Archives for April 2010

Amid all the helter-skelter activity on the production desk as the team strived to get Drive on air last night, a sudden and spontaneous round of applause broke out. Peter Allen had just walked into the newsroom. Now, greatly though we cherish our presenters, it's not normal practice for Peter's entry to provoke such enthusiastic acclamation. But yesterday was a bit special - Peter was clutching the trophy he'd received for being named Broadcasting Journalist of the Year by the London Press Club.

It gave us all a good opportunity to pay tribute to a man who has been a central part of the 5 live team since our first day on air back in 1994. Peter has contributed enormously to the station's achievements over the years, and as his current editor on Drive, I'm hugely grateful that he continues to play a big part in our news service. Every programme we make reflects in some way Peter's journalistic insight and judgement. And if you think he's good at asking the hard question on air, let me tell you that every Drive producer will be familiar with Peter approaching them about an upcoming interview to quiz them on their understanding of the story with a very direct: "Why are we doing this?"

I know that Peter particularly values this award, because it comes from his fellow journalists. At heart, he's a hack who's happiest when he's pursuing a good story with the rest of the Fleet Street pack. But Peter also values the interactive relationship he has each afternoon with the Drive audience. So thank you for the kind messages you sent to him. And for those emails and texts that gently teased him, such as: "Congrats to Peter on his award. I assume he is off today to give the BBC time to widen the studio doorways so he can get his head through?"

Actually, the one thing we didn't give him was time to rest on his laurels. My job as editor was to tell him he'd need to be on the first train to Birmingham this morning ready to spend the day on the road travelling with David Cameron. At which point, Peter realised the celebrations were over - and he was back chasing the next big interview.

And while we're on the subject of award winners, congratulations are also due to Aasmah Mir. Gay Life After Saddam, a documentary she presented on 5 live, has won the Radio Programme of the Year Award at this year's How-Do North West Media Awards . The programme was made by an independent producer, Made in Manchester Productions, so the Drive team takes no credit for this one. We merely bask in the reflected glory of having the skills of both of our presenters recognised in one week.

John Cary is the editor of 5 live Drive

• Drive is on 5 live weekdays from 4pm - 7pm

Last Thursday was the BBC's media launch for the World Cup.

We have been working on our plans at 5 live for months - in fact, I remember spending most of New Year writing up our first draft schedule.

Anything can happen though to change plans at the last minute as I found out when I took a call from Adrian, the 5 live controller, first thing on Wednesday morning, the day before the launch.

Our colleagues down the corridor in the BBC TV football team had made their decision that Colin Murray was the man they wanted to step into Adrian Chiles' shoes on Match of the Day 2 next season, and in an ideal world Colin would start his work with them at the World Cup this summer.

Colin was one of three presenters we were building our coverage in South Africa around, the others being Nicky Campbell and Mark Pougatch.

It was too good an opportunity for Colin to stand in his way, so we had to act quickly.

After a discussion with the boss, I picked up the phone and gave Mark Chapman a call. Needless to say he's thrilled to bits to be playing a big part in our South Africa plans as he takes on the role we had planned for Colin with lots of presenting from stadiums and other venues across South Africa.

It all starts on June 11th with Mark Pougatch hosting the opening game - South Africa v Mexico - from Johannesburg.

Nicky Campbell will be hosting World Cup Breakfast every day from South Africa whilst England are still in it. Wednesday June 16th promises to be one of the highlights when Nicky will be presenting from Soweto on South Africa Day.

Reporter Colin Paterson will be on the BBC bus which is spending 5 weeks travelling across the country - leaving Johannesburg on the day of the opening game and arriving in Capetown on the day of the final.

We will have commentators at every match, with Alan Green taking phone calls in special 606 shows within minutes of the end of every England match.

We have commissioned a programmed from independent producers USP called "Armchair World Cup" which will be hosted by comedian Alan Davies who really enjoyed standing in for Colin Murray on Fighting Talk earlier this year. This will be live from our London studios with a preview show on Saturday June 5th at 11am, and then regular Sunday morning shows during the tournament itself at 11am.

