This year's Sony Radio Academy Awards nominations have been announced and they are great news for 5 live.
It's always a tense time, waiting to find out what's caught the attention of the judges and is in the running for one of those much coveted Sony Golds. I'm delighted that this year 5 live has a total of 16 nominations - that's more in a single year than any of us can remember. You can see the full list of nominations on the Sony Radio Academy Awards website.
Each nomination is a great achievement and a recognition of the work of everyone involved. It's great to see such a wide range across everything 5 live does.
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LIVERPOOL
Earlier this month, we posted on here about the series of programmes coming out of Liverpool next month - well, now there's more.
The world famous Grand National is celebrating its 163rd year this year and 5 live is going to be there at Aintree and also in Liverpool as we broadcast some of our programmes live from the city. We're bringing together all the elements of the 5 live mix including news, sport, debate and entertainment in front of live audiences at the Epstein Theatre (formerly The Neptune Theatre).
In addition to the shows that have already been announced, Eleanor Oldroyd will host a debate about the London 2012 Olympics with a panel of guests on Thursday 7 April. We'll be asking who are the top British medal hopes? How are preparations going? And what do the people of Liverpool think about London 2012?
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Mark Kermode, filmed in the 5 live studio
Last week in the Independent Jane Thynne wrote a thoughtful piece about BBC radio programmes that you can watch online.
At 5 live we've been video streaming a variety of our programmes for some time. You can see them by clicking the 'Watch live' link on the homepage. As her article shows, Jane is a fan; she writes that, "Seeing radio broadcasters interact adds another dimension to the politician's evasion or the celebrity's confession. There's a relaxed intimacy to radio on screen, an unguarded quality, which seems to bring out the best in people."
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CHORLEY
The Covered Market in Chorley
"We'd like to adopt a town," I'm told. It's two o'clock on a Thursday afternoon and I'm slightly taken aback by the request. What? Like adopting an endangered species in a zoo I wonder?
"What sort of town?", I ask.
"Well, one we can follow after the budget over the coming months to see how they fare economically". Ah, I get it now...
I'm 5 live's North West of England reporter so I know just about every town in the region. So which one do I choose? Liverpool is diverse but maybe too big. Buxton is interesting but maybe too small.
I look at a map of the North West and consider a dozen more. Suddenly I spot the right one - Chorley. It's a medium-sized market town in Lancashire with a mixed population, and they are doing their best to fight the economic downturn. Since April last year, 51 new businesses have set up in the town.
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With the news agenda dominated by Libya, Japan, Egypt, Tunisia and New Zealand in recent weeks, there hasn't been quite the welter of pre-Budget speculation that's the norm here at Westminster.
But attention diverted elsewhere does nothing to alter the stark economic picture the Chancellor George Osborne is staring at.
Take these statistics for size.
The economy shrank in the last three months of 2010.
The government expects to borrow £148bn this year. That's 10% of the country's economic output, a post-war record and one of the worst deficits amongst economically advanced countries.
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As Graham's last blog post here mentioned - we were on the telly last night! A Day in the Live - 5 live's new TV trail went out last night on BBC One. It's the first in a week-long series of trails going out on the same day they were filmed - which are designed to provide an insight into what we do to bring live news, sport and entertainment to the nation.
I hope you enjoy - and keep your eye out on BBC TV for the second in the series tonight. We'll be on just before Eastenders at around 7.27pm and just after Wonders of the Universe on BBC Two at about 8pm this evening (amongst others).
The cameras are rolling and it's all go behind the scenes here at the 5 live studios. We arrived at 5am this morning to start filming the new marketing campaign - A Day in the Live.
Typically, in the commercial world, the average ad would take about three-to-four months to make. However, for our new TV campaign we started filming this morning at 7am and fingers crossed BBC One at 7.27pm tonight (to be precise) you'll see the first from our week of new daily trails - each one shot, edited and put on air within 12 hours on the very same day it was shot.
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On Wednesday 30 March, Victoria Derbyshire will be holding a mock general election at a constituency in west London and we want you to join us.
We're holding OUR election ahead of the referendum on the Alternative Vote on 5 May. We'll have party candidates competing for your vote - and then we'll count up the votes using both first-past-the-post, which is the current system, and the Alternative Vote. We'll find out how much of a difference it could potentially make and analyse the results with senior politicians from the Yes and No to AV campaigns.
