January • 1 January •
BBC Radio 2 counts down listeners' 40 top
Elvis Presley songs in
Your Ultimate Elvis Song, with "
Suspicious Minds" voted as their favourite. • To celebrate the 100th anniversary of
The Shipping Forecast,
BBC Radio 4 recreates old versions of the broadcast read by a number of famous people, including
Ruth Jones (in character as Nessa from
Gavin and Stacey),
Dame Ellen MacArthur and
Eddie Grundy. •
Jazz FM airs a day of programmes dedicated to bandleader
Quincy Jones under the title ''Q Year's Day''. • 3 January – Technical problems disrupt
Jo Good's
Late Night Jo programme on
BBC Local Radio, preventing the majority of the show from being networked. The show is broadcast for 20 minutes throughout the network before the problems lead to
dead air being heard on the majority of stations. While
BBC Radio London, albeit with some further minor interruptions, continues to take the show, the rest of the network switches to
BBC Radio 5 Live. • 4 January • Ian Shepherd joins
Central Radio to present weekend breakfast. • Former
Key 103 presenter Jonathan Miles joins Happy Radio UK to present a weekly show on Saturday evenings. • 4–5 January –
Adil Ray presents the second and third of his three festive programmes for
Smooth Radio. • 6 January • Aaron Paul begins presenting breakfast on
BBC Radio London from Mondays to Thursdays;
Riz Lateef continues with the show on Fridays. •
Kirsty Gallacher joins the
Gold network to present Gold Radio Drive on weekdays. • 7 January – A power outage at
Frisk Radio forces the breakfast show presenters
Andy and Steph to present their content using a
mobile phone. • 9 January •
Lauren Laverne announces she is stepping down as presenter of
BBC Radio 6 Music's breakfast show;
Nick Grimshaw will take over the show, while Laverne will move to presenting mid-mornings. •
Global Radio announces that local and regional programming on
Smooth Radio,
Capital and
Heart in England will end, with all three channels airing a nationwide schedule for England. •
Bauer Media Audio UK announces it is acquiring
Clear Channel Europe. • 10 January –
Bauer Media Audio UK reaches a deal to acquire
Star Radio in Cambridgeshire and rebrand the station as
Hits Radio. • 11 January –
Rod Liddle joins
Times Radio to present Saturday mornings. • 12 January –
Mel Giedroyc joins
Magic Radio to present a Sunday morning show. • 13 January –
Nemone temporarily takes over as presenter of BBC 6 Music Breakfast until Nick Grimshaw begins presenting the show in February. • 17 January – •
Happy Radio UK becomes the official radio partner of Manchester's
AO Arena. • Appearing on
Heart Breakfast, presenter
Jamie Theakston announces that he is "cancer free" and will return to the programme from Monday 20 January. • 18 January – Pianist and educator
Nikki Yeoh joins
Jazz FM to present a Saturday evening show from 10pm–12am, while regular presenter Chris Phillips moves to the earlier shot of 6pm–9pm, replacing Sarah Ward who retired from broadcasting at the end of 2024. • 21 January –
Ofcom finds Big City Radio CIC in breach of its Key Commitments over the music policy at
BRMB, which it says does not represent the area's community sufficiently. In response, Big City Radio CIC says it has broadened BRMB's music output, but hopes to launch another service on DAB when it has the funds to do so. • 25 January –
Gaby Roslin joins
Magic Radio to present a Saturday mid-morning show. • 27 January – •
The Scott Mills Breakfast Show debuts on
BBC Radio 2, while
Trevor Nelson begins presenting weekday mid-afternoons. •
Gok Wan joins
Magic Breakfast to co-present alongside
Harriet Scott. •
BBC Radio Wales confirms that
Wynne Evans will be taking a break from his show following controversy over a remark he made during the
Strictly Come Dancing tour earlier in the month. • 29 January – • The
BBC World Service announces it is cutting 130 jobs as part of £6m of cost-cutting measures during the next financial year. • Frisk Radio announces plans to expand its coverage from north east England to north west England from April.
