en The 5 Live Must Watch blog Feed Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows. Thu, 16 May 2013 15:39:09 +0000 Zend_Feed_Writer 2 (http://framework.zend.com) /blogs/5live Question Time Extra Time, the Sonys and Rajars Thu, 16 May 2013 15:39:09 +0000 /blogs/5live/entries/d5d85839-d0a2-3d00-9960-e59966797fd7 /blogs/5live/entries/d5d85839-d0a2-3d00-9960-e59966797fd7 Jonathan Wall Jonathan Wall
This week on 5 live has seen the start of our new schedule changes. 

As I write this our late night news team are busy planning the first of our new Thursday night politics shows – ''.  This is a chance to partner with a great brand like Question Time and showcase how we do politics on 5 live.  Stephen Nolan and John Pienaar are the hosts and, within the programme, they will simulcast 1’s Question Time and then will continue the debate after the show.   If you can, join the show tonight from 10pm and have your say.

In other changes we’ve also added a 'Late News Hour' between 10.30pm and 11.30pm Monday to Wednesday hosted by and, in typical 5 live-style, the running order was ripped up and put back together for the very first show as news came through of . It was also great hearing Tony Livesey settle into his new role on weekend breakfast, with and then . He already sounds at home.

We were very happy earlier this week to get recognised by our colleagues across the radio industry at the annual .   triumphed yet again with a gold award for the Best Entertainment Show. He also picked up a bronze in the Best Speech Broadcaster category. Peter Allen and Colin Murray won Best Sports Programme for their show, and we also won the Best Live Event award for our Olympics and Paralympics coverage.

The icing on the cake was UK Station of the Year award, reflecting what a truly memorable year 2012 was for us here at 5 live. We are very grateful to our listeners for the huge part they played in this; we were very proud to share 2012 with you.

Special mentions should also go to who won a silver award in the Best Speech Broadcaster category (which was won by our colleague from ), - presented by Greg James, Graeme Swann, and Jimmy Anderson - which won a silver award for Best Sports Programme in its inaugural year and Adventures of a Blue Badger, Nikki Fox’s documentary on disability in the UK which won a bronze award for Best News Feature.

Today we’ve also received our latest audience figures. It is a mixed story for us.  There's the good news - our total audience reach is very strong at 6.3 million for 5 live (up 160,000 on the quarter) and for 5 live sports extra at 860,000 (the 2nd highest ever for this time of year) and there are challenges - we, as do lots of other parts of radio, need to find ways to keep our audiences listening for the same amount of time as they used to. The average amount of listening to our linear radio output has fallen by 10% over the last year.  There are some good stories coming through around the growth of those listening to our best clips via social media, and listening back to programmes via our podcasts, so we’ree focused on looking at all the different ways we can get our content to our audience.

Anyway, the huge presence that is John Pienaar has just walked in the building and he looks raring to go so I better go and wish him luck. 

Jonathan

]]> 0 5 live latest audience figures Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:42:50 +0000 /blogs/5live/entries/6b69dd83-b08c-37a9-b527-6da831a1aba8 /blogs/5live/entries/6b69dd83-b08c-37a9-b527-6da831a1aba8 Jonathan Wall Jonathan Wall

I just wanted to share the headlines from our with you.

The total numbers of listeners to 5 live increased by a small amount in the last quarter (October to December 2012) to 6.12 million listeners. One of our aims is to maintain an audience reach of above 6 million, so it is pleasing to do this again for the 16th consecutive time.

A lot has happened over the last year, not least the small matter of moving a 24 hour live speech radio station 200 miles, so I’m really proud of the commitment shown by our team over this period to keep making really strong and brave programmes.

saw its biggest ever figure for the October-December period – up to 850,000 listeners each week. Our sports team have put a lot of focus into improving the schedule on sports extra so I am pleased to see these good numbers.

It has been a busy start to the year as we put our plans in place for 2013 and we’ve been putting some early thoughts in about and coverage in 2014.  I’ve been really pleased with the strength of our sport and news journalism over the last fortnight. Highlights have included coverage of the David Cameron Europe speech when I thought we analysed all the issues very clearly across the day. The latest twist on the Lance Armstrong story  - – saw really significant audience interest. We covered it well on , in and on in particular.

We commissioned a documentary from an independent production company called “Snappin Turtle” which took a on one of the coldest nights of the year. This was recorded and edited very quickly and we broadcast it last Sunday night as part of an extended Ƿ.

I was also really pleased with our transfer deadline day coverage and the way we worked closely with our colleagues from TV and to keep a track on all the stories.

They are just some of the things that have been keeping us busy. Let me know your thoughts on what you’ve been hearing.

We should have a new permanent controller in place within the next few weeks. When we do have, we will make sure we are on this blog, asking you what you think about our programmes and our coverage and any suggestions you want to share about how we keep making 5 live even better. We also have lots of exciting plans about the Ashes summer and some powerful news specials we have commissioned which we can tell you about soon.

Thanks for reading and for being one of the 6.12 million listeners.

Jonathan Wall is acting controller of 5 live and 5 live sports extra

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