If you're free on the morning of March 30th and you'd like to take part in our experiment - click here to email the programme and if you're selected the team will be in touch.
Lights are turned off to save energy before rolling blackouts in Tokyo
Just one more report before you head home, Shelagh, they said hopefully. A blog for the website? No problem, I say, thinking it'll be a useful round up of the past five days. I settle down in bed to write it on my phone and what do you know - the room starts shaking noticibly and it doesn't stop as quickly as it has in all the previous aftershocks I've felt since coming to Japan.
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The damaged No. 4 unit of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant
I've already posted on this blog about using Twitter in a time of disaster. Some of you agree it's a useful tool, others are a more dubious of its merits. As I mentioned earlier, when the earthquake hit Japan last Friday, one of the most reliable ways of talking to people directly affected was via Twitter. I had several ongoing conversations with people in Sendai and in Fukushima - Kymberly Fergusson (@NifwlSeirff) was one of them. She's still in Fukushima and I asked her whether she would be interested in writing a blog post for us about the ongoing situation there. She agreed. As Kym is a member of the public and not a staff member here at 5 live, I've switched off the comments for this blog. I hope you find Kym's post insightful and informative...
16/03/2011:Fukushima
I'm writing this in Fukushima city in Fukushima prefecture, where it is still regularly shaking with aftershocks, both weak and strong.
Originally from Melbourne, Australia, I am currently an assistant English teacher at three junior high schools and multiple elementary schools in Fukushima city. My background is in computer science, technical writing and tertiary education.
I have spent 10 months in Japan, and had already experienced a mid-sized quake during a holiday here in 2008. I also had to evacuate during the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Australia.
But neither of those experiences come close to this earthquake and tsunami.
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Hello, I'd like to tell you about a new co-presenter for 5 live Weekend Breakfast from April. As you probably know, Rachel Burden is leaving the programme to present 5 live Breakfast alongside Nicky Campbell .
Joining Phil Williams each weekend morning will be Anna Foster. You probably know Anna best as our regional reporter based in Newcastle and you will have heard her reporting on stories ranging from Raoul Moat to the Cumbrian floods to events at Newcastle United. She's also already presented a number of 5 live programmes including Weekend Breakfast and Drive.
Anna has already proved that she's a great journalist and a warm personality and I think she and Phil will make a great combination each Saturday and Sunday morning. Weekend Breakfast is an important programme for us - it's vital for us in reporting the main news stories of each weekend, setting the agenda for the day's sport and capturing the mood of the weekend. The new line-up starts on Saturday April 23.
Later in the summer, we'll also have two new presenters for our new Sunday morning programme. BBC Political Correspondent Laura Kuenssberg and Manchester-based presenter Sam Walker will present Double Take at 9.30am on Sundays from July. There'll be more details about the programme on this blog nearer the time.
But with Anna, Laura and Sam all joining our weekend line-up, I think we're adding three highly talented female presenters to our team of presenters.
Adrian Van Klaveren is the controller of 5 live.
LIVERPOOL
The world famous Grand National is celebrating its 163rd year this year and 5 live is going to be there at Aintree and also in Liverpool as we broadcast some of our programmes live from the city. We're bringing together all the elements of the 5 live mix including news, sport, debate and entertainment in front of live audiences at the Epstein Theatre (formerly The Neptune Theatre).
On Wednesday 6 April, Eleanor Oldroyd hosts a "Meet the Racing Team" Q+A evening with guests Clare Balding, Cornelius Lysaght, John Hunt and Mick Fitzgerald.
Tony Livesey's programme comes from there on the Thursday evening and includes a debate about the economy in the Merseyside region. Later, Tony McCoy has promised to join Kicking off with Colin Murray again Friday night because he wants to have exactly the same routine as he did last year when he won the National for the first time.
And on the Saturday 9 April, 5 live has teamed up with BBC Radio Merseyside to stage our biggest ever live audience show - Fighting Talk in front of 2,000 people in Liverpool's Empire Theatre. All tickets are free of course and are available now - click here to head to the ticketing page.
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In times of disaster, it can be incredibly difficult to establish a clear picture of what's happening and where. Traditional means of communication collapse. Telephone lines go down. Mobile signals are difficult. The lights go out.