February • 3 February – •
Kate McCann becomes weekday co-presenter of the breakfast show on
Times Radio, alongside
Stig Abell. • Joe McGrath takes over as
BBC Radio Manchester's breakfast presenter, succeeding Anna Jameson. •
Radio News Hub launches a worldwide hourly news service, delivering news to radio stations in their native languages. •
Greatest Hits Radio Scotland's breakfast show,
Ewen and Cat at Breakfast, is given a breach from
Ofcom over a live interview with comedian
Ford Kiernan on 10 September 2024 in which he used offensive words. • 4 February –
Talksport is announced as the official partner of the
2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia. • 6 February –
RAJAR listening figures for the final quarter of 2024 indicate a 23% increase in the number of listeners to
Times Radio compared to the same period in 2023, with 604,000 average weekly listeners, while
GB News Radio, the simulcast of the television channel, saw a 23% decline over the same period, with 468,000 weekly listeners.
Talk Radio saw a 13% decline to 504,000. • 7 February – Dan Draper, Alice Hopkins and Cloe Lee are confirmed as the next three presenters to present Radio 1's Friday Early Breakfast on a monthly basis, with Draper fronting the show in February, Hopkins in March and Lee in April. • 8 February –
Jermaine Jenas returns to radio as a football commentator for Talksport; it is his first radio appearance since he was sacked by the BBC over complaints about his workplace conduct. • 10 February – •
BBC Local Radio's
The Late Show begins a week of live broadcasts from pubs around the UK named
The Queen Victoria. • The national
Hits Radio breakfast show airs on stations in the north east while the local breakfast presenters take a week's break. • 11 February – •
BBC Asian Network confirms some schedule changes as it prepares to move operations to Birmingham, with
Bobby Friction moving from weekdays to weekends, and
Amber Sandhu heaving the station. •
Wise Buddah Productions produce a new jingles package for
BBC Radio 2, including for
The Scott Mills Breakfast Show featuring the
House Gospel Choir. • 12 February – Bauer Media announces it is selling its stake in media platform Octave to
News UK, ending the two companies' year-long joint venture. • 14 February – DH One rebrands as 100% Whatever Westcountry. • 15 February – • Kay Wright is appointed Head of BBC Midlands, overseeing radio, television and online content in the East and West Midlands areas. • Anne Marie McAleese presents her final edition of
BBC Radio Ulster's
Your Place And Mine, which she has presented since 1991. • 17 February – •
Ofcom grants
Talksport permission to switch off seven of its 18 mediumwave transmitters, reducing its AM coverage from 92% to 88% of the UK population. •
Lyca Gold confirms that
Sarita Sabharwal is to present a regular weekend show starting later in February. •
BBC Radio Scotland presenter
Janice Forsyth announces she is stepping down from presenting after being diagnosed with early onset
Alzheimer's disease. • 18 February – •
BBC Radio 2 announces a new spring schedule, which includes a new Saturday afternoon show for
Zoe Ball from May and moving
Pick of the Pops from Saturday afternoons to early Sunday evenings, also in May.
Rob Beckett will also leave his Sunday afternoon show in April, while
Richie Anderson will present a new Sunday overnight show from April. •
Erewash Sound has improved its signal output after securing a £5,500 grant for new transmitting equipment. • 19 February –
Absolute Radio Country hires Nashville radio presenter Kelly Sutton to present
The Nashville Show, airing from Sunday to Thursday evenings. • 21 February – Heart and Capital stations in England broadcast local and regional programming for the final time. • 23 February – Musician
Darius Rucker joins
Absolute Radio Country to present the first of four two-hour programmes in which he shares his favourite music, as well as stories from his career. • 24 February – •
Heart,
Capital and
Smooth go entirely national throughout England after losing their final regional programmes. JK and
Kelly Brook present a national Heart Drive on weekdays, while Will Manning presents a national Capital Drive and
Jenni Falconer presents a national Smooth Breakfast. The current level of local opt-outs will be retained. Scotland and Wales will retain their non-networked programming. •
Smooth Radio makes a few schedule changes, which includes Darren Parks presenting
The Smooth Sanctuary on weekday evenings. •
XS Manchester relaunches as Radio X 90s. • Rob Ellis joins
Radio X 90s to present weekday mid mornings. •
Capital and
Capital Dance launch their spring schedules for 2025. •
Stephanie Hirst joins
Greatest Hits Radio 60s to present a weekday lunchtime show. • BBC Local Radio launches its 2025 Make a Difference Awards, with the awards covering the whole of the UK for the first time. • 25 February – • A new BBC audio website and app will replace
BBC Sounds for users outside the UK later in 2025, with listeners overseas only able to access the
BBC World Service and
BBC Radio 4 once the changes take place. • The
BBC Board apologises for what it describes as "missed opportunities" to tackle "bullying and misogynistic behaviour" by former BBC Radio 1 DJ
Tim Westwood. •
BBC Radio 1 joins forces with radio stations from four other countries in Europe for ''
Europe's Biggest Gig''. • 27 February –
Charlotte Moore announces her departure as BBC Chief Content Officer; she will leave the post later in the year. • 28 February – At 1pm, Global completes its withdrawal from broadcasting on AM when it switches off its last remaining MW transmitter, in North Wales and Cheshire which had carried
Smooth Radio North Wales and Cheshire.