Danny Baker is also a major part of our World Cup schedule. He will be hosting two shows a week during the tournament - his Saturday morning programme and a midweek bonus extra hour on Wednesdays at 9.30pm.

There'll be daily World Cup podcast containing the highlights of all the above and there's also a new World Cup quiz game being prepared for our website.

It's a really busy summer because we also have Andy Murray's attempts to win Wimbledon. All the fun in SW19 starts on Monday June 21st with hosts Richard Bacon and Clare Balding. Both Michael Stich and Pat Cash are back again with their analysis and correspondent Jonathan Overend leads the commentary team.

I'm hoping for not too many more phone calls from the boss saying we need to make some big staffing changes. I think our World Cup planners Joanne Watson and Tracy Barwell would throttle me.

So that's what we have planned. The live commentaries remain as important as ever, but Nicky Campbell's outside broadcasts I think will really capture the mood and feel of the host nation, and Danny Baker and Alan Davies will make sure we don't take it all too seriously.

Jonathan Wall is the Commissioning Editor for 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra

However much you're enjoying the leaders' debates on TV - and I'm one of the many who watched again last night - there is a better way of doing it. In the last two weeks I've presented my Radio 5 live show from around the country where we brought together a live audience of 200 listeners and a panel of senior politicians. It was a similar set-up to the TV ones but couldn't have been more different. In Bromsgrove we debated how much the expenses scandal would affect the way people vote; in Luton, as you can see in the video above, we asked listeners which party they trusted on immigration.

TV had 76 rules including the most bizarre - silence from the studio audience. We had one - to be polite. Why don't the people who come up with the rules trust their audiences? What, God forbid, do they think they might do? Ask a good follow-up question? Demonstrate they've read a manifesto or two?

We trusted listeners to behave like intelligent adults and ask sensible questions of the politicians assembled - and guess what? They did. It also meant they reacted naturally - and so yes, we had applause when Jackie in Bromsgrove said, "I feel as though the politicians have reached into my handbag, my purse, and taken the money right out of my hand. To have a vote, to live in a democracy is a privilege and I expect exemplary behaviour from MPs".

We had laughter when UKIP explained they expected illegal immigrants to voluntarily turn up at their nearest police station to hand themselves in before being deported.

And we even had booing - to Labour on expenses and to the BNP when trying to define "white indigineous English"...all natural human emotions which added to the debate rather than distracted from it. And they are genuine debates - conversations between voters and those that campaign for their vote (it goes without saying the audience was balanced to represent all political parties fairly).

Funnily enough if you trust the audience to do their bit you also get those unpredictable, spontaneous broadcasting moments. The Deputy Chairman of the BNP was asked why his party didn't have more support. He began explaining that taking on the media, the trades unions and then the church was difficult - at which point one audience member was roused to exclaim passionately, "the church, the church? As a member of the church I fundamentally reject the arrogance, the disruptive presence that the BNP has been in this town in the last year". It was dramatic, it was tense, it made people turn their radios up.

We've got two more debates to go - one on the economy, and one on crime with the three men who want to be Home Secretary. Who knows what will happen? And that's part of the thrill.

It's only Year 1 of the TV debate experiment. What's the betting that next time an election comes round, members of the audience will be allowed to behave like human beings?

Victoria Derbyshire's programme is on 5 live weekdays from 10am - 12pm.

• On Monday April 26th, Victoria will be in Middlesbrough discussing the economy

• On Monday May 3rd, she'll be in Leeds discussing crime.

• You can watch both programmes on the 5 live website

A week ago, few of us could have predicted that our news agenda would be full of stories of a volcanic ash cloud causing travel chaos across much of Europe. Today, it's a story that's starting to feel all too familiar.

This morning, the Breakfast Phone-in had a panel of experts on to answer listeners' questions about volcanoes, airplanes, travel insurance and how long they could expect their mothers-in-law to be stuck abroad.