And that's when Twitter,Facebook and other social networking sites become the easiest, fastest and most reliable way of keeping in touch
When the 8.9 scale earthquake hit Japan at 5:46am (GMT) on Friday 11 March, it was impossible to judge the sheer scale of the disaster that would unfold over the coming days.
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Afternoon...so hopefully you've all read Tony Livesey's blog about his preparations for Stand Up for Comic Relief - if not, you can read it here. He's one of six radio presenters from across the BBC involved in an epic comedy showdown to raise money for Comic Relief.
We've now got our hands on a video of Tony's performance (above) and some behind-the-scenes pictures of his prep and performance which we thought was only fair to put up here for your enjoyment.
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Hello. It's great to be here. Well, I'm from Burnley so it's great to be anywhere! Boom boom.
With those immortal opening lines I began one of the most nerve-wracking five minutes of my life. In the past I've tried to get laughs on Have I Got News For You and Never Mind The Buzzcocks, but both those programmes are recorded. Deafening silence after a bad gag can be edited out.
When it comes to Stand Up For Comic Relief, there is no relief. No get out clause. No escape route. Just you...and an audience of 400 strangers urging through every pore of their being: make us laugh!
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You'd have to be living on another planet not to notice that a certain William and Kate are getting married at the end of April. It's not everyone's cup of tea and your plans for the extra bank holiday may involve ignoring the Royal Wedding altogether, but if you're excited by it and you're looking forward to following events then maybe you can help us with our coverage here on 5 live.
From 10am through till 4pm on Friday 29 April we'll have a special programme looking at the royal nuptials and we'd love you to take part.
You don't need to be an expert on commemorative mugs, wedding dresses or royal protocol but you do need to be....
1) Planning on coming to London to be part of the crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of the couple as they travel to and from Westminster Abbey. If you are then please get in touch as we'd like to talk to you as part of our programme.
2) Celebrating your golden wedding anniversary this year. Have you or your parents been married 50 years on April 29th? If so we want to hear from you.
3) And finally where were you on 29th July 1981? Did you get married on that day as well as Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales? Maybe it was your Mum and Dad's wedding day, if so please email us as we'd love to hear from you.
The best way to contact us if you'd like to get involved is to click here and send us a message.
Jim talks to Dotun while Up All Night is being broadcast
Good evening, or should I say, good morning, it's 1am. My name's Jim and I'm a Senior Broadcast Journalist with Up All Night.
There are a couple of different shift patterns for the UAN team - I'm going to concentrate on the night shift, when the programme actually goes out. When we work nights we arrive into the newsroom at 5pm (having attempted to sleep for a large part of the day). On arrival, we spend the first hour or so looking for stories for the show. Once armed with all sorts of ideas from around the world, there's the handover meeting - when the day editor runs through what's been set up and runs through all the technical aspects of that night's show. The day team then leave and we spend the next couple of hours reshuffling, changing, dropping, adding other stories and guests, and keeping abreast of breaking news.
Up All Night tends to follow the sun around the globe so we can reach guests that are awake when we are. This means that the first few hours of the programme have a lot of stories from the Americas (and anyone elsewhere who we can persuade to stay up late to speak to us). By the time we hit 4am, we're looking at countries like Australia and parts of Asia.
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Tony Livesey and some of the 5 live team in Manchester.
I'm the Editor of Late Night programmes on 5 live. We make Tony Livesey and Stephen Nolan's programmes in Manchester and then we produce Up All Night in London.
I love my job. I get to work with some of the warmest and most engaging presenters on BBC Radio. Tony Livesey, Stephen Nolan, Rhod Sharp and Dotun Adebayo have all seen record audiences in their slot. We've worked our socks off with an exceptionally busy news year which included the General Election and the World Cup.
Our shifts on Stephen Nolan and Tony Livesey start at lunchtime when we begin planning what will be in that night's show. The great thing about a late night programme is that you have loads of opportunities to see what other news shows are doing both on the radio and on the telly. You have lots of time to digest the papers and news websites from around the globe. The downside is that you want your progamme to make an impact and sound fresh. Lots of other progs would have already gone for the same guests, stories and treatments that you're considering.
The output editor sets the general tone, content and style of the output. But I also wade in when we're faced with editorial dilemmas. We're driven by breaking news and the big stories but we also want to connect with our audience and provide a warm and fun listen.
