Bob Shennan appointed Director of BBC Radio
Bob Shennan has been appointed Director of BBC Radio.
Published: 20 October 2016
I’m delighted to appoint Bob to this important post. Bob has an outstanding breadth of experience and has made a huge contribution to BBC Radio over many years.
Bob, currently Controller of Radio 2, Asian Network and 6 Music and Director of BBC Music, will look after the day-to-day running of BBC network radio and will report to James Purnell, Director of Radio & Education, who has strategic, editorial and budgetary responsibility across arts, children’s, education, music, partnerships and network radio.
In the role, Bob will have daily oversight of BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 live and digital-only stations 1Xtra, 6Music, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 5 live sports extra and Asian Network, as well as the BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Proms, BBC Music and radio production. He will work closely with James on the strategy for radio.
Bob will start on November 8.
James Purnell says: “I’m delighted to appoint Bob to this important post. Bob has an outstanding breadth of experience and has made a huge contribution to BBC Radio over many years. He has proven, through Radio 2, that BBC services can be both distinctive and popular, has brought digital-only services 6 Music and Asian Network to record audiences and has successfully launched BBC Music. I am looking forward to working with him on the next chapter for BBC Radio.”
Bob Shennan says: “Radio is a jewel in the BBC crown and continues to thrive in spite of the changing technological times. BBC Radio is world class and it will be an honour to lead it and make sure it stays that way.”
Bob was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Lancaster and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and graduated with a degree in English Literature.
Bob started his career as a journalist in commercial radio, at Hereward Radio.
He joined the BBC in 1987 and progressed to a variety of senior roles in BBC Sport including, from 1998 to 2000, the position of Head of BBC Sport.
In this role, he was responsible for overseeing all sport on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC News 24, BBC national and local radio and the BBC’s sport online.
In August 2000, Bob was appointed Controller of 5 Live and in September 2002, he launched 5 Live Sports Extra as Controller. During his tenure, 5 Live reached a record audience in 2002 of just under 7 million listeners.
In late 2004 Bob was given overall managerial responsibility for BBC Asian Network.
Bob left the BBC in early 2008 to lead Channel Four Radio. Following his departure from the venture in October 2008, Bob was appointed Controller, Radio 2 and 6 Music in January 2009. Bob lead the network through the transition of Terry Wogan’s departure from Wake Up To Wogan on Friday 18 December 2009 after 17 years, to the launch of The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on January 11 2010.
From February 2009 until 2011, Bob was the Chairman of the Radio Academy, a registered charity dedicated to the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production.
In 2011, Bob was once again appointed controller of Asian Network and was appointed Head of Popular Music.
In 2012, Bob was elected to the board of the prestigious Country Music Association.
Bob has led his three networks to record RAJAR figures and Radio 2 now reaches 15.3 million people every week, BBC Radio 6 Music has an audience 2.27 million whilst the Asian Network has 676,000 weekly listeners(RAJAR Q2 2016).
In March 2014, Bob was appointed Director of BBC Music, replacing his role as Controller of Popular Music. BBC Music was launched with God Only Knows an extraordinary reworking of The Beach Boys' classic song uniting 27 internationally acclaimed artists from across the musical genres, a film which has had 10.8m views on YouTube to date. Bob oversaw the launch of the inaugural BBC Music Awards took place in December 2014 featuring One Direction, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran.
In 2014, Bob was appointed a Trustee of the Roundhouse venue in Camden.
A lifelong Liverpool FC fan, Bob is vice-chairman of BBC Children in Need.
Notes to Editors
- Helen Boaden last month announced her retirement from the BBC after 34 years. Following Helen’s decision, James was appointed Director of Radio & Education and took on Helen’s responsibilities in Radio. James will represent the new division on the BBC Executive Board.
- Recent reorganisations have seen a reduction in the number of BBC divisions, with four divisions - North, Radio, Strategy & Digital and Finance & Operations - being replaced by two - Radio & Education and the Deputy Director General’s Office.