Great. My mother-in-law is stuck in States. Oh thank you so much Iceland. - Kev (Kent)

On 5 live Connect, many listeners have been getting in touch to say how much they enjoy seeing a bright blue sky without any planes or vapour trails. Here's a message that Sue left on Connect:

Perfect peace without planes overhead from Heathrow and City airports. - Sue (Bow)

Well all that ended this morning during Victoria Derbyshire's programme. After speaking to an expert about how long the UK's airspace would be closed, listeners started getting in touch in droves saying they could see planes in the sky again. And then the pictures started coming in...

Our text console began filling up with mobile phone photos of planes, like the ones above courtesy of Adrian in Fleetwood, Manda in Essex and Marian on the M25.

And then there was this comedy entry from Andy in Newcastle.

As Victoria talked about the photos on air, we published them on 5 live Connect and mentions of them started appearing on Twitter. Here's a tweet from Sarah:

Its all about mystery planes on @bbc5live this morning. Listeners are sending in pics like some UFO spotting frenzy. #ashtag

Well it wasn't quite UFOs but it's funny to think that planes flying over the UK could get people so excited. It also shows how well the Connect page can work when we let the listeners decide what to talk about. Thanks to everyone who got involved for making a radio chat about an ash cloud into an interactive experience with great photos that would have been incredibly dull on any other day. Well except Andy's - that one was funny.

Aaron Eccles is a senior producer at 5 live.

• You can see all the photos sent into 5 live Connect here.

• Listen back to the Breakfast Phone-in podcast with a series of experts on the ash cloud.

When Nick Griffin of the British National Party appeared on the 5live phone-in today, it came as no surprise that we received a text message like this:

The publicly funded BBC should not under any circumstances be giving this odius, racist, homophobic, anti-semitic fascist a platform - Mike

Such strong reactions go with the territory. Mr Griffin knows that his party and his views provoke controversy. He arrived at the 5live studio with a security entourage in tow. He explained he took his security seriously because, he claimed, left-wing activists were out to get him and he also didn't want to end up like the Dutch far-right politician Pim Fortuyn who was murdered.

Whenever he has appeared before we have had lots of texts similar to Mike's from people questioning why this man was being allowed access to the airwaves. This time though - and of course this is anecdotal and not scientific - there seemed to be fewer comments like this. And Mike's view was contrasted by Michael's:

Thank you BBC for giving Griffin a fair crack of the whip. I would never vote BNP but am sick of the hysterical vilification prevalent in media circles, and among all the other political parties.

The BNP is of course putting candidates up in hundreds of seats at the General Election and has had Party Political Broadcast on the TV. Amidst huge controversy last year, Mr Griffin even appeared on BBC1's Question Time. It won two seats in the European elections and has ambitions to gain representation in the Westminster parliament. So maybe some of the shock value of an appearance by the BNP has now gone.

And the listeners wanted to engage Mr Griffin in a debate about various issues including, but not exclusively, immigration. Ian in Leeds asked if, as a black person, he was welcome in the BNP. John in Dumbarton wanted to know Mr Griffin's views on civil partnerships. Abdul in Manchester asked if the BNP had any Muslim members. Mr Griffin said he thought it was quite possible they had none.

There was also an exchange about corporal punishment (Mr Griffin told Nicky he'd bring it back in schools) and devolution (Scottish and Welsh independence was an "EU plot to break up Britain").

But no doubt the most surprising question was from Dave in Poole. He asked about the BNP's arts policy. Mr Griffin said the liberal elite spending public money on trendy art was not valid. "If you want to be into arts you should buy it yourself". Listen again to the phone-in here.

Richard Jackson is editor of 5 live Breakfast

• The Breakfast phone-in, presented by Nicky Campbell, is on BBC Radio 5 live weekdays between 0900 and 1000.
• The picture was taken by Nicky and posted to Twitter while on-air this morning.
• Listen to this morning's phone-in or watch it on video on the 5 live web site.

Exhilarating, exciting - and, yes, very tiring. Yep, they are bags under my eyes, seeing as you asked!