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5 live's sports newsroom
My working day on this particular Thursday starts when the radio alarm brings Shelagh and Phil (ed note: Nicky was away) live into my bedroom. Not a bad morning to be waking up to either - Vassos Alexander and news of last night's Champions League action. All 5 live presenters are of course completely neutral and even-handed when it comes to the football teams we support. But let's just say that if Peter Allen was quite pleased when Crouch scored in the San Siro, I might have allowed myself a little smile when Arshavin slotted it away at the Emirates. Can't hear that Alan Green commentary too often...
One of the things I enjoy most about Thursday nights is that every show is different. We get to grips with big topics - like sexism and depression in sport - or give sports other than football centre stage. This is where you'll find 5 live boxing, rugby, track and field and racing, plus we're currently planning our big countdown to the 2012 Olympics in London Calling.
Just for a change though, this week we've got live commentary from the Europa League, Sparta Prague against Liverpool. And after the great week we've had in the Champions League, we're hoping for another cracker.
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The 8.30am output editors meeting
It's 7am. I'm in the coffee queue in the ground floor café in TV centre. My headphones are on as I try to keep an ear on the 7am news summary. I'm also hoping I don't bump into anyone I know in the queue. It's not that I'm anti-social (well, actually I might be but that's another story), it's just I don't want to miss the chance to hear any of 5 live's output before another day of wall-to-wall meetings begins.
Hi, I'm Jonny Crawford, though you won't be surprised to hear that my nickname is sometimes Jonny-Not-Now.
"Jonny, have you got a sec...?". Sorry, not now, I'm late for a meeting.
"Jonny, do you think ...?". Sorry not now, I've just got to make a quick call...
You get the idea? Do you think I need to go on a time management course?
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What are the chances of a former Home Secretary throwing a cup of tea over you?
I'm sure they go up if you ask her to do a documentary on pornography especially if porn was a feature of her downfall. Anyway I thought I'd play the odds as persuading Jacqui Smith to make such a show for 5 live would land us with a challenging, fascinating piece of radio and so it's proved.
I'd been put in touch with Jacqui via Twitter's @gabyhinsliff, the former political editor of the Observer. Turned out Jacqui was considering a new career in broadcasting; my argument was if she wanted to put the past behind her it was best to deal with it head on. "Don't give me your answer now", I said, thinking it would most likely be 'sod off'.
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Andy and the 5 live Drive team
I joined 5 live from local radio 18 months ago. Since then I've worked as a producer on Drive. Recently I've started doing some more senior shifts as the programme's output editor. Today is my third day in the hot seat.
I get into the office by 8am, and get to work reading the BBC diaries and morning papers. It's a different format today - Peter Allen's co-presenting Drive from Cairo, with Aasmah Mir here in studio. As I log in I get my first call from my boss John Cary, the overall programme editor. We chat about the team bound for Egypt and what they'll be able to do out there. I phone Peter's producer - they've landed and are going through passport control. They'll call again from the hotel.
At 8.30am it's time for the morning meeting with the other programmes' output editors and the news organisers. We run through the top stories of the day; it looks like CRB checks, schools funding and the Egyptian protests will be big. Then it's time for each editor to lay claim to the stories they like - or for the big stories, to co-ordinate how we cover them without repeating ourselves. The editors make their pitch based on when their programme is on air; good news for Ravi who's editing Derbyshire, not so good for me. As usual there's not much left to add by the time Drive gets a go - but anything can happen between now and 4pm.
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An Egyptian flag is waved in front of 5 live's Phil Mackie reporting in Cairo
Hopefully this blog post will give you some idea of both the frustration and the exhilaration of being a 5 live Regional Journalist (RJ). My patch is the West Midlands - but there are no hard and fast boundaries for a 5 live reporter. The job has taken me all over world in pursuit of stories for the network. Most days when I get up, I don't know where I'll spend the day. So Thursday became Friday and as you'll see, before I eventually clocked off 36 hours later, I'd witnessed a moment of history.
Every morning I get up around seven, switch on Nicky and Shelagh, get a cup of tea, and check to see what's going on. On this particular Thursday I went through my usual routine. I checked through BBC running orders in the Midlands to see that there wasn't any breaking news I'd need to get on 5 live breakfast and also checked the local newspapers. Then I set about writing a list of interesting stories to follow up later on. The 5 live RJs from around the country join a conference call at nine'o'clock where we discuss the day's prospects with the news team in London.
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|08:55 UK time, Thursday, 31 March 2011
