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BBC Radio 5 Live

Broadcast area	United Kingdom
Slogan	"On digital and online, smartphone, and tablet, this is BBC 5 Live" "Live news. Live sport." "The World Cup Station" "The Olympic Station" "First for breaking news, and the best live sport"
Frequency	MW: 693 kHz, 909 kHz, 990 kHz and on selected BBC Local Radio stations' frequencies overnight. DAB: 12B Freeview: 705 Freesat: 705 Sky (UK only): 0105 Virgin Media: 905 Virgin Media Ireland: 911
First air date	28 March 1994
Format	News and sport
Language(s)	English
Owner	BBC
Webcast	Web Stream HTTP Streams Worldwide stream (Shoutcast, 128 Kbps MP3) HLS Streams Worldwide stream (48 Kbps AAC+) Worldwide stream (96 Kbps AAC+) UK-only stream (128 Kbps AAC) UK-only stream (320 Kbps AAC) MPEG DASH Streams Worldwide stream (48 Kbps AAC+) UK-only stream (128 Kbps AAC)
Website	BBC Radio 5 Live

BBC Radio 5 Live (also known as just 5 Live) is the BBC's national radio service that broadcasts mainly news, sport and phone-ins. It is the principal radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcasting virtually all major sports events staged in the UK or involving British competitors.

Radio 5 Live was launched in March 1994 as a repositioning of the original Radio 5, which was launched on 27 August 1990.^[1] It is transmitted via analogue radio in AM on medium wave 693 and 909 kHz and digitally via digital radio, television and via an Internet stream. Due to rights restrictions, coverage of some events (in particular live sport) is not available online or is restricted to UK addresses.

The station broadcasts from MediaCityUK in Salford^[2] and is a department of the BBC North division.

History

Logo used from launch until 1997, from the 5 Live website.

The success of Radio 4 News FM during the first Gulf War (1991) led the BBC to propose the launch a rolling-news service. Initially the plan was to broadcast a rolling news service on BBC Radio 4's long wave frequency but this was met with considerable opposition, both internally and externally,^[3]
so the BBC decided to close BBC Radio 5 and replace the old service's educational and children's programmes with a new news service, whilst retaining the sports programmes. BBC Radio 5 Live began its 24-hour service at 5 am on Monday 28 March 1994. The first voice on air, Jane Garvey, later went on to co-present the breakfast and drive-time shows with Peter Allen. The Times described the launch as "slipp[ing] smoothly and confidently into a routine of informative banter"^[4]
and The Scotsman as "professionalism at its slickest".^[5]

The news of the first day was dominated by the fatal stabbing at Hall Garth School in Cleveland, the first of many major incidents which the network covered live as they unfolded.

The tone of the channel, engaging and more relaxed than contemporary BBC output, was the key to the channel's success and set the model for other BBC News services later in the decade. The first audiences were some four million, with a record audience of six and a quarter million. Among the key editorial staff involved in the design of programme formats and recruitment of staff for the new station were Sara Nathan, later editor of Channel 4 News, and Tim Luckhurst, later editor of The Scotsman newspaper and currently Professor of Journalism at the University of Kent.^[6]

2000–2007 Five live logo

In 2000, the station was rebranded with a new logo which would remain with the station for another seven years. In addition, on 2 February 2002 a companion station, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, was launched as a digital-only service to complement the range of sport and to avoid clashes; previously BBC Local Radio stations and the long wave frequency of BBC Radio 4 were used.^[7] Throughout this period, Five Live gained several awards including five Sony Awards in 2005; the single gold award was for its coverage of the 2004 Asian tsunami in the News Story Award category alongside another four silver awards and six nominations. The station also began to further its boundaries with the publication of the Radio Five Live Sporting Yearbook.^[8] In August 2007, BBC Radio 5 Live was given a new logo in line with the rest of the BBC Radio network,^[9] and a new background design featuring diagonal parallel lines.