Welcome to my election road trip 2010. It's my job at 5 live to report politics from as far away from Westminster as possible, and I love it. In the countdown to the campaign the milometer took quite a pounding - taking in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Ramsay on the Isle of Man and Hayle in Cornwall amongst many others. But that was just the warm up.

Today is Day 11 of the election campaign - so it must be Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. Since Gordon Brown went to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace a week last Tuesday, I've taken in Bury North for Breakfast, Liverpool Walton and Sefton Central for Gabby Logan, Chester for Drive, Barking for Weekend Breakfast and the Weekend News, Brighton for Drive and Ealing Central and Acton for Breakfast.

I've been here in Mansfield to take the temperature after the first prime ministerial debate. Outnumbered and Have I Got News For You were pretty popular here last night, but so was the debate. However plenty of people told me there was a big gulf between what they saw as the razzmatazz of the political circus and their day-to-day lives.

Next stop for me is Stirling - dust permitting! And forget that hackneyed old cliché that election campaigns are a marathon, not a sprint. They are longer than a marathon and at a faster pace than a sprint - and brilliant fun for it.

Mind you, when polling day was six weeks away this election felt incredibly close. Somehow, with less than three weeks to go now, it feels some way off!

You can follow my trip on Twitter and on AudioBoo and, of course, on 5 live where I will be doing a weekly round up every weekend on Up All Night.

Right, time to get back in the car...

Chris Mason is 5 live's political reporter

It'll all be about the body language and sweaty upper lip, I overheard someone say on the train up to Manchester yesterday afternoon. I hoped not. I was on my way to meet the Tony Livesey team, who were preparing to broadcast a special programme around the first prime ministerial debate, which we brought live to our audience. Sweat doesn't always make great radio. Still, at least they were talking about it.

Tony has a very special relationship with his audience, and last night we invited 30 or so of them along to Dukes 92, a very lively bar in the city centre, to watch the historic TV moment with us. We went on air at 8pm, with John Pienaar providing all the news from so-called spin alley just round the corner.

Perhaps not as much as the leaders themselves, but it's fair to say we were anxious. With all the rules and hype, what if it was dull or an anti-climax?

But as ever, our audience gives us our edge, and as they started to arrive a real sense of anticipation buzzed around the room.

And then they were off. Unlike the TV audience, ours laughed cheered and jeered throughout. And while a few said they'd never missed the ad breaks so much, most were gripped as the three men grappled with health, education and remembering all those fabulous "the time I met" anecdotes.

Within seconds of the debate finishing we'd heard from Peter Mandelson, George Osborne and Vince Cable live in spin alley.

But then it was your turn - and you had plenty to say - on the texts, emails and calls. Our audience with us added a great extra element - debating everything from public sector pay cuts to policing levels to waste in the NHS. Oh, and a little bit on body language too.

And they were as engaged and passionate at five to one in the morning as they had been at five to eight.

Afterwards Tony reminded me this had been his first outside broadcast for 5 live. Some debut!

Hayley Valentine is the Head of News at 5 live

• Tony Livesey is on 5 live Monday to Thursday from 10:30pm to 1am.

• Follow all of 5 live's election coverage with the 5 live election story app.

• The next prime ministerial debates take place on April 22nd and 29th.

5 live is in Liverpool for the build up to the Grand National. On Thursday, Colin Murray presented his show from the Radio Merseyside studios, just a few feet from their celebrity guest...Ken Dodd! Colin also had the first British interview with Martina Navratilova - no Merseyside connection, but a brilliant guest and inspiring woman.

On Friday, we hosted a live audience debate with a crowd of more than 300 joining Colin Murray & Mark Pougatch. We talked about the future of Everton and Liverpool FC - is Benitez the right manager to take Liverpool forward? Can Everton seriously crack the top 4? Should the two clubs ever consider sharing a ground?

Jimmy Smallwood from the 5 live Interactive team spoke to 5 live listeners queuing to be in the audience for the 5 live Debate programme. They told him what concerns and fears they have about British football, from the future of Rafa Benitez at Anfield and David Moyes at Goodison to grassroots funding. We've put together this short package to show you what they told us.

