11 January – Birdsong Radio launches on the Digital One platform following the closure of Oneword. The station features the recording of birdsong, a device first employed in 1992 as a test transmission for Classic FM.[1][2]
12 January –
100.7 Heart FM breakfast presenter Sarah-Jane Mee announces she will leave the show to join Sky News in London.[3] She presented her final programme on 6 March.
The Forces Station BFBS begins a trial period of broadcasting nationwide across the UK on DAB from midnight. The trial ran until 23:59 on 31 March 2008, and audience research carried out during this time concluded that it was successful. BFBS subsequently returned to DAB Digital Radio permanently.[4]
29 January – Bauer completes its purchase of Emap's radio, television and consumer media businesses, purchasing the assets for £1.14bn.[5]
February – Classic FM announces a major shake-up of the schedule, which will be rolled out in two parts – weekdays in late February and weekends a month later. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Margherita Taylor join as part of the revamp and former Blur singer Alex James begins presenting a 100-part series called The A to Z of Classical Music.[6] The changes will also see the introduction of a nightly two-hour jazz programme.
February – Huddersfield station Home 107.9 is relaunched as Pennine FM.The New Pennine FM,[7]
28 April – The Heart Network begins simulcasting some of its programmes from Heart 106.2 in London. There are now only ten hours of local programming from 100.7 Heart FM in Birmingham and Heart 106 in the East Midlands during weekdays and four hours on Saturday and Sunday.
3 June – Tony Blackburn's weekend breakfast show on 102.2 Smooth Radio is to be syndicated across the rest of the Smooth network in England from 7 June.[10]
8 August – Thomas Quirk, the former managing director of Saga 105.2 FM (the predecessor to 105.2 Smooth Radio in Glasgow) criticises parent company GMG Radio's decision to sack six local Scottish presenters in favour of increased networking of shows from Smooth stations in London and Manchester. The station had operated a 24-hour schedule of local programming until August 2008.[13]
September – An interview on BBC Radio WM between Les Ross and writer and broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli is criticised for its awkwardness in the music magazine The Word and in The Guardian newspaper (suggesting that the interview ends up more like an Alan Partridge tribute act). In the interview, Ross askS Singh about his views on self-identity in terms of race; confuses his humorous book on Indian food with a serious radio documentary by Singh discussing genocide during the partition of India; and then mistakenly refers to Singh's book as a TV series. Singh remains polite, if baffled, throughout, before terminating the interview after 4 minutes.[14][15][16]
September – After just six months, Classic FM scraps its nightly two-hour jazz programme.
14 October – The Radio 4 programme You and Yours undergoes a large change of format, with two presenters being replaced by one. The breadth of topics covered is also extended to global problems as well as those closer to home.
16 October – The Russell Brand Show prank calls row: An episode of the Russell Brand Show, co-hosted by fellow Radio 2 presenter Jonathan Ross is recorded for transmission at a later date. The show includes Brand and Ross leaving four prank messages on actor Andrew Sachs's answerphone including offensive remarks about his granddaughter and use of foul language. The programme is subsequently broadcast on Saturday 18 October, partially censored, having passed the various pre-transmission checks from the programme's editors. Initially the programme receives only a negligible number of complaints regarding Ross's bad language; however, after the incident is reported a week later by The Mail on Sunday a public outcry soon ensues. The case is referred to both Ofcom and the BBC Trust and in the interim Ross and Brand are both suspended for 12 weeks from all BBC programmes pending investigation. Soon after these announcements Russell Brand announces his resignation from the BBC shortly followed by Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas. Jonathan Ross is suspended from the BBC without pay for 12 weeks.[18][19]
^Lewry, Fraser (18 September 2008). "When Hardeep met Les". The Word. Development Hell. Archived from the original on 7 January 2010. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
