BBC Radio 5 (PatrZDZ's vision)

**BBC Radio 5** is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly sports, children's and educational programmes, as well as archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcasting virtually all major sports events staged in the UK or involving British competitors.

Radio 5 was launched on 27 August 1990 and is transmitted via analogue radio in AM on medium wave 693 and 909 kHz and digitally via digital radio, television and on the BBC Sounds service. Due to rights restrictions, coverage of some events, particularly live sport, is not available online or is restricted to UK addresses.

The station broadcasts from MediaCityUK in Salford in Greater Manchester and is a department of the BBC North division.

## History

A new fifth national radio station was first announced by the BBC on 9 October 1988. In line with the Conservative government's broadcasting policy at the time, the BBC ended its longstanding practice of simulcasting its services on both AM and FM, freeing the medium wave frequencies which BBC Radio 2 had been using since 23 November 1978 for another use.

On 15 August 1990, Radio 2 began to draw to a close its medium wave transmissions by broadcasting a daytime information service providing advice about how to listen on FM as well as advertisements for the new station. This continued until 2.00 pm on the day before Radio 5's launch, and Radio 2 ended its medium wave transmissions at midnight on Sunday 26 August. Nine hours later, at 9.00 am on Monday 27 August, Radio 5 launched with five-year-old boy Andrew Kelly uttering the words: Hello, good morning and welcome to Radio 5.

Prior to this, the new station's frequencies broadcast a long sequence of programming trails linked by Jon Briggs (one of the station's launch presenting team) and pre-recorded sketches 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"). The official first programme was Take Five, a pre-recorded program by Bruno Brookes.

Following the launch of BBC Radio 6 Music in 2002, Radio 5 replaced its music-related programmes with 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.

## Programming

The station is on air daily from 6.00 am until just after midnight although initially, apart from sports coverage, original programming was restricted to key times of the day – breakfast, mid-mornings and on weekdays drive and evening programmes for young people. The rest of the day was filled with simulcasts of other BBC stations and with programmes from the BBC World Service which were broadcast for several hours each day. World Service programmes were aired at 6.00 am, 11.00 pm and for two hours on weekday afternoons, BBC Radio 3 was broadcast on weekday lunchtimes, and BBC Radio 4 on Saturday evenings, and on Sunday lunchtime and teatime. BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 were also simulcast on Sundays – Radio 2 in the afternoon when there was no sports coverage and Radio 1 during the early evening as a replacement for Open University programmes.

From spring 1991, the station started to expand its original programming and this replaced the rebroadcasting of programmes from other BBC networks. The first to be discontinued, at the end of March 1991, was the 11.00 pm World Service block, followed in autumn by the simulcasts of other BBC stations, and May 1992 saw the removal of the weekday afternoon block of World Service programmes. This meant that the station was now producing its own programming every day from 6.30 am until just after midnight. The 6.00 am World Service news bulletin simulcast was retained.

The network allowed the BBC to significantly enhance its sports coverage, especially in its later years. For example, during the Summer and Winter Olympics, the network devotes its entire output to the event and during the summer months, sports coverage is broadcast all afternoon every day of the week.

Although the station mostly features a mix of archived comedy and drama 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.

### Children's programming

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 5's weekday schedule features four hours of programming for children - Cbeebies Radio from 06:30 to 08:30, 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.

### Sports

BBC Radio 5 broadcasts an extremely wide range of sports and covers all the major sporting events, mostly under its flagship sports banner *Sport on 5*. Whilst football commentaries form the majority of live commentaries during the football season, the range of events covered by the station include:

* Live Premier League (simulcasted with BBC World Service for international coverage)
	+ 15:00 Saturday matches
	+ High profile 14:00 and 16:30 Sunday matches
	+ 15:00 Boxing Day matches
	+ 20:00 Monday night matches
	+ Select 16:00 Sunday matches on the week 38 only
	+ 20:00 Wednesday and Thursday night midweek matches
* Live FA Community Shield (simulcasted with BBC World Service for international coverage)
* Live FA Cup (simulcasted with BBC World Service for international coverage)
	+ Select third to fifth round ties
	+ Select quarter-final ties
	+ FA Cup semi-finals (Sundays only)
	+ FA Cup final
* Live EFL Cup (simulcasted with BBC World Service for international coverage)
	+ Select second to fourth round ties
	+ Select quarter-final ties
	+ EFL Cup semi-finals
	+ EFL Cup final
* Live Scottish Premiership
	+ The Old Firm (simulcast with SBS Radio 1)
* FIFA World Cup
* All Home Nations international football matches
	+ Friendly matches
	+ UEFA European Qualifiers
	+ UEFA Nations League
	+ UEFA European Championship
	+ FIFA Women's World Cup
	+ UEFA Women's Euro
* UEFA Champions League
	+ Select group stage matches
	+ Select knockout stage matches
	+ UEFA Champions League final
* UEFA Europa League
	+ Select group stage matches
	+ Select knockout stage matches
	+ UEFA Europa League final (if British side is involved)
* UEFA Europa Conference League
	+ Select group stage matches
	+ Select knockout stage matches
	+ UEFA Europa Conference League final (if British side is involved)
* FIFA Club World Cup (if British side is involved)
* Olympic Games
* Commonwealth Games
* Men's Golf Majors, including full coverage of The Open Championship and The Masters
* Ryder Cup
* Test Match Special commentary of all home England cricket tests, One Day Internationals and T20 Internationals
* England rugby union test matches
* The Autumn Internationals and Six Nations Championship (English and Welsh sides only, simulcast with BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru)
* World Series
* Super Bowl
* Rugby World Cup
* Formula One
* Full coverage of The Grand National and The Cheltenham Festival
* Commentary of the Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot
* Boxing
* World Athletics Championships
* Full coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships
* London Marathon
* The Boat Race

#### Radio 5 Sports Extra

As Radio 5 cannot accommodate all of the sports which they have rights to broadcast, some are covered on sister station Radio 5 Sports Extra, including:

* Selected County Championship, Royal London One-Day Cup and Vitality Blast games from BBC Local Radio
* Selected Super League and Challenge Cup Rugby League games
* All 'Grand Slam' Tennis tournaments
* Selected Premiership Rugby and European Rugby Champions Cup games from BBC Local Radio
* Formula One
* IIHF World Championships
* Action from any other competition broadcast on Radio 5

Radio 5 Sports Extra typically emphasises full broadcasts of Premier League and Home Nations football, if games overlap each other. Radio 5 carries the first-choice match in such cases.

The station was launched on 24 June 1996 as BBC Radio 5 Sports Plus, with coverage from the first day of play at the 1996 Wimbledon tennis tournament.