BBC Radio 5 Live

"Five Live" redirects here. For other uses, see Five Live (disambiguation).

BBC Radio 5 Live

Broadcast area	UK - National
Slogan	"On DAB digital radio, digital TV, downloads and online, this is 5 Live" "More live Premier League football than anyone else"
First air date	28 March, 1994
Frequency	MW: 693 kHz, 909 kHz, and on selected BBC Local Radio Station's frequencies overnight. DAB: 12B Freeview: 705 Virgin Media: 905 UPC Ireland: 911 Live Stream Real/WM
Format	News & Sport
Owner	BBC
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive

BBC Radio 5 Live (formerly styled BBC Radio Five Live) is the BBC's radio service providing live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries. It is the principal radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcasting virtually all major sports events staged in the UK or involving British competitors.

It is transmitted via analogue radio on 693 and 909 kHz AM in the mediumwave band, frequencies that belonged to BBC Radio 2 from November 23, 1978 to August 26, 1990 (before that they were used in some regions of the UK by the BBC Home Service and BBC Radio 4), and on digital radio in the United Kingdom via DAB, digital satellite and Freeview (digital terrestrial television). It is also streamed online, however due to rights restrictions, coverage of some events, especially "live" sporting events, is not available online. Some content is available online but restricted to UK users.

The station broadcasts from the News Centre at BBC Television Centre with a small office in Manchester and a team of its own reporters based around the UK. The station will be moving in 2011, as part of a larger shift of some BBC resources, to Salford.

History

The success of Radio 4 News FM during the 1991 first Gulf War led Liz Forgan to suggest (on a Friday in May 1993)^[1] the introduction of a combined news and sport network. Accordingly, the "old" Radio 5 closed down at midnight on Sunday March 27, 1994 and the new Radio 5 Live began its 24-hour service on the morning of Monday, March 28. The first voice on air was Jane Garvey, who later went on to co-present the breakfast and drivetime shows with Peter Allen. The launch was described by The Times as "slipp[ing] smoothly and confidently into a routine of informative banter"^[2] and The Scotsman as "professionalism at its slickest."^[3]

The tone of the channel, engaging and more relaxed than contemporary BBC output, was the key to the channel's success and would set the model for other BBC News services later in the decade. The first audiences were some four million, with a record audience of six and a quarter million.

Before the launch of digital broadcasting, the station (and Radio 5 before it) broadcast for several years on analogue satellite with near-FM quality.

Presenters that have now left the station include Danny Baker, Susan Bookbinder, Jon Briggs, Jon Champion, Adrian Chiles, Edwina Currie, Fi Glover, Stuart Hall, Nick Hancock, Brian Hayes, Peter Heaton-Jones, Jane Hill, Desmond Lynam, David Mellor, Louise Minchin, Paddy O'Connell, Jonathan Pearce, Nick Robinson, Sybil Ruscoe, Kate Silverton, Bill Turnbull, Arlo White and Sian Williams.

In 2005 the Radio Five Live Sporting Yearbook (ISBN 0-00-721598-3) was published.

The station won five Sony Awards, one gold and four silver, in 2005 and was nominated an additional six times. The lone gold award was in the News Story Award category for its coverage of the 2004 Asian tsunami.

BBC Radio 5 Live was Official Broadcasters of the FIFA World Cup 2006 along with talkSPORT. Both stations will broadcast live Premiership commentaries from August 2007, with the 7 rights packages being shared 6 to 1 in favour of 5 Live.

A companion station, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, was launched as a digital-only service on February 2 2002.

In August 2007, BBC Radio Five Live was renamed BBC Radio 5 Live and was given a new logo.

BBC breaking news policy

BBC policy for major breaking news events^[4] has a priority list. With domestic news, the correspondent first records a "generic minute" summary (for use by all stations and channels) and then priority is to report on Radio 5 Live, then on BBC News 24 and onto any other programmes that are on air. For foreign news, first a "generic minute" is recorded, then reports are to World Service radio, then the reporter talks to any other programmes that are on air.

Sport

BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra broadcasts an extremely wide range of sports and covers all the major sporting events under its flagship sports banner Sport on 5 They are:

Live Premiership, FA Cup, Carling Cup matches and SPL and Scottish Cup matches.
The World Cup
The Olympic Games
All Home Nations International football matches.
Champions League and Uefa Cup
Men's Golf Majors and the Ryder Cup
'Grand Slam' Tennis tournaments
England rugby union test matches
The Six Nations Championship and the Autumn Internationals
Rugby World Cup
The British and Irish Lions Tours
Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup
The Super League and the Rugby League Tri-Nations
The Challenge Cup
England cricket tests and One-Day Internationals
Cricket World Cup
ICC Champions Trophy
Friends Provident Trophy semi-finals and final and Twenty20 Finals Day (The final being on 5 Live)
Formula One
MotoGP
The Grand National
The Cheltenham Festival
The Derby
Boxing
World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games
Golden League Athletics, European Cup, Crystal Palace and other athletics meets.

BBC Radio 5 Live occasionally collaborates with the BBC Asian Network (Bob Shennan is controller of both stations). In 2005 the General Election results programme was simulcast.

Despite the fact that commercial stations (such as Sky Sports) have acquired the vast majority of sports television broadcasting rights in the UK, the BBC remains dominant in radio sport with BBC Radio 5 Live and its local radio stations. Its main commercial rival for radio sports rights is TalkSPORT.

Current programmes and presenters

Regular shows as of October 2007:

Wake up to Money, presented by Mickey Clark and Andrew Verity
Breakfast, with Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty in the week and Matt Smith and Anita Rani at the weekend
The Victoria Derbyshire Programme
The Midday News, with Aasmah Mir
The Simon Mayo Show
5 Live Drive, with Peter Allen and Anita Anand (Rachel Burden is a regular stand-in presenter)
Five Live Sport, presented by Mark Saggers from Monday-Thursday, Mark Pougatch Friday & Saturday and Eleanor Oldroyd on Sunday. Other presenters include Russel Fuller, Kate Williams, John Inverdale and Ian Dennis.
Richard Bacon
Up All Night with Rhod Sharp, Sarfraz Manzoor or Dotun Adebayo
The Stephen Nolan Show
The Eamonn Holmes Show
Fighting Talk with Colin Murray
6-0-6 with Alan Green, DJ Spoony, Ray Stubbs or Tim Lovejoy
Rachel Burden on Sunday mornings, to be replaced by Gabby Logan in the New Year.
The Weekend News, with Lesley Ashmall and John Piennar
The Weekend Business, with Jeff Randall
Prime Minister's Questions, Simon Mayo and John Piennar
Sportsweek, with Garry Richardson
Regular stand in presenters include Dalya Raphael, Phil Williams, Allan Robb. Nick Wallis and Tim Lovejoy.

References

^ BBC - Press Office - Jenny Abramsky Oxford lecture two (3 April 2007).
^ Frean, Alexandra. "Radio's new voice greets the dawn", The Times, Times Newspapers, 1994-03-29. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
^ McAlpine, Joan. "Alive and kicking", The Scotsman, The Scotsman Publications, 1994-03-29. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/review_report_research/impartiality_business/f2_news_submission.txt. Retrieved on 2007-06-19.

External links

Note that Radio 5 Live operate International and UK feeds. International feeds aren't allowed to cover certain sports events because of local radio rights to those events.