Archives for January 2011

Late last year, we gave the 5 live homepage a slight facelift, and changed the way people navigate around the site. The major change was the Best Bits section, where, as the name hopefully makes completely clear, you can hear clips and watch videos featuring some of the best content from 5 live.

We have a few rules of thumb that we try to follow when we're deciding what clips to use.

First, the material is slected by the people who actually make the shows, as they're in the best position to judge what's good, and they have access to the relevant audience response. Sometimes we get a load of texts asking to play something again, and now, we're in a position to do so. The 5 live Interactive team then edit and publish these clips to the website.

The clip itself should be a great bit of radio that's unique to this station, so it doesn't have to be the biggest interview or part of the most important story (although it can be both of those). We ask ourselves two questions: is it worth hearing again and again? Is it unique to 5 live? If the answer to both of these is 'yes', it's worth putting up.

Recently, two of the most popular clips have featured Peter Allen, who, according to the Guardian and Wikipedia, turns 65 today. His birthday is actually on Friday - 4 February.

One of the clips was from Richard Bacon's show. He had Dermot O'Leary in, and the X Factor and Radio 2 presenter confessed he was a bit nervous about bumping into Peter. You can watch their meeting here.

Another is Peter's interview with a 93-year-old man who's recently reunited with his wife after being apart for 50 years. It's well worth listening to how it ends.

We hope that short clips like this raise awareness of 5 live and what we do. For instance someone who can't listen to the start of Drive and isn't inclined to listen to a three-hour programme on iPlayer can easily hear a short clip from the programme.

Short clips can be passed around the web, using the various social media, and we get lots of comments about clips on Facebook. For existing listeners, it's an easily navigable selection of funny/interesting/informative moments.

It'd be useful to hear what people think. Are there any 5 live best bits that we've missed? Of course, we can also pass on your birthday wishes to Mr Allen. On Friday.

Hasit Shah is a senior producer at Radio 5 live

Over a million young people are currently unemployed. This week on 5 live's On The Money, Declan Curry sent me to do a Sunday shift as an Apprentice at Redcar and Cleveland College. They've over two hundred apprentices, it's one way that young people in the local area are earning money and learning on the job.

Here's my report from this week's programme:

Do you have suggestions for other Sunday shifts? If so, please leave a comment below.

On The Money goes out between 8 - 9pm on Sunday nights on 5 live.

Related links

On the Money

Each week on 5 live's On The Money, Declan Curry sends me to do a Sunday shift in a business that doesn't follow a typical 9-5. This week I spent the day with the Oxfordshire Theatre Company as they transformed Oxfordshire's Cassington village hall into Wonderland, for a musical version of 'Alice'.

Here's my report from this week's programme:

Do you have suggestions for other Sunday shifts? If so, please leave a comment below.

On The Money goes out between 8 - 9pm on Sunday nights on 5 live.

Related links

On the Money

With the British cycling team preparing for next month's Track World Cup in Manchester, I was given the chance to ride at the city's Velodrome for Weekend Breakfast.

Until now my cycle racing experience has been limited to a frantic pursuit of the 17.37 from Kings Cross when I've been running late on my commute through London.

But I was in good hands at the Manchester Velodrome. Olympic gold medalist and Omnium World champion Ed Clancy was warming up for the evening's Revolution meeting by guiding me around the track.

Ed Clancy and his Great Britain team-mates are riding a wave of success at the moment. They deserve our support as they aim to maintain their lead in the World Cup standings at the Manchester Velodrome between 18th and 20th February.

Related links

British Cycling

Cycling on BBC Sport

5 live Best Bits

Each week on 5 live's On The Money, Declan Curry sends me to do a Sunday shift in a business that doesn't follow a typical 9-5. This week I spent the day on a Centrica gas rig in the East Irish Sea.

Here's my report from this week's programme:

Do you have suggestions for other Sunday shifts? If so, please leave a comment below.

On The Money goes out between 8 - 9pm on Sunday nights on 5 live.

Related links

On the Money

Some stories seem to defy description - events whose scale and cruelty is beyond any norms even in a 24 hour world where nowhere is far away anymore.

The earthquake in Haiti, on this day last year, was one such event. A quarter of a million people died and millions more must still wonder sometimes what kind of place they have survived in.

Every day on 5 live Breakfast this week, we're hearing from people whose normal life ground to a juddering halt when the quake hit.

The young man who got lost in his hometown because not a single landmark remained to show him where to turn.

The girl who, on her 18th birthday, found herself buried under rubble, next to her dying sister.

We'll hear from aid workers still providing daily food and basic shelter for families who have nothing, trauma counsellors helping people face new and constant anxieties. To try to get a sense of who else they turn to, we'll talk to a priest and a voodoo practitioner.

Haiti prompted one of the largest aid responses ever seen. A year on, we try to find out if help really has come to the country.

Related links

Latest on Haiti from BBC News

Haiti: country profile

Haiti stories on 5 live Breakfast

Monday - Stefania Musset, student, Port-au-Prince

Tuesday - Christella Monteau, trapped in rubble for 17 hours

Wednesday - Mike Thomson, British firefighter

Christmas and New Year are over, the weather is miserable and it's been freezing for weeks. January can be grim at the best of times unless there's something to look forward to, so whoever thought of putting the third round of the FA Cup at the start of the month should be given a medal!

One of my favourite quotes about being a football fan came from Adrian Chiles, during his 5 live years. He used to talk (a lot) about West Brom's promotion or (more often) relegation prospects. He used to say: "It's not the despair that bothers me, it's the hope!"

This weekend, above all others, is about the passion of football, about forgetting your form in the league and dreaming of just what might be. Take Weekend Breakfast. Phil Williams is one of the presenters, and he's a Villa fan. What would he give for a win at the moment? I'm a suffering Liverpool Red. How much would I love us to turn over United? Oh for another 1-nil like the last time we played them, back in 2006. We went on to win the trophy, with that incredible last minute Steven Gerrard equaliser against West Ham in the final (we went on to win 3-1 on penalties). Ah, those were the days, the 3-3 comeback years...

Whichever team you support, 5 live is with you every step of the way. On the coach heading to the ground, sharing your hopes, watching the game with you, celebrating your win or giving you a shoulder to cry on. That's what we'll be trying to do.

We'll preview all the games in Weekend Breakfast with guests like the Kaiser Chiefs, athlete Mo Farah and a legend of advertising. All I'll say is, "Buy one, you get one free, I say buy one and you get one free"!

Gooner Alan Davies takes over at 9, then it's commentary on 5 live of Arsenal v Leeds and Stevenage v Newcastle, with Millwall v Birmingham and Southampton v Blackpool on 5 live Sports Extra. Then it's your chance to have your say on 606 from 7.20pm.

Oh, and if you want something to take your mind off the football, try the ageless game of "count the cliché" - 1 point for "The Magic of the Cup", 2 for "David v Goliath" and 3 for "potential banana skin".

Adrian Hughes is the Assistant Editor of Weekend Breakfast