Heidi Dawson is the assistant editor of the Gabby Logan programme

Note: Adrian is responding to questions sent in by 5 live listeners and readers of this blog. Some of the questions have been combined or grouped together to avoid repetition.

• Schedules/presenters

1. Are you changing the station's character? Are you trying to appeal to a different audience? Has this changed?

5 live has a unique character, based on both its content (live news, live sport, debate and discussion) and its attitude and tone. These things are always evolving - if they were static, there would come a point where people were criticising the station for not moving on in its sound and content. But I'm certainly not changing the station in any radical way - of course we want to draw in new listeners but every listener we currently have is precious and we don't want to lose anyone.

2. There seems to be much more entertainment on 5 live now. Are you moving away from 5 live's news and sport remit?

No - the core of 5 live is coverage of live news and sport. Entertainment news is an important part of our news coverage - we know that many people are interested in events ranging from the Oscars to the Brits, the latest blockbuster TV series or the celebrity who everyone is talking about. In a broader sense, there's the question of whether 5 live should be entertaining. My answer is yes of course we should. Of course not every story or programme is going to be high in entertainment value because that wouldn't be appropriate given the nature of many news stories. But overall I think part of what people expect from 5 live is to be entertained whether it's casual asides by Peter Allen during Drive or entertainment-based programme formats such as Fighting Talk.

3. The daytime line-up is now filled with 'lightweights' - presenters more comfortable with entertainment or sport than with hard news. Why have you made this change?

I don't think that's fair at all. Our weekday daytime presenters are currently Nicky Campbell, Shelagh Fogarty, Victoria Derbyshire, Gabby Logan, Richard Bacon, Peter Allen and Aasmah Mir. There's a huge amount of broadcasting experience there and a vast range of interests. It's the essence of what 5 live is about - different styles and different views on life. But all of our presenters are comfortable handling breaking news and major developments in sport.

4. If the Q1 RAJARs are down will you rethink the schedule changes?

I think it's really important that we look at the effect of schedule changes over a period of time - certainly a twelve to eighteen month period would be much more appropriate than a single quarter. There are also many factors at play - the sporting calendar, news events, and changes in the competitive market can all have an impact on the RAJAR numbers. So this is a long-term judgment, not something which could be decided on the basis of one quarter's worth of figures whether they go up or down.

5. Why do you fly Stephen Nolan to Manchester to present his show when he could stay in Belfast and present down the line? How much does it cost to transport him and put him up in Manchester?

Let me say firstly that we always try to achieve the highest quality programme at the best value for money. To produce a live, all-speech three hour radio programme involves far more people than just the presenter. Stephen Nolan's production team are all based in Manchester and are part of a seven day a week operation there which is more efficient to organise than a number of small, individual production teams in different parts of the country. Of course there is a cost involving in bringing Stephen to Manchester and we have tried presenting the programme from Belfast on occasions. But editorially there is a danger of leaving a presenter isolated especially in the event of breaking news so on those occasions we have found it necessary to send a member of the production team to Belfast to make this work smoothly, therefore not making any saving. Of course many media presenters have regularly travelled to London to present programmes over the years, incurring costs as they do so.

6. Has 5 live's budget suffered in the recent round of cuts?

Like all parts of the BBC, we have had to find ways of saving money over the last few years. By making ourselves more efficient and controlling costs and spending in certain areas, we have delivered those savings without damaging the quality of the station. The recent BBC Strategy Review has endorsed 5 live's direction so it does not propose any further changes to 5 live's budget as part of the reprioritisation of BBC spending.

• Social media

7. Have 5 live presenters been told by management to use social media - Twitter and Facebook?

Social media are an important part of communication in 2010 - they can give a direct way of engaging with people and build deeper connections. We use social media in all sorts of ways ranging from placing content such as the 5 live Football Player on Facebook to updating programme information through Twitter. It is up to presenters and individual programmes to identify the best ways of making connections through social media for their output. It's an area which is developing fast and we are still learning about what works and what doesn't.

