2016 in British radio

Summary

This is a list of events in British radio during 2016.

List of years in British radio (table)
In British television
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2016
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2019
In British music
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2016
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Events edit

January edit

February edit

  • 19 February – BBC Radio Bristol stops broadcasting on MW following the sale of the land on which the transmitter was located to developers. In order to mitigate the loss of coverage the BBC switches on four new DAB transmitters in the area to help boost the station’s DAB coverage.
  • 25 February – Tony Blackburn is dismissed by the BBC[2] and Mark Goodier takes over as temporary host of Pick of the Pops.
  • 29 February –

March edit

April edit

May edit

  • 6 May – Orion Media announces that they have been bought by Bauer for an undisclosed fee, reportedly between £40 and £50 million.[7][8] This gives Bauer the West Midlands network of Free Radio stations and East Midlands regional station Gem 106.
  • 17 May – The Free Radio network's head of sport, Tom Ross, presents his final programme after 35 years working for BRMB, Xtra AM, Capital Gold and Free Radio.[9]
  • 20 May – Talksport is awarded the right to broadcast three Premier League UK live audio packages for the next three football seasons, starting with the 2016/17 season.[10]
  • May – Russ Williams leaves Absolute Radio. He was part of the original presenter line-up at Absolute Radio's predecessor Virgin 1215 (later Virgin Radio) although for the past year he had only been hosting the Saturday afternoon programme Rock and Roll Football, which ends following Absolute Radio's decision to drop its coverage of Premier League football.

June edit

  • 1 June – A previous jingle package produced for Smooth Radio has been re-recorded for United Arab Emirates station 92 Smooth by Salford based Ignite Jingles.[11]
  • 17 June – Birmingham-based sports broadcaster Tom Ross presents his final Friday night football phone-in for Free Radio Birmingham after more than three decades with the station and its predecessor, BRMB.[12]
  • 21 June – The BBC completes its roll-out of BBC Local Radio on Freeview.[13]
  • 22 June – Jazz FM announces it will extend its morning business programme, Business Breakfast from 30 minutes to an hour on 24 June to cover the results of the EU membership referendum.[14]

July edit

August edit

  • 15 August – Jazz FM introduces a new schedule. Clare Anderson's The Late Lounge is dropped, while Mark Walker succeeds Helen Mayhew as presenter of Dinner Jazz. New one-hour programmes are also introduced at 6pm.[15]
  • August – BBC Radio 5 Live's The Non-League Football Show ends when the BBC decides not to commission any more shows.[16]

September edit

  • September – Schedule changes at BBC Radio 5 Live see Peter Allen and Jane Garvey reunited to host a new Sunday evening show, Emma Barnett becomes the Wednesday to Friday host of 5 Live Daily and Nihal Arthanayake replaces Dan Walker as co-host of Afternoon Edition.[17]
  • 17 September – After 35 years, Robbie Shepherd retires as host of BBC Radio Scotland’s Take the Floor show.
  • 19 September – BBC Cymru launches a pop-up radio station, Radio Cymru Mwy (Radio Cymru More), broadcasting for three months in the run-up to BBC Radio Cymru's 40th anniversary. Consisting of five hours of music-led entertainment programming each weekday, Radio Cymru Mwy is available on DAB in south east Wales and online.[18]

October edit

November edit

  • 4 November – Free Radio Birmingham's breakfast presenter John Fox, known as Foxy, announces his departure from the station after six years presenting breakfast.[20]
  • 7 November – Dan Kelly and Naomi Kent succeed Foxy as Free Radio Birmingham's breakfast show presenters.[20]

December edit

Station debuts edit

Programme debuts edit

Continuing radio programmes edit

1940s edit

1950s edit

1960s edit

1970s edit

1980s edit

1990s edit

2000s edit

2010s edit

Ending this year edit

  • 28 October – The Music Goes Round (1981–2016)

Deaths edit

References edit

  1. ^ Capital Liverpool Will Launch In January 2016 Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine, Global Radio, 16 December 2015
  2. ^ Rawlinson, Kevin; Sweney, Mark (25 February 2016). "BBC 'parted company' with Tony Blackburn over Savile inquiry evidence". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  3. ^ "Absolute 80s, Planet Rock, Heat and Kisstory to end dual DAB transmission". a516digital.com. 15 April 2016.
  4. ^ "Jazz FM returns to national DAB". Archived from the original on 16 July 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  5. ^ Macpherson, Ande (23 February 2016). "Real Radio XS to rebrand as XS Manchester". RadioToday. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  6. ^ "New Look to Late Nights on Jazz FM". Jazz FM. 24 March 2016.
  7. ^ Bauer buys radio group Orion Media Archived 2016-10-05 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 6 May 2016
  8. ^ Orion Media sold to Bauer for £50m Archived 2018-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, The Telegraph, 6 May 2016
  9. ^ "Tom Ross hosts his last radio show in Birmingham". Radio Today. 17 May 2016. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016.
  10. ^ Talksport (20 May 2016). "Talksport to broadcast more English Premier League coverage than ever before".
  11. ^ "Dubai's 92 Smooth gets Smooth Radio UK jingles". Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  12. ^ https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/midland-football-icon-tom-ross-11488638
  13. ^ "BBC Local Radio roll-out on Freeview to complete on 21st June". Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  14. ^ "Jazz FM extends Morning Business for EU". Radio Today. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  15. ^ "Jazz FM goes presenter-free late at night". Radio Today. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  16. ^ "Radio 5 Live axes Non League Football Show – but it will continue as podcast". Guardian (UK). 15 August 2016.
  17. ^ "BBC – 5 live reunites popular pairing, and two new presenters join the weekday line-up – Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  18. ^ "BBC Radio Cymru Mwy takes to the digital airwaves". BBC Media Centre (Press release). BBC. 2 August 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2020. For the first time in its history, BBC Radio Cymru will offer a choice of listening with a lively breakfast show on BBC Radio Cymru Mwy. The daily news programme, Post Cyntaf followed by the Aled Hughes programme will continue on BBC Radio Cymru. The pop-up's schedule will continue until midday, with an option to experiment occasionally with lunch-time programmes.
  19. ^ "Desmond Carrington leaves BBC Radio 2 – BBC News". BBC News. 30 September 2016. Archived from the original on 30 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  20. ^ a b Young, Graham (4 November 2016). "Birmingham breakfast show DJ quits live on air". Birmingham Live. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  21. ^ "The Break". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 17 February 2021.