BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners.[1] Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. The 'About Radio 2' BBC webpage says: "With a repertoire covering more than 60 years,[2] Radio 2 plays the widest selection of music on the radio - from classic and mainstream pop to country, folk, jazz, musical theatre, soul, hip hop, rock 'n' roll, gospel and blues."[3]
The network was launched at 5:30am[6] on Saturday 30 September 1967, replacing the BBC Light Programme, with some of the Light Programme's music shows transferring to the newly launched BBC Radio 1. The first show had started on both Radio 1 and Radio 2 but continued with Breakfast Special presented by Paul Hollingdale as Radio 1 separated at 7am. The first record played on Radio 2 was the title track to the 1965 film The Sound of Music by Julie Andrews.
In early years, much programming and music was common to both stations, particularly on the shared FM frequency. Radio 1 was targeted at the audience of pirate radio stations whereas Radio 2 settled down as a middle of the road station playing laid-back pop and rock, folk and country, jazz and big-band music, easy listening, light classical music, and oldies, with significant amounts of comedy and sport.
Notable broadcasters on Radio 2 in the 1970s and 1980s were Tom Edwards and Ray Moore, who both presented the early breakfast show, Terry Wogan on breakfast, replaced by Ken Bruce and later Derek Jameson; Jimmy Young and his lunchtime current affairs show; David Hamilton on mid-afternoons and John Dunn at what became known as drivetime. In its early years, the station, as the Light Programme had done, played a large amount of specially-recorded music because of needle time restrictions imposed by the Musicians' Union.
On 6 January 1975, broadcasting hours for Radio 2 were reduced due to budget cuts at the BBC. The 5am – 2am schedule was scaled back to a 6am start-up from Mondays to Saturdays, and 6:55am on Sundays. The station closed down at around 12:30am each day. However, from 29 September 1975, the closedown was brought forward to 12:10am on weekdays and 12:33am on Saturdays and Sundays. There were exceptions, especially over Christmas and New Year periods, when hours would be temporarily extended. The pre-1975 schedule was reinstated on 1 April 1978.[7][8] On 23 November 1978, the station moved from longwave to medium wave.
On 27 January 1979, Radio 2 became the first national 24-hour radio station in the UK.[9]
The first half of the 1980s had seen presenters such as Kenny Everett, David Hamilton and Steve Jones increasingly feature more contemporary pop music in their playlists. In response to the controversy these changes had caused in some circles, Frances Line, head of music, repositioned the station in April 1986.
An ageing Radio 1 audience which had grown up with the station was sticking with it into their 40s and beyond; Line repositioned Radio 2 to appeal exclusively to the over-50s, introduced older presenters and based the playlist around nostalgia, easy listening and light music.
As a result, David Hamilton quit the station at the end of 1986, claiming the music policy had become "geriatric"; Terry Wogan's replacement, Derek Jameson, also appealed to an older demographic. Although popular with its target audience, the policy alienated many younger listeners who had listened to both Radio 1 and Radio 2, and the station's audience fell.
In 1990, in the year that Line become controller, the station lost its medium wave frequencies to allow for the launch of BBC Radio 5 (later replaced by BBC Radio 5 Live), and BBC Radio's sports coverage moved to the new station at that time.
The late 1980s saw the launch of "gold" spinoffs from Independent Local Radio stations across many parts of the UK, playing classic pop and rock. Despite these stations only being available on MW, they still took some of Radio 2's audience, so with the station's audience in decline, a change of emphasis was needed and in 1992, the weekday daytime music policy was slightly adjusted with pre-1950 music primarily confined to Sundays, and the network's playlist of light classical music was reduced following the launch of Classic FM in September 1992. Radio 2's profile was boosted by the return of Terry Wogan at the start of 1993, but following the generational shift at Radio 1, commercial radio, helped further by the 1993 launch of Virgin Radio, had taken the highest share of the national audience by the mid-1990s.