March • 1 March – •
Adil Ray joins
Smooth Radio to present Saturday mid mornings following his guest appearance over the New Year. His show is followed by
Tina Hobley, who adds Saturday afternoons to her Sunday afternoon slot. • 2 March –
Dave Lee Travis joins
Heritage Chart Radio to present a show on Sunday mornings. • 3 March –
Bauer Media Audio UK rebrands
Star Radio in Cambridgeshire as
Hits Radio. • 5 March – Ellie Davis is appointed as Deputy Content Manager at
Virgin Radio. • 7 March –
House Party Radio is added to DAB in north Birmingham. • 8 March –
Nation Radio South becomes available on DAB in Sussex. • 10 March – • The BBC announces that
Anna Foster will join Radio 4's
Today programme from April. •
Sky News signs a new deal with
Independent Radio News to continue providing news and sport content to commercial radio in the UK. • 14 March –
BBC Radio 5 Live has agreed a deal to provide exclusive coverage of
Formula 1 during 2025, 2026 and 2027. • 17 March – Summaya Mughal takes over as breakfast presenter at
BBC Radio Nottingham while regular presenter Verity Crowley is on maternity leave. • 18 March –
Tindle Group announces is intention to acquire
South East Radio in Ireland. • 19 March – The
Rayo app's Skip Track feature, allowing premium subscribers to skip up to six tracks an hour on live radio, is to be discontinued, its owners have confirmed. • 20 March –
Bauer announces plans to network a single breakfast show across its
Hits Radio network from 9 June, with further details to follow. • 21 March – • BBC Radio 1 presenter
Jamie Laing raises more than £2m for
Comic Relief after completing his Comic Relief Ultra Marathon Man challenge of running five marathons in five days. •
BBC Radio Wales DJ
Aleighcia Scott reaches number one in the iTunes Reggae Chart with her first Welsh-language single, "
Dod o'r Galon". • Pippa Taylor announces her departure as producer of
Radio X's
The Chris Moyles Show to take up the role of senior executive producer at
Heart. • 24 March – BBC Radio 4 expands its weekday broadcast hours and now begins broadcasting 20 minutes earlier, at 05:00 with a news bulletin replacing News Briefing.
Yesterday In Parliament returns to Radio 4, airing at 05:04, and the Shipping Forecast moves to 05:34. Weekend programmes continue to start at 05:30. • 25 March –
Capital Breakfast presenter
Chris Stark returns to the show following treatment for
testicular cancer. • 27 March –
Nation Radio South expands its DAB coverage to cover Somerset. • 28 March – • The BBC has "decided to rule out" placing adverts in some of its podcasts for UK listeners. •
Ofcom revokes Saltito Media Limited's small-scale DAB licence award for the Isles of Scilly after it failed to set a launch date for the service. •
Lisa Aziz and
Martin Stanford announce their intention to leave their respective breakfast and mid-morning shows at
LBC News, which they have presented since the station was launched in 2019. • 31 March – •
Absolute Radio,
Kiss,
Kisstory and
Magic Radio transfer to the DAB+ format, allowing the stations to begin broadcasting via DAB in stereo. •
Kiss Fresh is rebranded as Kiss Xtra. •
Virgin Radio Anthems rebrands as
Virgin Radio Legends. • Edge Radio Group officially opens its new headquarters in Edinburgh's
Charlotte Square.
