BBC Radio Five Live
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- "Five Live" redirects here. For other uses, see Five Live (disambiguation).
| Format | News & Sport |
|---|---|
| Owner | BBC
<tr><th>Website</th><td>www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive</td></tr> |
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. There exists also a Dutch public radio station called Radio 5.
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, digital satellite and digital terrestrial television. It is also streamed online, however due to rights restrictions, coverage of some events is not available online. Some content is available online but restricted to UK users, however this restriction can be circumvented by using an open proxy server. 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 was originally launched as BBC Radio 5 at 9am on August 27 1990, with a brief pre-recorded skit from comedians Trevor Neal and Simon Hickson (consisting of the two larking about in the studio amid the strains of "Sailing By", and Trevor suddenly being cut off while he was reading his so-called "Ode to Radio 5") and a pre-recorded programme by Bruno Brookes (who was doing his live breakfast show on Radio 1 at launch time), and carried a mixture of sports, news, children's programming and drama, broadcasting for about 18 hours per day.
In 1991 Operation Desert Storm was launched, the multinational response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From January 16 Radio 4's FM frequencies were used to provide an all-news network for the coverage of the war. Despite protests from BBC Radio 4 listeners the BBC also received praise for the quality of this service and the speed with which it was set up. Following the end of the conflict Radio 4 resumed its normal schedule but the BBC commenced a review into the possibility of providing a full-time news station, also broadcasting a similar service on long wave during the 1992 UK general election campaign. Due to the resistance to any use of Radio 4 FM or LW frequencies it was decided that Radio 5, criticised by John Birt as "improvised and disjointed", would relaunch as a combined news and sport channel.
The "old" Radio 5 closed down at midnight on Sunday March 27, 1994 following a special programme on the subject of endings, and the new Radio Five 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 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 more BBC News services later in the decade.
Before the launch of digital broadcasting, both versions of the station broadcast for several years on analogue satellite with near-FM quality.
Five Live broadcasts a news bulletin and sports headlines on the hour, news headlines and a full sports bulletin on the half-hour (usually around 35 minutes past), with travel at quarter-past and quarter-to.
On weekdays there is a 3-hour breakfast programme from 6-9am followed by a phone-in programme from 9am-12pm. The Midday News broadcasts for an hour at 12, and then Simon Mayo has a three hour programme from 1pm, with celebrity interviews, discussion and [Mark Kermode]]'s film reviews on Fridays. Between 4pm and 7pm, Peter Allen and Jane Garvey present Drive, covering the days news and sport. From 7pm to 10pm, Mark Saggers presents Five Live Sport, which often includes live commentary on a football match. At 10, Anita Anand presents a three hour show which rounds up the day's main stories. On Friday, it is Stephen Nolan who presents his show. Between 1am and 5am, Up All Night is on-air presented by either Rhod Sharp or Dotun Adebayo. Between 5am and Breakfast at 6am, a mixture of early morning financial news in Wake Up To Money, obituaries in Brief Lives and early-morning new s in Morning Reports.
At weekends, Five Live Breakfast is on air from 6.30am-9am. At 9am on a Saturday, Eamonn Holmes broadcasts a light-hearted sports chat programme. On a Sunday, Garry Richardson presents a programme carrying interviews with top sports personalities. At 11am on a Saturday, Fighting Talk with Colin Murray runs for an hour. On a Sunday, at 10am, Julian Worricker presents a political discussion programme, including the Five Live Report, an investigation into a certain issue. Five Live Sport broadcasts all afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday, covering mainly Premiership football (which is shared with Five Live Sports Extra), and is presented by Mark Pougatch on Saturday and Eleanor Aldroyd on Sunday. Between 6pm and 8pm on Saturday, 6-0-6 with Alan Green is on air - on Sunday is is on between 6pm and 7pm with a different presenter (often Ray Stubbs). After this on Sunday, Weekend Business fills the next hour. At 8pm on both days, the Weekend News broadcasts for two hours, fronted by John Pienaar and Lesley Ashmall. At 10pm, Stephen Nolan presents his phone-in show. Between 1am and 5am, Sarfraz Manzoor presents Up All Night.
Many shows are now saved online as podcasts and some, including Mark Kermode's film reviews are available on iTunes.
Five Live is the overnight sustaining service for almost all BBC Local Radio stations between 1am and 5am when Up All Night is broadcast.
A companion station, BBC Five Live Sports Extra, was launched as a digital-only service on February 2 2002.
Five Live broadcasts an extremely wide range of sports and covers all the major sporting events. The following is a sample of its output (with sister station Sports Extra).
- Live Premiership and FA Cup matches
- The World Cup
- The Olympic Games
- 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 Super League and the Rugby League Tri-Nations
- The Challenge Cup
- England cricket tests and One-day Internationals
- Cricket World Cup
- Formula One
- The Grand National
- The Cheltenham Festival
- The Derby
- World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games
Five Live occasionally collaborates with the BBC Asian Network (Bob Shennan is controller of both stations). In 2005 the General Election results programme was simulcast.
The many presenters over the years have included Peter Allen, Anita Anand, Danny Baker, Matthew Bannister, Susan Bookbinder, Jon Briggs, Jon Champion, Adrian Chiles, Edwina Currie, David Mellor, Nicky Campbell, Victoria Derbyshire, Kirsty Gallacher, Jane Garvey, Fi Glover, Stuart Hall, Nick Hancock, Brian Hayes, Jane Hill, Eamonn Holmes, John Inverdale, Desmond Lynam, Simon Mayo, Louise Minchin, Stephen Nolan, Jonathan Pearce, Mark Pougatch, Allan Robb, Nick Robinson, Sybil Ruscoe, Mark Saggers, Rhod Sharp, Kate Silverton, Colin Murray, DJ Spoony, Bill Turnbull, Sian Williams, Richard Bacon and Julian Worricker.
In 2005 the "Radio Five Live Sporting Yearbook" (ISBN 0-00-721598-3) was published.
Five Live's commercial rival is TalkSPORT, but unlike the commercial television station, Sky Sports, TalkSPORT has acquired few exclusive rights, and tax-funded radio, represented by Five Live and the BBC's local radio stations, remains dominant in radio sport broadcasting in the UK.
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.
Five Live were 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 Five Live.
[edit] Current Programmes
Regular shows as of April 2006
- Wake up to Money, presented by Mickey Clark and Andrew Verity
- Breakfast, with Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty
- The Victoria Derbyshire Programme
- The Simon Mayo Show
- Drive, with Peter Allen and Jane Garvey
- Five Live Sport, presented by Mark Saggers
- The Anita Anand Show
- Up All Night with Rhod Sharp or Dotun Adebayo
- The Late Show with Stephen Nolan
- The Eamonn Holmes Show
- Fighting Talk with Colin Murray
- 6-0-6 with Alan Green
- The Worricker Programme
[edit] See also
[edit] 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.
- BBC Radio Five Live at bbc.co.uk
- A few jingles from R5, including the final close of the old R5
| BBC Radio stations |
|---|
| FM/AM: Radio 1 | Radio 2 | Radio 3 | Radio 4 | Radio Five Live |
| Digital: 6 Music | BBC 7 | 1Xtra | Five Live Sports Extra | Asian Network |
| Nations: Radio Scotland | Radio nan Gàidheal | Radio Wales | Radio Cymru | Radio Ulster | Radio Foyle |
| English Regions: BBC Local Radio |
| International: BBC World Service |