8. Why are some presenters allowed to send politically partisan tweets on the account they publicise on-air?

We have editorial guidelines for news presenters which include the need to be politically impartial in any public forum. All of our presenters are aware of this guidance and I am not aware of any tweets which have breached this recently.

9. 5 live is now the only national network without a messageboard. Why did you sanction the closure of the messageboard and why have you ignored all requests to reopen it?

When I became Controller of 5 live, the station message board had already closed. What we had were two message boards for discussing news - one UK and one World. These were general discussions and, to be honest, they had very little connection with the station's output. We never talked about them on air and the online discussions felt like they existed in their own world. We closed those two news-related message boards and opened this blog as an effort to find a way of discussing 5 live the station - updating listeners on important developments and answering questions.

• Sport

10. How will you respond to the loss of two packages of Premier League football?

Obviously we're disappointed by losing the late game on a Saturday and the early match on Sunday. It's worth remembering though that we will still be offering far more Premier League football than any other station as well as the Champions' League, the FA and League Cups, the Europa League, the Championship and the SPL. We are working on our detailed plans for next season including a full Sports Report and 606 on Saturday evenings and some new ideas for football coverage and discussion for Sunday lunchtimes. We'll be able to give more details over the summer.

11. How many 5 live staff are going to the World Cup? Are you sending presenters as well as sports staff?

The World Cup is a huge event for 5 live and we know many of our listeners care passionately about it. We will be presenting many hours of output from South Africa including sports programmes to cover all the main matches as well as 5 live Breakfast and the Saturday morning programme. In total we'll have 48 people including four presenters there for some part of the coverage. Everyone in South Africa for us will be involved in both news and sports coverage.

12. Why don't you delay the move to Salford until after the Olympics? How much more will it cost to cover the Olympics from Salford than from your London base?

Planning the BBC's move to Salford of course began before London was awarded the 2012 Olympics. If we delayed the move, it would mean leaving empty a newly constructed and fitted out building for the best part of a year. That would be vastly more expensive than the cost of bringing people involved in Olympics coverage from Salford to London for just over two weeks. We will keep the core team who are working full-time on planning the Olympics coverage in London rather than move them to Salford.

• Long-term

13. What are the big challenges for 5 live now? And what are your ambitions for the station?

The biggest challenges 5 live faces are shared with the rest of the radio industry in the UK. For me, the biggest issues are how we keep radio relevant to people of all age groups, interests and backgrounds, how we make the switch to digital in all of its forms, how we keep generating fresh ideas and how to make sure we discover outstanding new presenters.

For 5 live in particular, the move to Salford is a huge landmark in the station's history, giving us the chance to create an even better station; we want to be more distinctive with a wider range of stories and voices. More than that, we want to be a vital part of growing the role of speech radio in the UK. Our mix of news, sport and discussion is ideally suited to a busy, connected, mobile world - we can give people the information they want when they want it, we can bring events vividly to life and we can get everyone involved in what we do. Our ambition is simple - to create great radio which is ambitious, unpredictable and relevant to everyone.

Adrian Van Klaveren is Controller of BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra

Tricky thing about being at 5 live Interactive is that we have these fantastic operations either side of us. To our right BBC News Online is providing everything you could possibly want on a news site; to our left is Sport Online with probably the best sports service on the planet (OK, we're biased). So when the big events come along we work very closely with those areas, but at the same time try and develop something that will reflect the uniqueness of 5 live.

So when we started thinking about the general election some time ago, we drew up a list of what we thought we could bring to the party. We wanted something that would show off the best of the station's election coverage, reflect the interests of the audience and also, hopefully, use the web to drive some new listeners to the network during this significant time.

We also wanted it to look really cool and unlike anything else out there. That last one I think is the first thing that magneticNorth said they wanted to achieve when we met them. A dynamic independent company in Manchester, they have been our partners in putting together the 5 live election story.

The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of the election campaign, offering all our major interviews arranged by topic everyday. So if you want to hear all parties' views on education or the views of listeners, it's all there under the Education banner. The front of the election story shows you which subjects are the most talked about on air each day and you can navigate through the timeline to see how this is changing day-to-day.