April • 2 April –
Ofcom finds
Radio Winchcombe in breach of its rules following an incident in which the track "
Homesick" by
Noah Kahan and
Sam Fender, which includes an instance of the
F word, was played at 5pm during a weekend show. • 3 April –
BBC Local Radio and
BBC Sport extend their partnership with the
England and Wales Cricket Board for another four years. • 7 April –
LBC News announces a new weekday schedule, which sees Vanessa Baffoe join to present weekday breakfast, James Hanson presenting weekday evenings and Charlotte Lynch presenting weekday late nights. • 8 April –
Times Radio notches up its one billionth view on its
YouTube channel. • 10 April – Ofcom provisionally rejects the BBC's plans to launch a
Radio 2 spin-off station due to the potential impact on commercial stations such as
Boom Radio. Plans to expand the hours of
Radio 5 Sports Extra are also rejected on the grounds the BBC had not sufficiently proved the station would appeal to its target audience. Three other stations –
BBC Radio 1 Dance,
BBC Radio 1 Anthems and
BBC Radio 3 Unwind – are given the go-ahead.
Phil Riley, co-founder of Boom Radio, welcomes Ofcom's decision to reject the Radio 2 spin-off. • 17 April – The BBC announces a delay to its plans to
geoblock the
BBC Sounds app outside the UK. • 18 April –
Laura McGhie joins
BBC Radio 5 Live to present overnights on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Glasgow, sharing the overnight slot with
Dotun Adebayo, who will continue to broadcast from London on the other days of the week. • 21 April –
Natalie Cassidy presents a one-off show for
Virgin Radio UK. • 22 April – •
Ed James joins
BBC Radio WM to present weekday mid-mornings. • Robyn Richford joins
Capital Scotland Breakfast to co-present alongside Fat Brestovci. • 24 April –
Planet Rock have hired Steve Priestly to present
Chilled Rock on Sunday evenings. • 25 April –
Zoe Ball presents
Elaine Paige: 60 Years in Showbusiness, a world exclusive concert honouring the career of
Elaine Paige on Radio 2. •
BBC Asian Network is scheduled to complete its move to Birmingham. • 30 April – Global have hired
Christine Amanpour, the Chief International Anchor at
CNN, for a new multi-podcast partnership.
May • 2 May –
Minah Shannon, a contestant on
series three of
The Traitors, joins
BBC Radio 1's Friday Early Breakfast to co-present alongside
Nat O'Leary during May. • 5 May – •
Angel Radio expands its coverage by joining DAB in Surrey and South London. •
Jonny Gould joins
Fix Radio as their sports editor, and will provide hourly sports bulletins during weekdays. •
Smooth Radio listeners vote "
Careless Whisper" by
George Michael number one in the Smooth Radio All Time Top 500 for the seventh year in a row. • 6 May – Broadcaster
James Whale reveals that he has made the decision to stop receiving treatment for stage four kidney cancer. • 7 May –
Talksport have hired
Eddie Jones, the former head coach of the
England and
Australian rugby teams, to join its team providing coverage of the
2025 British and Irish Lions tour. • 14 May –
RAJAR figures for the first quarter of 2025 are published, and indicate
Heart to be the UK's most listened to radio network, with 13.4 million listeners, compared to 13.1 million for
BBC Radio 2. • 16 May – Two new services, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2 and BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 3, appear on
BBC Sounds as streaming services to supplement
BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra. • 19 May –
Ofcom rules that a programme on
Times Radio presented by
Alexis Conran on 29 June 2024, during the
2024 election campaign, that featured a candidate listing local investments in his constituency breached the broadcasting rules because it amounted to a constituency report. • 20 May –
Radiocentre urges Ofcom to require the BBC's planned new
DAB+ stations to have hourly news bulletins. • 21 May –
STV announce plans to launch a Scottish radio station aimed at people aged 35–54. • 23–25 May –
BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend takes place at
Sefton Park,
Liverpool. • 24 May –
Mercia Sound returns to the airwaves for one night to celebrate the 45th anniversary of its launch, with
Radio Plus, which operates from Mercia's former studios in Hertford Place,
Coventry, hosting a takeover event that includes an evening of programmes, and former Mercia presenters. • 27 May – Victoria Easton Riley is appointed as Head of Audio and Events at
BBC Scotland. • 28 May – Community station
Somer Valley FM receives
The King's Award for Voluntary Service in recognition of its contribution to community broadcasting. • 29 May – Ofcom launches a consultation process on a request from the BBC to reduce its news and current affairs commitments on
BBC Radio Foyle and the
BBC Asian Network. • 30 May – Radio presenter Wynne Evans announces he is leaving
BBC Radio Wales after the BBC did not renew his contract.