"The Nation's Favourite" – 1996 onwards
Line was replaced by James Moir in 1996. Moir repositioned Radio 2 with a largely AOR/contemporary playlist by day, aimed at a more mature audience than Radio 1 (which, post-Britpop, was again starting to focus on a young audience) but still embracing new music, and more specialist broadcasting by recognised genre experts in the evenings.
Unlike the early-1990s repositioning of Radio 1, in which the BBC lost many well-known names, many former Radio 1 presenters stayed with the corporation and moved across to Radio 2.
As well as having most listeners nationally, it ranks first in many regions above local radio stations. BBC Radio 2 played to 27% of the available audience in 2006.[10]
The BBC Radio 2 logo, 2007–2021.
In February 2007, Radio 2 recruited Jeff Smith, director of UK and International programming at Napster and a former head of music at Radio 1, as its new head of music. Smith joined the network on 26 March.[11]
In the first quarter of 2011, Radio 2 was part of an efficiency review conducted by John Myers.[12] His role, according to Andrew Harrison, the chief executive of RadioCentre, was "to identify both areas of best practice and possible savings."[12]
On 29 July 2013, Radio 2 changed its "sonic logo" for the first time in 15 years, replacing the one composed by US jingle company GrooveWorx with a new seven-note melody composed by British composer and producer Jem Godfrey.[13] This coincided with the launch of a new jingle package produced by Godfrey in association with Wisebuddah Productions, marking Radio 2's second new package in as many years.
During 2018, Radio 2 had numerous presenter reshuffles. In May, drivetime host Simon Mayo was joined by evening DJ Jo Whiley in a new format. The move proved unpopular with listeners, and by October 2018, Mayo announced his intention to leave the station, later adding that this was so he could help launch the new classical music radio station Scala Radio in March 2019, and would continue his Radio 5 Livefilm review programme. Mayo and Whiley's last show together was broadcast on 20 December 2018, while Whiley moved back to her evening slot, with Mayo's final show on Radio 2 broadcast on 21 December. Sara Cox was later announced as the new drivetime host, starting on 14 January 2019.
Also in 2022, Steve Wright announced that he was to be stepping down from hosting his afternoon show after 23 years. Scott Mills was to replace him, although Wright was to continue hosting his long running Sunday Love Songs show and would also host some special programmes for the station. In late 2023 he was announced as the new host of Pick of the Pops on Saturday afternoons.
On 7 February 2024, the BBC announced plans to launch a new Radio 2 spin-off station on DAB and online via BBC Sounds. The Radio 2 spin-off will focus on music from the 1950s, 60s and 70s in a bid to entice some of the station's former listeners back.[23]
Current position
The station's audience is now primarily adults over the age of 35 (82% of listeners)[24] although in recent years it has attracted younger listeners. Its daytime playlist features music from the 1960s to various current chart hits, album and indie music. The station's appeal is broad and deep, with accessible daytime programmes and specialist programmes of particular types or eras of music. In 2009, Radio 2 again won the Music Week Award for National Radio Station of the Year, an award it won for several consecutive years.
Weekday evenings have historically featured specialist music, including jazz, folk, blues, country, reggae, classic rock, show tunes and biographies and documentaries on musical artists and genres. Previously, this specialist programming ran from 20:00–midnight but now runs only from 21:00–22:00. Radio 2 hosts both the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Big Band.
Sounds of the 60s remains a regular fixture on the Saturday schedule, as does Sounds of the 70s on Sundays. On 5 October 2013, these two shows were joined by Sounds of the 80s, which was originally hosted by Sara Cox and broadcast on Friday from 22:00–midnight. In May 2018 Gary Davies took over this show, with Cox was hosting a live 22:00 to midnight slot from Monday–Thursday, until she moved to drivetime on 14 January 2019. As part of a schedule change in July 2022, Sounds of the 80s moved back to Saturday evenings from 20:00–22:00.[25]
Radio 2 does not broadcast complete works of classical music or offer in-depth discussion or drama, although some book readings, comedy and arts coverage remains on the station. Jeremy Vine's weekday lunchtime show covers current and consumer affairs in an informal manner, a style pioneered by Jimmy Young. Until the launch of Radio 5 in August 1990, Radio 2's medium wave frequencies carried the majority of BBC Radio's sports coverage.
