops'' (nostalgia)

★ Johnnie Walker: ''Sunday Evenings''

Specialist shows

Mondays

★ Paul Jones Blues

★ Clare Teal ''Big Band Special''

★ Humphrey Lyttelton Jazz

★ Jools Holland: Jazz

Tuesdays

★ Desmond Carrington ''The Music Goes Round''

★ Nigel Ogden: ''The Organist Entertains''

Wednesdays

★ Mike Harding Folk Music

Thursdays

★ Bob Harris Country

★ Rockin with Suzi Q

★ Steve Harley: ''Sounds of the 70's''

Fridays

★ Friday Night is Music Night'': light music

★ ''Listen to the Band''

★ Matthew Wright: ''The Weekender'' (arts programme)

Saturdays

★ Brian Matthew:''Sounds of the 60s''

Sundays

★ Aled Jones: ''Good Morning Sunday'' (religious-themed breakfast show)

★ Elaine Paige - show tunes

★ Alan Titchmarsh ''Melodies for You'' (from 28th January)

★ Roger Royle: Sunday Half Hour (hymns)

★ Russell Davies: ''Sunday Evening'' (from 28th January)

★ Malcolm Laycock - Celebrating ''The Age of Swing''

★ David Jacobs ''The David Jacobs Collection'' (musicals, film music)

Others

★ ''It's Been a Bad Week'' - Comedy series starring Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis.

★ ''The Day the Music Died'' - Topical Music Comedy series starring Jon Holmes and Andrew Collins

★ Book Sequence

★ Richard Allinson & Mark Goodier are stand in presenters and regularly cover many weekday shows when the regular presenter takes his/her holiday. They also present documentaries & specialist shows for the network.

Radio 2 breakfast show presenters

★ John Dunn - September, 1967 to April, 1972

★ Terry Wogan - April, 1972 to December, 1984

★ Ken Bruce - January, 1985 to March, 1986

★ Derek Jameson - March, 1986 to December, 1991

★ Brian Hayes - January to December, 1992

★ Terry Wogan - January 1993 - present

Newsreaders (current)

'Weekday mornings'

★ Fran Godfrey

★ Alan Dedicoat (Nicknamed "Deadly Alancoat" by Terry Wogan)

★ Charles Nove

★ John Marsh (Nicknamed "Boggy" by Terry Wogan, recently retired, now freelance)
'Weekday Afternoons and evenings'

★ Fenella Fudge (formerly Fenella Hadingham)

★ Susan Rae
'Weekends afternoons and evenings'

★ Ricky Salmon

★ Andrew Peach (Nicknamed 'Peachy' by Chris Evans)

★ Andrea Simmons
'Overnight weekdays'

★ Colin Berry (recently retired from the BBC but still appears occasionally as a freelance)

★ Charles Carroll

★ Jim Lee

★ Alan Smith
'Overnight weekends'

★ Dominic Cotter

★ Chandrika Chevli

Controllers of BBC Radio 2

★ 1967–1968: Robin Scott

★ 1968–1976: Douglas Muggeridge

★ 1976–1978: Derek Chinnery

★ 1978–1980: Charles McLelland

★ 1980–1984: David Hatch

★ 1984–1990: Bryant Marriott

★ 1990–1995: Frances Line

★ 1996–2003: James Moir

★ 2004–present: Lesley Douglas

Logo History

Logo images from TV & Radio Bits

References

1. Rajar national radio ratings ending December 2006
2. BBC radio FM transmitters

External links

★ BBC Radio 2 at bbc.co.uk

★ Media UK's BBC Radio 2 site including scheduled programming

★ MP3s of the last closedown, and the last start of day

★ R2OK! the Radio 2 Preservation Society

★ Radio 2 Timeline/History