2017 in British radio

This is a list of events in British radio during 2017.

List of years in British radio (table)
In British television
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Events

January

February
  • 1 February – Clare Teal presents Desmond Carrington – All Time Great, a special Radio 2 show celebrating the music played by Desmond Carrington during his time with the network.[20] The programme airs on the day that Carrington's death is announced.[21]
  • 25 February – Brian Matthew presents his final edition of Sounds of the 60s for Radio 2, having taken the decision to retire from the weekly show because of ill health.[22]

March
  • 4 March – Tony Blackburn succeeds Brian Matthew as presenter of Radio 2's Sounds of the 60s. The two-hour show also moves to the earlier time of 6 am.
  • 29 March –
  • 31 March – Star Radio is reprieved when UKRD announces that it has sold the station to View TV Group.[25]

April

May
  • May – Talksport secures exclusive national radio commentary rights to the English Football League.[28] It gives them the ability to broadcast up to up 110 EFL fixtures a season for three years until the end of the 2019/2020 season.
  • 22 May – A light-hearted quiz concerning Moors murderer Ian Brady which appeared on Nathan Turvey's BBC Radio Leeds breakfast show the previous day is described by the BBC as "unacceptable".[29]
  • 26 May – London-based LBC announces that Katie Hopkins, who had presented a Sunday morning programme since April 2016, will leave the station immediately following a post she made on Twitter in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing in which she talked of the need for a "final solution".[30]

June

July
  • 5 July – Jazz FM confirms its presenter Peter Young, known as PY to listeners, has stepped down from his presenting role after 27 years at the station due to ill health. The station also announces a new schedule beginning on 8 July, which will see three new presenters–Tony Minvielle, Tim Garcia and Anne Frankenstein–join its weekend lineup.[35]
  • 24 July – The BBC announces a new music festival for 2018, which it is hoped will fill the gap left by Glastonbury, which is taking a year off. The Biggest Weekend will run from 25 to 28 May, and take place at four venues, one in each of the Home Countries. Coverage will be shown on BBC radio and television.[36]
  • 27 July – The BBC reverses its decision to axe the Radio 4 arts programme Saturday Review.[37]

August
  • 1 August – Star Radio North East is rebranded as Rathergood Radio.[38]
  • 10 August – Radio 4 defends its decision to include an interview with Nigel Lawson in a segment of The Today Programme about climate change after the Green Party accused the former Chancellor of making "false claims" on the topic. Radio 4 says it has a duty to represent all sides of the climate change debate.[39]
  • 13–14 August – Pirate BBC Essex broadcasts for the fourth and presumably final time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Marine Offences Act.
  • 17 August – Radio 4 announces it has commissioned a pilot of Where's The F In News, a topical radio panel show whose guests will mostly be women. The programme will be written and presented by Jo Bunting, producer of Have I Got News for You.[40]
  • 18 August – Four new presenters—Abbie McCarthy, Katie Thistleton, Jordan North and Yasser—will make their debut on BBC Radio 1, standing in on Matt Edmondson's weekend show throughout September while he is away filming for television.[41]
  • 30 August – BBC Radio 3 announces plans to broadcast a one-off, six-hour programme featuring the voices of people living with dementia, which will air overnight on 15 October.[42]

September
  • 1 September – The Bauer City 3 network is disbanded, and The Hits as a single national service returns to DAB in its place.[43]
  • 9 September – The concert held to reopen Manchester Arena following June's bombing is broadcast live on BBC Radio Manchester, Key 103 and Radio X.[44]
  • 18 September – The fourth roll-out of new transmitters of the BBC National DAB multiplex is completed. The programme, which had run for the past two years, increased the reach from 93% to more than 97% of the UK's population and saw the switching on of 164 new transmitters.[45]
  • 26 September – A poll of Radio Times readers names Sir Terry Wogan the greatest broadcaster of the last 50 years.[46]
  • 30 September – 50th anniversary of the launch of BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, which began broadcasting on 30 September 1967.[47] To celebrate the occasion, the two stations air a joint 90-minute show presented by Nick Grimshaw and Tony Blackburn, while Radio 1 launches a special pop up vintage station featuring 50 hours of programming from their archives.[48]

