BBC Radio 4 Extra (PatrZDZ's vision)

**BBC Radio 4 Extra** is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting a mix of comedy, drama and children's programming nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the principal broadcaster of the BBC's spoken-word archive, and as a result the majority of its programming originates from that archive. It also broadcasts extended and companion programmes to those broadcast on Radio 4, and provides a "catch-up" service for certain programmes.

## History

The station was launched on 15 December 2002 by comedian Paul Merton. The first programme was broadcast at 8 pm and was simulcast with Radio 4. The station replaced BBC Classic Comedy, which broadcast mostly archived comedy.

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.

In the later year Radio 4 Extra 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.

## Broadcast

BBC Radio 4 Extra is broadcast from Broadcasting House in central London, although due to the nature of the channel very little of the channel's content is broadcast live from there with even the continuity announcements being pre-recorded. The channel uses ten continuity announcers to link between programmes. Notable announcers include Wes Butters, Kathy Clugston, Jim Lee, David Miles, Susan Rae, Alex Riley, Alan Smith, Chris Berrow and Steve Urquhart.

The station is broadcast nationally on digital radio – via the BBC National DAB multiplex – and online via BBC Sounds and other services such as Radioplayer. It is also available on a number of digital television platforms; Freeview, NTL, Telewest and Sky.

The controller of the station is Gwyneth Williams who is answerable to the Radio board in the BBC. BBC Radio 4 Extra is broadcast in stereo on television and online, although many of the older archive programmes were only recorded in mono. On DAB, all programmes are broadcast in mono, as the maximum bit rate is only 80 kbps.

## Programming

Although the station features a mix of archived programming, content has been brought further in line with BBC Radio 4, based upon their schedule. These include extended versions of programmes such as The News Quiz, The Now Show and Desert Island Discs, the broadcast of archived editions of the latter as Desert Island Discs Revisited and Ambridge Extra, a more youth-orientated version of long-running radio soap The Archers.

Some programming is organised into programme blocks of similar programmes. The late night Comedy Club segment broadcasts "two hours of contemporary comedy" from 10pm to midnight Sunday to Friday (the block is repeated between 3 and 5am the following morning) and is primarily hosted by Arthur Smith. Comedy previously available as CDs on the Laughing Stock label is also broadcast.

Drama is also broadcast, notably in The 7th Dimension segment, which is broadcast twice a day, at 6pm and midnight. The block airs speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy and horror stories presented by Nicholas Briggs. The segment contains programmes including Doctor Who audio dramas starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, as well as programmes imported from overseas including American broadcasts The Twilight Zone and Garrison Keillor's Radio Show as well as Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe from Canada.

The station's remit requires it to carry children's programming which, since the station's launch, has come in various forms. Currently, BBC Radio 4 Extra's weekday schedule features four hours of programming for children - Cbeebies Radio from 06:00 to 08:00, which is aimed at younger children and consisting of short serials, stories and rhymes; and The Big Toe Radio Show from 16:00 to 18:00; which features phone-ins and quizzes as well as stories intended for the 8+ age group.

BBC Radio 4 Extra carries no news bulletins, with the exception of a weekday morning bulletin aimed at younger listeners presented by the Newsround team at 07:55.

### Archive

Much of the channels schedule is formed of repeats from classic comedy and drama. The schedule spans The Goon Show (1950s) and Round the Horne (1960s), through Radio 2 favourites like The News Huddlines, Castle's On The Air and Listen to Les to recent Radio 4 shows such as Little Britain and Dead Ringers. Some of this content is newly discovered, such as copies of the version of Dick Barton Special Agent that were made for international distribution and early episodes of The Goon Show.

### Original programmes

BBC Radio 4 Extra does broadcast some original programming. Newsjack is a topical news sketch show which encourages contributions from listeners. Spanking New on Seven was stand-up comedy, and the BBC New Comedy Competition a competition for new comedians.