June • 1 June – • Due to what is described as "human error",
BBC Radio 2 repeats the 25 May edition of
Elaine Paige on Sunday rather than playing the latest edition. The edition is subsequently made available on
BBC Sounds. •
Boom Radio pays tribute to presenter
John Peters, who died on 24 May, with an unaired edition of his show,
The Vintage Chart, recorded shortly before his death. •
Virgin Radio Pride UK returns for a fifth year, and will be on air until 31 August. • 2 June – •
Sophie Habboo stands in for
Vick Hope on BBC Radio 1's Going Home while Hope is on maternity leave. She will co-present the show alongside
Jamie Laing until 18 June. •
Punjab Radio expands its DAB coverage to Derby, Royal Leamington Spa, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Shropshire, Telford and Coventry. •
Boom Light launches on DAB+ in several major UK cities, with
Pete Murray announcing the switch-on at 10am.
Fran Godfrey and
Don Black also join the station. • 4 June –
BBC Radio 5 Live is briefly taken off air following a fire alarm at Westminster during the middle of a broadcast. • 5 June – •
Times Radio announces that
Jo Coburn and
Stephen Sackur will join to present
The Times at One alongside
Andrew Neil,
Trevor Phillips and
Daniel Finkelstein. •
BBC Radio Scotland presenter
Bryan Burnett announces he will be taking a break from his programme to undergo cancer treatment. • 6 June – Eleven
Hits Radio local breakfast shows across England and Wales air for the final time as Bauer prepares to transmit a single breakfast show for the entire network. • 9 June – •
Bauer begins networking a single breakfast show across its
Hits Radio network in England and Wales. •
Magic Classical has a weekday schedule revamp, with
Tim Smith joining to present mid mornings, and
Fran Godfrey presenting evening from Sunday to Thursday. • South Wales radio personalities Leigh Jones and Claire Scott join
102.1 Swansea Bay Radio to present the breakfast show. • 13 June – Among those from the world of broadcasting to be recognised in the
2025 Birthday Honours are
Elaine Paige who receives a
damehood,
Martha Kearney who receives a
CBE and
Claudia Winkleman who receives an
MBE. • 14 June – Broadcaster
Shereen Nanjiani presents her final Saturday morning show for
BBC Radio Scotland after 17 years. • 16 June – • Former
BBC Radio Wales presenter
Wynne Evans launches his own daily online radio show, and says the first programme had 40,000 listeners. • Alex Duffy joins
Nation Radio to present breakfast in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. Alex had been the breakfast show host on
Hits Radio East Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire until Bauer ended the local breakfast shows on 6 June. • 24 June – •
Prince William makes a surprise appearance on
Scott Mills's breakfast show via voicemail, inviting Mills to attend the
Earthshot Prize in Brazil in November. •
Greatest Hits Radio changes its name to GHR in the Republic of Ireland after an
Irish High Court injunction prevents them from using their full name following a case brought by Dublin's
Classic Hits Radio. • 26 June – • Greatest Hits Radio announces that it will have a single breakfast show across the mainland UK from late July, presented by Simon Ross. The announcement comes after Ween Cameron and Cat Harvey, GHR's breakfast presenters in Scotland, confirm they will be leaving the network. • Kiss begins a year-long sponsorship deal with
Mars Wrigley. • 30 June – • The
Radio Teleswitch Service, which uses a radio signal to communicate with some older electricity meters, enabling them to switch between peak and off-peak settings, and is transmitted by the BBC on 198 kHz long wave alongside
BBC Radio 4, begins being turned off. •
BBC Radio Derby has appointed Becky Measures as its new breakfast show presenter, replacing Andy Twigge, who moves to a regionally networked mid-morning show.
