BBC Radio 5 (former)

BBC Radio 5

Broadcast area	United Kingdom - national MW
Frequency	693 kHz, 909 kHz (990 kHz in West Wales)
Programming
Format	Sports, children's and educational programmes
Ownership
Owner	BBC
History
First air date	27 August 1990
Last air date	27 March 1994

BBC Radio 5 was a national radio station which carried sports, children's and educational programmes from 1990 to 1994.

It transmitted via analogue radio on 693 and 909 kHz, lasted for three years and eight months. The success of Radio 4's rolling news coverage of the Gulf War on a service nicknamed "Scud FM" to demonstrate the popularity of a 24-hour news and sports service, which was replaced by Radio 5 Live on 28 March 1994.

History[]

Launch[]

A new fifth national radio station was first announced by the BBC on 9 October 1988,^[1] it owed existence to broadcasting policy of the Conservative government for the time to end its longstanding practice of simulcasting its services on both AM and FM to use the medium wave frequencies which Radio 2 has been using since 23 November 1978.^[2]

On 15 August 1990, Radio 2 began to wind down its medium wave transmissions by broadcasting a daytime information service providing advice about how to listen on FM, within the service included trailers for the new station. This continued until 2.00pm on the day before the launch and Radio 2 ended its medium wave transmissions at midnight on Sunday 26 August. Nine hours later, at 9.00am on the following day (Monday 27 August), Radio 5 launched with five-year-old boy Andrew Kelly uttering the words:

Hello, good morning and welcome to Radio 5.

Prior to this, the new station's frequencies broadcast a long sequence of programming trails linked by Jon Briggs (one of the station's launch presenting team) and pre-recorded sketches from comedians Trevor Neal and Simon Hickson (consisting of the two larking about in the studio amid the strains of "Sailing By", and Trevor suddenly being cut off while he was reading his so-called "Ode to Radio 5").^[3] The official first programme was Take Five, a pre-recorded programme by Bruno Brookes.

Structure[]

Many saw the service as four other main BBC stations did not want, reflected in a speech by Jenny Abramsky, News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media 2002 at Exeter College, Oxford University:^[4]

The sports output from Radio 2 Medium Wave, all the Schools and Continuing Education programmes from Radio 4 FM, the Open University programmes from Radios 3 and 4 FM, and programmes for children and young people from Radio 4 and some World Service output. This was a network with no audience focus, born out of expediency.

In 1991, Operation Desert Storm was launched, as the multinational response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From 16 January, Radio 4's FM frequencies were used to provide an all-news network for the coverage of the war, dubbed 'Radio 4 News FM' (or more popularly in the media as Scud FM),^[5] but despite protests from Radio 4 listeners mainly received praise for the quality of this service and the speed which it was set up. Following the end of the conflict, Radio 4 resumed its normal schedule but the positive response to commencing review into the possibility of providing a full-time news station, leading to the broadcast of a similar service on longwave during the 1992 general election campaign. Due to the resistance to any use of Radio 4 FM (or LW) frequencies, it was decided that Radio 5, criticised by John Birt as "improvised and disjointed", would relaunch as a combined news and sports channel.

Demise[]

The "old" Radio 5 signed off at midnight on Sunday 27 March 1994 with a pre-recorded Nigel and Earl sketch at the end of one of the network's Irish music magazine programme Across the Line. Ten minutes later, the frequencies closed down for the night following a generic BBC Radio News and Sport bulletin and the new Radio 5 Live began its 24-hour service at 5.00am on Monday 28 March.

Programming[]

The station was on air daily from 6.00am until just after midnight although initially, apart from sports coverage, original programming was restricted to key times of the day – breakfast, mid-mornings and on weekdays, drive and programmes for young people during the evening. The rest of the day was filled with simulcasts of other BBC stations and programmes from the World Service. This filler output was broadcast for several hours each day with programmes aired at 6.00am, 11.00pm and on weekday afternoons. Radio 3 was broadcast on weekday lunchtimes,^[6] and Radio 4 on Saturday evenings,^[7] and Sunday lunchtime and teatime.^[8] Also, Radio 1 and Radio 2 were simulcast on Sundays – Radio 2 in the afternoon when there was no sports coverage and Radio 1 during the early evening as a replacement for Open University programmes.^[9]

From spring 1991, the station started to expand its original programming. First to go, at the end of March, was the 11.00pm World Service block followed in autumn by the simulcasts of other BBC stations and finally, May 1992 saw the removal of the weekday afternoon block of World Service programmes which meant that the station was now producing its own programming every day from 6.30am until just after midnight. The 6.00am World Service news bulletin simulcast remained throughout the station's time on air.

The new network allowed the BBC to significantly enhance its sports coverage, especially in the later years. For example, during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the network devoted its entire output to the event^[10] and during the summer months, sports coverage was broadcast all afternoon every day of the week.

Weekdays[]

Weekends[]

Evenings[]

Presenters[]

See also[]

• Timeline of the BBC
• List of BBC radio stations

References[]