BBC Radio 2

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BBC Radio 2
Radio 2 logo
Broadcast areaUK - National FM & DAB
Frequency88 MHz - 91 MHz
Programming
FormatAdult Oriented Pop Music
Ownership
OwnerBBC
History
First air date
September 30 1967
Links
Websitewww.bbc.co.uk/radio2

Radio Two is one of the BBC's national radio stations and is the most popular station in the UK. It broadcasts throughout the UK on FM radio between 88 and 91 MHz from its studios in Broadcasting House. Programmes are also relayed on DAB, Sky Digital, Cable TV, Freeview and the Internet.

The station started at 7:00am on September 30, 1967, and succeeded the Light Programme, with some of the Light's music shows transferring to the newly-launched Radio 1. The first show however had actually started at 5.30am (on the Light programme) but continued on with Breakfast Special from Paul Hollingdale as Radio 1 split off.

In the early years, much programming and music was common to both stations, particularly on the shared FM frequency. Radio 2 gradually settled down as a middle of the road station playing a mixture of laid-back pop/rock, folk and country, jazz and big-band music, light classics, and 'oldies', with significant amounts of comedy and sport; this policy continued until the late 1980s with new controller Frances Line repositioning the station. An ageing Radio 1 audience was sticking with that station; Line repositioned Radio 2 to appeal exclusively to older listeners and introduced a lineup of older presenters and "light music" pitched squarely at a 50+ audience. Although popular with its target audience, this policy alienated younger listeners who had previously time-shared between Radio 1 and Radio 2; the station's audience fell drastically, taking another hit when sport coverage was moved to Radio 5; the rise of album-rock commercial stations also impacted Radio 2's audience, taking younger listeners away.

Line was replaced by James Moir in 1996. Moir repositioned Radio 2 as a station with an AOR/contemporary playlist by day and more specialist broadcasting in the evenings, moving many presenters across from an increasingly youth-oriented Radio 1. The schedule (particularly on Friday evenings and Sundays) still bears some hallmarks of the "easy listening" era, but Radio 2 is now firmly established as "the nation's favourite", a title the BBC has started using to describe it rather than Radio 1.

Today Radio 2 is the most listened to radio station in the UK, with its schedule filled with top name celebrity presenters like Terry Wogan, Steve Wright, Johnnie Walker, Bob Harris, Richard Allinson, Jonathan Ross OBE, Mark Lamarr, Lulu and Michael Parkinson. Chris Evans has presented a weekly show on the network since September 2005. It has a demographic of adult listeners and tends to play music from the 1980s and 1990s as well as contemporary chart and indie music. Perhaps the main reason of Radio 2’s popularity in recent years is due to the desertion of former Radio 1 listeners when that station reverted to the youth audience in the late 1990s.

On Sundays it reverts for much of the day to something decidedly closer to its old style, with presenters like Richard Baker and David Jacobs and long-standing programmes like "Sunday Half Hour" and "Your Hundred Best Tunes".

Whilst being adult-oriented, it does not broadcast complete works of classical music, the domain of Radio 3, or offer in-depth discussion or drama, the job of Radio 4. It carries some half-hour comedy shows as well as many musical documentaries and celebrity interviews and, up until the advent of Radio Five Live, was the BBC's main radio outlet for sports coverage (before becoming Five Live, Radio 5 was originally created by splitting off Radio 2's mediumwave frequencies, leaving Radio 2 on FM only). There is usually a mix of music and discussion of topical issues in the weekday lunchtime show. This slot was the preserve of Jimmy Young for many years but has now been taken over by Jeremy Vine.

Being a BBC station, it is funded by the television licence fee, and does not broadcast commercials.

BBC Radio 2's last closedown was at 02:02 GMT on 27 January 1979. Sarah Kennedy (who, following the fading of her 1980s television career, has been a daily early morning presenter on Radio 2 since 1993) was at the Newsdesk after Brian Matthew finished the "Round Midnight" programme. From 02:00-05:00 GMT the following night onwards, late-night listeners could listen to "You and the Night and the Music". Radio 2 has therefore had the longest period of continuous broadcasting of any national radio station in the UK - more than twenty-five years to date.

On this station, the BBC Pips are broadcast at 06:00 transposed over the Radio 2 news jingle and at 08:00 on weekdays between gaps in Terry Wogan's self-styled banter. When Jonathan Ross sat in for Wogan in 2004, he failed to cut his own banter and consequently spoke over the pips.

Current roster

Regular schedule as of January 2006:

Monday to Friday
00:00 Janice Long
03.00 Alex Lester: The Best Time Of The Day
06.00 Sarah Kennedy: The Dawn Patrol
07.30 Terry Wogan: Wake Up To Wogan (or Wake Up In Wigan!)
09:30 Ken Bruce
12:00 Jeremy Vine
14:00 Steve Wright Steve Wright in the Afternoon (The Big Show)
17:00 Johnnie Walker Drive Time
19:00 See below
22:30 Mark Radcliffe (except Friday)

Monday evening
19:00 Simon Mayo: The Album Chart Show
20:00 Humphrey Lyttelton Jazz
21:00 Specialist shows
22:00 Big Band Special

Tuesday evening
19:00 Desmond Carrington The Music Goes Round
20:00 Nigel Ogden: The Organist Entertains
20:30 Specialist shows
21:30 Documentary
22:00 Steve Harley: Sounds of the 70's

Wednesday evening
19:00 Nick Barraclough Country
20:00 Mike Harding Folk Music
21:00 Specialist shows
22:00 Documentary

Thursday evening
19:00 Bob Harris Country
20:00 Paul Jones Blues
21:00 Specialist shows
22:00 Comedy Show

Friday evening
19:00 Specialist shows
19:30 Friday Night is Music Night
21:15 Book Sequence
21:30 Listen to the Band
22:00 Mariella Frostrup: The Green Room (arts programme)

Saturday
00:00 Bob Harris
03:00 Janey Lee Grace
06:00 Mo Dutta
08:00 Brian Matthew: Sounds of the 60s
10:00 Jonathan Ross
13:00 Comedy Hour
14:00 Chris Evans
17:00 Dermot O'Leary
19:00 Paul Gambaccini: America's Greatest Hits
20:30 Features (often concert recordings presented by Richard Allinson)
21:30 Stuart Maconie: The Critical List
22:30 Bob Harris

Sunday
00:00 Helen Mayhew - somewhat jazz-oriented show
04:00 Mo Dutta
07:00 Aled Jones: Good Morning Sunday (religious-themed breakfast show)
09:00 Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs(request show)
11:00 Michael Parkinson (jazz/easy listening, entertainment news and reviews, Sunday papers)
13:00 Elaine Paige - show tunes
14:30 Russell Davies
15:30 Dale Winton Pick of the Pops (nostalgia)
17:00 Ed Stewart
19:00 Sheridan Morley
20:30 Roger Royle: Sunday Half Hour (hymns)
21:00 Richard Baker: Your Hundred Best Tunes
22:00 Malcolm Laycock - Celebrating The Age of Swing
23:00 David Jacobs The David Jacobs Collection (musicals, film music)

Richard Allinson & Mark Lamarr are still presenters at the network and stand in for lots of presenters whilst they are taking holidays. Although they both still continue to present documentaries & specialist shows for the network, they may end up with another permanent show soon.

See also: List of BBC radio stations

Newsreaders (past and present)

Controllers of BBC Radio 2

External links