July • 1 July – • Both
BBC Radio 2 and
Greatest Hits Radio are forced to reschedule their mid-morning programming after
Vernon Kay and
Ken Bruce are delayed by train disruption following signal failures on the
West Coast Main Line. • Smooth jazz and soul station
Diamond Groove joins DAB in North Yorkshire and Somerset. • 2 July –
Ofcom's final decision on extra BBC DAB services is released, with
BBC Radio 1 Dance,
BBC Radio 1 Anthems and
BBC Radio 3 Unwind given the go-ahead, but proposals for a Radio 2 spin-off and extending the hours of
BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra both rejected. • 4 July – •
Capital Dance Party Malta is scheduled to take place at
the island's
Tortuga Beach. • Ofcom gives
Nation Radio Wales permission to switch off two of its FM signals in Ceredigion. • 7 July – •
Neil Fox joins
Nation 90s to present weekday drivetime. Nation also announces that Tony Dibdin and Emma Saint will co-present weekday breakfast on
Nation Radio London. • The
Radio Today website reports that the pop-up station
Virgin Radio Britpop is playing
Oasis songs for 90 minutes each evening during the band's
Oasis Live '25 Tour when they are playing a gig. The tour finishes on 12 August. • 13 July – •
Paul Gambaccini presents
Live Aid – The Fans Story on
BBC Radio 2 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the
Live Aid concert. •
Greatest Hits Radio airs the entire ten hour Live Aid concert in real time, beginning at 12 noon as the concert did in 1985. • 14 July – Ofcom fines the former operator of
Salaam BCR £3,500 after ruling that two broadcasts on the station in October 2024 included antisemitic hate speech. • 16 July – Former
Radio Caroline presenter Steve Kent joins
South Devon Radio to present weekday mid-mornings. • 18 July –
Talk broadcasts a conversation recorded by
James Whale with
Nigel Farage which was recorded at Whale's home the previous weekend. It airs at 10am on
YouTube and 10pm on Talk. • 21 July – •
BBC Sounds will no longer be available to listeners based outside the UK, although it will still be available to UK citizens travelling overseas, who can access it for one month. International listeners will also continue to be able to hear BBC national and local radio stations through direct links to the stations' websites. •
Global have acquired their first non-UK radio station after buying Monaco-based English language station
Riviera Radio. • Ruairidh Mac,
Lomond Radio's youngest presenter, marks his 200th show with a special edition of the station's Kids Edition. • 21–24 July – BBC Radio, television and online provides coverage of the 2025
Royal Welsh Show, with radio coverage provided by
BBC Radio 4 and
BBC Radio Wales. • 22 July –
CMAT's new single, "
Euro-Country", receives its debut airplay on
BBC Radio 1. The station faces allegations the song was edited after the first 45 seconds, featuring Irish language lyrics, are not broadcast. Radio 1 later says it did not edit the song. • 29 July – Ofcom approves River Radio's request to take on the 107.9FM licence used by the former community station
Bangor FM, enabling
River Radio Bangor to launch a replacement service. • 30 July – Publication of Ofcom's latest Media Nations report. It reports a fall in commercial radio revenue to £651 million in 2024, down from £667 million in 2023, and an 8% growth in podcast advertising to £90 million in 2024. • 31 July – •
RAJAR publishes its data for radio listening during the second quarter of 2025, indicating that commercial radio has reached its highest percentage of regular listeners. The figures show 55.7% of listeners (roughly 39.5 million) tuning in to commercial radio, compared to 42.1% (31.1 million) regularly tuning in to the BBC. • Ofcom approves the BBC's request to reduce its news and current affairs quotas for
BBC Radio Foyle and
BBC Asian Network. •
Nation Broadcasting will surrenders its FM licence for
Ceredigion following Ofcom requiring Nation to reintroduce local programming. Nation had been using the three frequencies in the licensing area to relay
Nation Radio Wales. Nation Radio continues to be available in the area via DAB.