The audio we normally offer online is only available for 7 days, but during the election you will be able to listen to all of 5 live's election content for the duration of the battle.

Elsewhere we will be live video streaming Nicky Campbell with the three leaders and 5 live Connect will bring together all your online contributions throughout the campaign.

Brett Spencer is 5 live's interactive editor

• You can explore the 5 live election story here.

My colleague Freya Mehta from 5 live interactive has been following 5 live's chief political correspondent John Pienaar around with a video camera. Together, they're creating a series of election videos which will live on the 5 live website called "Pienaar's Political Peanuts". Twice a week, John will share his thoughts on the campaign from the comfort of his favourite Westminster pub.

Coming up with the idea was easy. We just combined John's two favourite things: politics and pints.

Sit back and enjoy...

Aaron Eccles is a senior producer at 5 live

• Freya Mehta and Guy Oldfield are the creative team behind "Pienaar's Political Peanuts".

• You can subscribe to John Pienaar's podcast here.

The nominations for this year's Sony Radio Awards were announced last night and they're really good news for 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra.



We've got nine nominations in total including one for what's often seen as the top award - Station of the Year. We're one of the three nominees alongside TalkSport and Absolute Radio. We've also been nominated in the Digital Station of the Year category where 5 live Sports Extra is against Planet Rock and Absolute Classic Rock.

These nominations really matter to us because Sony judges are a wide range of people who really know about radio. Ratings can tell us how many people are listening and for how long but it's wonderful to have the excellence of our output recognised by an independent judging panel. Our entries emphasised the importance of our audience in everything we do and how we are working to bring in new listeners.



Outstandingly there are three nominations for Victoria Derbyshire and her team. Victoria is nominated in the Speech Broadcaster of the Year category, for Interview of the Year (her interview with Peter Bacon) and as the best News and Current Affairs Programme.

5 live Breakfast with Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty is nominated once again in the Best Breakfast Programme category so has a chance to hold on to the award it won last year.

In sport, Test Match Special has picked up a nomination in the Best Live Event category for our Ashes coverage last summer and Sportsweek is nominated for Best Sports Programme.

Finally, Mark Kermode is nominated for the new Specialist Contributor of the Year award for his coverage of the world of movies for 5 live.



We'll find out the results on May 10th - but whatever happens on the night, we're very proud to have received these nominations.

Adrian Van Klaveren is Controller of BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra

• You can see a full list of the Sony Radio Awards nominations here.

I have this recurring nightmare. I wake up and go downstairs in my house, only to find my living room has been replaced by the 5 live studio and the network is broadcasting live from there. I'm sure something meaningful lies in this dream (spending too much time in the office?) but it hasn't actually happened yet. Although this morning I woke up to discover that Victoria Derbyshire was launching 5 live's election coverage in one of my local pubs, so it is getting closer.



There was a definite buzz in the air this morning at the One Crown in Watford. As Gordon Brown visited the Palace, the six candidates for the key marginal seat of Watford took their places around the table for the first of many lively confrontations to come. They all studied the Westminster comings and goings on the giant TV (usually reserved for football), well aware that their political futures depend on the events of the next four weeks and this pub was where it was all going to begin



As the show went to air at 10am the line back to the studio disappeared, but was back up a couple of minutes later. Victoria and editor Louisa Compton kept calm as Nicky Campbell held the fort.

In 5 live fashion, it was the residents of Watford that we heard from first, and their concerns set the tone for the campaign to come. They were worried about the future of Watford Hospital, yobbish behaviour in the High Street at the weekend and the economic prospects for their children, all topics likely to be echoed up and down the land in the weeks to come. Then it was the turn of the candidates to directly answer their concerns.

This is where 5 live will come into its own during the campaign, providing listeners with a voice and bringing them closer than anyone else to those trying to win a seat in Westminster. Over the next few weeks Victoria Derbyshire will take her programme to other key areas such as Luton, Bromsgrove, Middlesbrough and Leeds. Nicky Campbell will be hosting the phone-in every morning with major political figures including all three party leaders at 9am daily.