Like all domestic BBC radio stations, Radio 2 is funded by the television licence fee and does not carry advertising.
The Greenwich Time Signal (also known as "the pips"), which is normally broadcast on Radio 4 and the World Service, is broadcast at 07:00, 08:00 and 17:00 on weekdays, 07:00 and 08:00 on Saturdays, and 07:00, 08:00 and 09:00 on Sundays.
Radio 2 moved its studios from Broadcasting House to the adjacent Western House (renamed Wogan House in 2016) in 2006.[26] Although the majority of programming comes from London, some shows are broadcast from other cities around the UK, including Birmingham and Manchester. For many years, the network's overnight presenters, such as Janice Long and Alex Lester, were based in Birmingham, but made the move to London in April 2008. Since May 2018, the weekday overnight show, now presented by OJ Borg has been broadcast from Salford.
In November 2022, the BBC confirmed plans for Radio 2 and 6 Music to move out of Wogan House, and move back into studios at the nearby BBC Broadcasting House in London.[27] On 18 February 2024, "The Paul Gambaccini Collection" was the final Radio 2 show, and radio show altogether, to be broadcast from Wogan House after 18 years.
Radio 2 broadcasts news bulletins from a studio in Broadcasting House. All bulletins are broadcast 24 hours a day, except Saturday nights at 11pm and some special events. The station's newsreaders also provide bulletins for 6 Music.
These presenters do not have permanent slots on Radio 2 but have sat in for shows on the network. The list does not include regularly scheduled presenters who also stand in for other shows.
Presenter Sarah Kennedy attracted controversy before she left the station in 2010. In May 1999, she gave a "bizarre" performance while standing in for Terry Wogan, blaming the incident on a lack of sleep the previous night.[138] Her slurred speech throughout her show on 13 August 2007 also made the headlines. She blamed a sore throat and later took a month-long break.[139] It was later reported that Kennedy was recovering from pneumonia,[140] and she returned to work on 10 September. In October 2007, she was reprimanded after joking that she had almost run over a black pedestrian because she could not see him in the dark. The BBC later apologised for the comment.[141] She was also "spoken to" by BBC bosses after praising Enoch Powell during a show in July 2009, describing him as "the best prime minister this country never had".[142]
On 16 October 2008, an episode of The Russell Brand Show, co-hosted by fellow Radio 2 presenter Jonathan Ross was recorded for transmission at a later date. The show included Russell Brand and Ross leaving four prank messages on actor Andrew Sachs' answerphone, including offensive remarks about Sachs' granddaughter and use of foul language. The programme was subsequently broadcast on 18 October–partially censored–having passed the various pre-transmission checks from the programme's editors. Initially, the programme only received a small number of complaints regarding Ross' bad language; however, the incident was reported a week later by The Mail on Sunday and a public outcry soon ensued. The case was referred to both Ofcom and the BBC Trust, and in the interim, Ross and Brand were both suspended for 12 weeks from all BBC programmes pending investigation. Soon after these announcements, Brand announced his resignation from the BBC, shortly followed by the controller at the time, Lesley Douglas. Ross was suspended from the BBC without pay for 12 weeks.[143][144]
In July 2009, longtime presenter Malcolm Laycock announced his resignation live on air following a long-running dispute over the content of his show, Sunday Night at 10, and issues regarding his salary.[145]
On 9 August 2022, Paul O'Grady quit his Sunday afternoon show after fourteen years, making public that he was not happy with a schedule change which saw Rob Beckett fill his slot for thirteen weeks before O'Grady was scheduled to come back.[146][147]
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