October
  • 1 October – Smooth Radio hires former Magic presenter Gary Vincent to present its evening programme. He succeeds Chris Skinner from 2 October.[49]
  • 6 October – Prince Harry has been invited to guest edit an edition of The Today Programme, its editor, Sarah Sands confirms. The Prince is one of several guest editors lined up to edit the programme over the Christmas 2017 period.[50]
  • 12 October – BBC Radio 4 confirms that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is to return for a new series, with the original cast reuniting to record a dramatisation of Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing..., a continuation novel commissioned by the Estate of Douglas Adams.[51]
  • 22 October – Reality television starlet Gemma Collins suffers a near fatal fall after plunging through a trapdoor while presenting an award at the Radio 1 Teen Awards, held at Wembley Stadium.[52][53]
  • 23 October – Julia Hartley-Brewer, a presenter on talkRADIO, faces criticism after posting a joke on Twitter about an armed siege. Hartley-Brewer posted about the siege at a bowling alley in Nuneaton, Warwickshire on 22 October, saying that she would "take hostages too" if she was stuck at the venue on a Sunday evening.[54]
  • 26 October – Figures indicate that the Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw recorded its lowest listener audience in the third quarter of 2017, with 4.93 million weekly listeners between July and September, compared to 5.5 million in the previous quarter.[55]

November
  • 9 November – BBC Director General Tony Hall says the BBC will not go ahead with a planned £10million in cuts to local radio.[56]
  • 19 November – It is reported that BBC Radio Wales presenter Aled Jones has voluntarily agreed not to appear on the BBC while the broadcaster holds an investigation into allegations he sent inappropriate messages to a woman more than a decade ago, it is reported. Jones apologises for any upset caused by his behaviour, which he says can be "occasionally juvenile".[57] In January 2018, the BBC confirms the presenter, last heard on air in October, will return to his presenting roles.[58]
  • 20 November – Global announces that it has purchased Cumbrian stations The Bay and Lakeland Radio from CN Group.[59]
  • 23 November – Guest presenters of BBC Radio 4's Today programme over the Christmas period will include Henry, Prince of Wales and a robot, it is confirmed.[60]
  • 26 November – Clare Balding steps down as presenter of BBC Radio 2's Good Morning Sunday, with the day's edition being her final programme. Angie Greaves will assume the presenting role in the short term.[61]

December
  • 18 December – Ofcom launches an investigation into impartiality over two appearances by climate change denier Nigel Lawson on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the first major Ofcom investigation into the BBC since taking over responsibility for regulation of the BBC earlier in the year. The investigation concerns appearances made by Lawson on the programme in 2014, and August 2017.[62]
  • 20 December –
  • 22 December – The former pirate station Radio Caroline begins broadcasting on 648kHz medium wave, having been granted a licence to do so by Ofcom. The frequency was formerly used by the BBC World Service.[66]
  • 27 December – Prince Harry guest edits the Today programme, on which is included guest interviews with former US President Barack Obama and Prince Charles.[67]

Station debuts

Programme debuts

Continuing radio programmes

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Ending this year

Deaths

References
  1. "£15.5m raised for children in poverty by Bauer". Radio Today. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  2. "New Heart breakfast DJ to host alongside Ed James revealed". Birmingham Mail. Trinity Mirror. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  3. Walker, Peter (5 January 2017). "Nigel Farage to host LBC radio talkshow". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  4. "Smooth Radio North East in social media fail – RadioToday". radiotoday.co.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2018. The update said "I'm fuc*ed mate. No more drinks for me".
  5. Farley, Paul (6 January 2017). "Dreams signs up for Heart radio campaign". Furniture News Magazine. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  6. "Radio 4 to broadcast six comedy pilots on one day". British Comedy Guide. 21 December 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  7. Smith, Colleen (8 January 2017). "Shock as Simon Bates quits BBC Radio Devon breakfast show". Torquay Herald Express. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  8. Carnie, Lewis (9 January 2017). "Radio 2 announces overnight schedule changes". BBC Media Centre. BBC. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  9. "talkRADIO starts its very own Woman's Hour". Radio Today. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
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  31. "Ex-BBC presenters Tony and Julie Wadsworth jailed for sex offences". BBC News. BBC. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  32. "Britain's Got Talent comedian Daliso Chaponda lands own Radio 4 show". BBC News. BBC. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
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  66. "'Original' pirate radio station returns". BBC News. BBC. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  67. "Prince Harry to 'shine spotlight' on issues". BBC News. BBC. 27 December 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  68. "RG2 Radio". Reading: RG2 Radio. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
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  71. "The Archers actor Sara Coward dies at 69". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. 13 February 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
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  73. "Former This Morning presenter Stephen Rhodes dies from motor neurone disease". BBC News. BBC. 22 February 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
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