You can hear Victoria's programme from Watford and read a selection of listeners' comments from 5 live Connect.



Brett Spencer, 5 live Interactive Editor

From today, the 5 live Now page is being re-branded as 5 live Connect. We'll be promoting this change on the 5 live website and on air.

The most important reason for this is that 5 live Now isn't the easiest thing to explain on air. For example, if a presenter tries to direct listeners to a message published on the page, it can be confusing hearing "Go to 5 live Now...now."

Connect was not the only option. Staff from across 5 live suggested many different names, including the Watercooler, the 5pider, the Squirrel and the Soapbox. There were heated arguments and enthusiastic campaigns. In the end, we decided on 5 live Connect because that's what the tool is supposed to do - connect our listeners with 5 live programmes.

For those of you not familiar with 5 live Now/Connect, my editor, Brett Spencer, summed its purpose up in an earlier post on this blog:

"5 live Now makes the whole network more responsive to listener comment and puts your views closer to producers and presenters - for use on-air and on the web site. We'll pull together online comment, contributions from social networks, texts and emails and feed them directly to programme editors and the radio station as a whole. Your contributions will also be much more visible on the new site. 5 live Now will operate in real-time and give more prominence to the contributions selected."

At the moment, 5 live Connect runs during the Breakfast phone-in and the Victoria Derbyshire programme. We've also used it for special news events such as Budget day and Tony Blair's appearance at the Chilcot inquiry. During the election, 5 live Connect will be a way of sharing your opinion more often. We'll run the page during the three leaders' debates and when the party leaders take part in the Breakfast phone-in.

5 live Connect will also play a central role in 5 live's election story, an exciting application we're launching for the election campaign. We'll have more details on this in a blog post in the very near future.

And for those of you that have got in touch with concerns about the 140 character limit on messages sent directly via the 5 live Connect page, I am happy to tell you that this is being removed completely. Soon you will be able to write as much as you want...but please think of me when you do as I am often the one reading every word!

Aaron Eccles is a senior producer at 5 live

• You can find out more about 5 live Connect here

As the election draws closer we're getting lots of questions from you about how we balance our news programmes to ensure all parties are fairly represented.

As news programme makers, we make judgments every day about live events, including speeches from politicians, and aim to bring our audience significant, and newsworthy moments, from all parties. Across the day, and week, we carry live speeches and press conferences of all parties where we judge them to be of equal political and news significance. Balance and impartiality is at the front of our minds throughout.

During the election period we will be particularly vigilant in our work to provide fair, balanced coverage of all parties in order to give our audience the opportunity to hear the policies and pledges of all parties ahead of polling day.

As such, I thought it might be interesting for you to read the official BBC guidance.

You will also know by now that Victoria is hosting a series of debates over the next few weeks. They'll be a bit like the special programmes we did this year from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat party conferences.

We'll have senior politicians from all of the parties and an audience of 200 5 live listeners. The subjects, dates and locations are:

• Trust in Politics on April 12th in Bromsgrove

• Immigration on April 21st in Luton

• Economy on April 26th in Middlesbrough

• Crime on May 3rd in Leeds

If you want to be in the audience then email [email protected] and we'll send you details. We should be able to bring you full details of guests over the next few weeks - but at the moment it's looking as though we'll have a stellar cast list.

Louisa Compton is 5 live's Daytime Editor

Earlier this week, the Drive team kindly agreed to being filmed. From their morning meeting to the end-of-show debrief, we followed them with cameras and recorded way too much footage. Here's what we came up with...

Every weekday morning, the Drive team arrive at work knowing they have to create three hours of radio from scratch. Here's an average day in the life of the programme.

Drive is presented by Peter Allen and Aasmah Mir. It's on 5 live weekdays from 4pm - 7pm.

Aaron Eccles is a senior producer at 5 live

• Thanks to Guy Oldfield, 5 live's video producer, for filming and editing

• And thanks to the Drive team for putting up with us!