In 2008, the BBC announced that the station would move to MediaCityUK in Salford.^[10]

Broadcast

BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts in AM on the medium wave frequencies 693 and 909 kHz nationally, with the frequency 990 kHz used at Cardigan Bay; these frequencies had been utilised by BBC Radio 5 and were used by BBC Radio 2 previously. Uniquely to the BBC Radio network, it is the only station that is neither purely digital (such as 1Xtra, Radio 4 Extra and 6 Music) nor broadcast in analogue FM. It is however broadcast in stereo on FM & DAB on BBC Local Radio overnight, usually from 1 am until BBC Local Radio commences morning broadcasts, usually from 5 am. BBC Radio 5 Live is also broadcast on BBC Radio Cymru in stereo from 1 am until 5:30 am and on BBC Radio Scotland from 1 am until 6 am. In addition to the AM output, the station also broadcasts digitally in mono on DAB Digital Radio, and on television through satellite services such as Sky, cable services such as Virgin Media, DTT services such as Freeview, Freesat (on Channel 705) and through IPTV. The station also broadcasts programmes live through the BBC iPlayer Radio website, which allows replaying programmes up to a month after the original broadcast. The service is also available on the Radioplayer internet site partially run by the BBC. Before the launch of digital broadcasting, BBC Radio 5 Live had broadcast on analogue satellite with near-FM quality.^{[citation needed]}

For many years, the station operated from four floors within the News Centre at BBC Television Centre,^[11] because of the close connections between the station and BBC News, and the co-location of BBC Sport. However, as part of the corporation's plan to sell off Television Centre, the decision was made in 2008 to move BBC Radio 5 Live to the new broadcast hub at MediaCityUK.^[10] The move itself began in September 2011 and took two months.^[12] The new studios occupy a single floor in Quay House, with two studios large enough for several guests and a separate studio for large groups.^[13]

List of programmes broadcast on 5 Live

• 
  Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo (Saturday – Monday mornings), Rhod Sharp (Tuesday – Thursday mornings) & a guest host (Friday mornings)


• 
  Morning Reports with the overnight newsreader


• 
  Wake Up to Money with Sean Farrington, Mickey Clarke and Louise Cooper
  


• 
  5 live Breakfast with Nicky Campbell and Rachel Burden
  


• 
  Anna Foster (Monday – Thursday) & Chiles on Friday (Friday)


• 
  Afternoon Edition with Nihal Arthanayake (Monday – Thursday)


• 
  Friday Sports Panel with Eleanor Oldroyd
  


• 
  Kermode and Mayo's Film Review with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo (Friday)


• 
  5 live Drive with Sarah Brett and Tony Livesey
  


• 
  5 live Sport with Mark Pougatch (Tuesday), Mark Chapman (Monday-Wednesday-Saturday), Eleanor Oldroyd (Thursday), Darren Fletcher (Friday) and Jonathan Overend (Sunday)


• 
  The Squad with Nick Bright (Sunday)


• 
  Phil Williams (Monday – Wednesday), Question Time Extra Time with Adrian Chiles (Thursday) & Stephan Nolan (Friday – Sunday)


• 
  5 live Boxing with Mike Costello and Steve Bunce (Saturday)


• 
  5 live Science with Chris Smith and Kat Arney (Sunday)


• 
  Weekend Breakfast with Chris Warburton and Eleanor Oldroyd (Saturday) or Sam Walker (Sunday)


• 
  The Danny Baker Show (Saturday)


• 
  Fighting Talk with Colin Murray (Saturday)


• 
  Sportsweek with Garry Richardson (Sunday)


• 
  Pienaar's Politics (Sunday)


• 
  5 live Investigates with Adrian Goldberg (Sunday)


• 
  Sports Report with Mark Chapman (Saturday)


• 
  606 with Jason Mohammad and Robbie Savage (Saturday) or Kelly Cates and Ian Wright (Saturday)


• 
  5 live in Short with Chris Warburton (Sunday mornings)


• 
  Peter Allen and Caroline Barker (Sunday)

Programming

BBC Radio 5 Live at MediaCityUK

BBC Radio 5 Live's remit includes broadcasting rolling news and transmitting news as it breaks. It offers news bulletins at the top and bottom of the hour. The BBC's policy for major breaking news events revolves around a priority list. With UK news, the correspondent first records a "generic minute" summary (for use by all stations and channels); the subsequent priority is to report on Radio 5 Live, then the BBC News Channel, and then any other programmes that are on air. For foreign news, first a "generic minute" is recorded, then reports are to World Service radio, then the reporter talks to any other programmes that are on air.^{[14][needs update]}

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