BBC Radio 4 Extra

**BBC Radio 4 Extra** is British public radio station owned by British Broadcasting Corporation. The channel broadcasts archive repeats of comedy, drama and documentary.

## History

The station was initially launched as **BBC 7** on 15 December 2002 by comedian Paul Merton. The first programme was broadcast at 8 pm and was simulcast with BBC Radio 4. The station, referred to by the codename **Network Z** while in development, was so named to reflect the station's presence on the internet and on digital television in addition to radio. The station broadcast mostly archived comedy and drama, in that the programme was either three or more years old or had been broadcast twice on their original station.

The station also broadcast a themed section for Children's programmes. This section carried a variety of programmes, including ***The Little Toe Radio Show*** (later renamed ***CBeebies Radio***), aimed at younger children and consisting of short serials, stories and rhymes, and ***The Big Toe Radio Show*** with phone-ins, quizzes and stories for the 8+ age group. The segment also hosted the only news programme on the network presented by the ***Newsround*** team.

The station won the **Sony Radio Academy Award** for station sound in 2003, was nominated for the **Promo Award** in 2004, and in 2005 received a silver for the **Short-Form** award, plus nominations in the speech and digital terrestrial station-of-the-year sections. Because of the station's archive nature the station was scheduled, produced and researched by 17 people, excluding presenters.

The station was renamed on 4 October 2008 as **BBC Radio 7** in an effort to bring it in line with other BBC Radio brands. It also coincided with the introduction of a new network logo for the station.

By adding some inviting new programmes and variations of some old favourites, we will encourage more listeners to find and enjoy what this imaginative digital station has to offer.

During this later period, **BBC Radio 7** saw growth in its audience, with a growth rate of 9.5% annually in 2010, going from 931,000 listeners in the first quarter of that year to 949,000 a quarter later, making it the second most listened to BBC digital radio station at the time. However, despite this growth, the audience of children between 4 and 14 was reported to be only at 25,000 and in February 2011 the **BBC Trust** approved a reduction in hours dedicated to children from 1,400 to 350.

BBC announced their intention to relaunch the station on 2 March 2010 and following a public consultation, the proposal was approved by the corporation's governing body the **BBC Trust** in February 2011. As a result, the station relaunched as **BBC Radio 4 Extra** on Saturday 2 April 2011. The relaunched station contained much of the same mix of programming with some new additions that reflected the new alignment with BBC Radio 4, many of which were extended, archive or spin offs of flagship BBC Radio 4 programmes.

## Programmings

### Current

* ***Ambridge Extra***
* ***Arthur Smith's Balham Bash***
* ***The 4 O'Clock Show***
* ***Let's Get Quizzical***
* ***Lord of the Flies***
* ***Meet David Sedaris***
* ***The Nine Billion Names of God***
* ***Sarah Millican's Support Group***
* ***What's So Funny?***
* ***Neverwhere***

### Former

* ***Big Toe Books***
* ***Serious About Comedy***
* ***Tilt***
* ***Newsjack***
* ***Spats***
* ***Knocker***
* ***The Penny Dreadfuls Present…***
* ***Undone***
* ***The Spaceship***
* ***Oneira***
* ***The Laxian Key***
* ***Cold Blood***
* ***The Voice of God***
* ***Slipstream***
* ***A Series of Psychotic Episodes***
* ***CBeebies Radio***
* ***Colin and Fergus' Digi Radio***
* ***No Tomatoes***
* ***The Mitch Benn Music Show***
* ***Spanking New on Seven***
* ***Play and Record***
* ***Pleased to Meet You***
* ***Gus Murdoch's Sacred Cows***
* ***Planet B***
* ***Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures***
* ***The Man in Black***
* ***The Scarifyers***
* ***This is Pulp Fiction***

## Logos

Second logo (2007-2011)Current logo (2011-present)
## External links

* Official website

* National stations
* Regional stations
* Local stations

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