August • 1 August –
Time 107.5 is acquired by
Nation Broadcasting and, at 2pm, is rebranded as
Nation Radio London. • 4 August – • Launch of
Welsh Coast Radio, the successor to
SA Radio Live and
Radio Tircoed. •
LNER announces that its
Routes podcast will return for a second series in September, with
Jenni Falconer taking over as presenter. • 6 August –
BBC Radio Wales announces that
Bronwen Lewis will succeed
Wynne Evans as weekday midmorning presenter, with her new show beginning in September. • 7 August – • Return of Radio 1's Residency in the Thursday 11pm–1am slot. Featured DJs will be
SG Lewis in August,
KETTAMA in September, Oppidan in October, and Taylah Elaine in November. •
BBC Local Radio dedicates a day of programming to farming, with
BBC Farmwatch. • 7–8 August –
Ken Bruce presents his
Greatest Hits Radio show from the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe. • 11 August –
Heart Scotland relaunches its weekday breakfast show with Des Clarke, Adele Cunningham and Grado. • 13 August – The BBC apologises after Dr Krish Kandiah, a contributor to the Radio 4
Today programme's
Thought for the Day slot accused
Robert Jenrick, the
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, of "xenophobia". • 14 August –
Bryan Burnett is scheduled to return to his
BBC Radio Scotland evening show following treatment for cancer. • 18 August – • Jason Horton takes on the role of interim Chief Operating Officer, Nations at the BBC, stepping into the role while Sarah Calcott undertakes a twelve-month external attachment. •
Ofcom finds
Absolute Radio in breach of the Broadcasting Code over a breakfast show competition in March that it says was conducted unfairly. • Ofcom finds
Boom Rock in breach of the Broadcasting Code after it played "
Spaceman in Tulsa", a track by
Counting Crows that contains several expletives, at 6.35pm on 30 May, when Ofcom felt children could be listening. Boom Radio counters that children would be unlikely to be in the station's audience. • 22 August –
Absolute Radio listeners vote
Pulp's 1995 hit "
Common People" the Ultimate Britpop Anthem. • 25 August –
Classic FM listeners vote
Howard Shore’s
film score to
The Lord of the Rings trilogy number one in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame 2025. • 26 August – • Lucy Horobin joins
Magic Radio to present weekday drivetime alongside Tom Price while Kat Shoob takes maternity leave. • Your Harrogate co-founder Nick Hancock, who presents the station's breakfast show, announces his departure after five years. • 27 August – •
BBC Radio 1 announces its autumn presenter line-up for Friday Early Breakfast and Radio 1's Life Hacks. For Friday Early Breakfast they will be Beth Wallace (September),
Jack Remmington (October) and
Ash Holme (October). Radio 1's Life Hacks will have different co-presenters while Shanequa Paris is on maternity leave.
Charley Marlowe will co-present with Lauren Layfield in September and
Lina Nielsen in October. Both will also co-present
The Official Chart: First Look on Sundays at 6pm. • Nick Hancock joins
YO1 Radio as Programme Director and weekday breakfast show presenter.
September • 1 September – •
Jaz Singh begins presenting a weekday afternoon show on
BBC Asian Network. •
Radio Chelmsford,
Radio Southend and
Radio Harlow are relaunched as a single station titled
Essex Breeze. • Rachael Burke-Davies and Wingman (Nigel Clucas) join Happy Radio to present weekday drivetime. • Launch of
Magic Christmas, 115 days before 25 December. • 3 September –
Melvyn Bragg stands down as presenter of Radio 4's
In Our Time after 26 years with the discussion programme. • 4 September – •
Talksport secures a new three-year deal with
WSL Football to hold exclusive radio rights until 2028. • British broadcaster
Malissa Whitehouse wins the 2025
International Singer-Songwriters Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Radio Broadcasting. • 5 September – •
BBC Radio Bristol is temporarily taken off air following a power outage. • The 2025 Bauer Media Awards are held at the
Roundhouse in Camden, coinciding with a celebration for
Bauer Media Group's 150th anniversary. • 5–7 September –
Radio 2 in the Park takes place at
Hylands Park in
Chelmsford, with
Bryan Adams and
Def Leppard headlining. • 10 September – • Ofcom opens the final round of applications for small-scale DAB licences. •
STV announces that its new radio station will be called
STV Radio, but a launch date is yet to be confirmed. • 11 September – • Launch of
BBC Radio 1 Dance,
BBC Radio 1 Anthems and
BBC Radio 3 Unwind on DAB+. • Ofcom rules that Wiltshire based
Castledown FM breached election broadcasting rules by allowing a candidate to present shows in April 2025 while a candidate in the
2025 Wiltshire Council election. • 14 September – •
Greatest Hits Radio's Superstars series returns, beginning with a special programme featuring the music of
David Bowie. • Launch of
Make a Difference, a networked
BBC Local Radio programme highlighting positive stories in local communities, which replaces a number of locally broadcast Sunday afternoon music programmes. Stations will opt out of the programme to broadcast local sport commentaries. • 16 September – Conservative Party leader
Kemi Badenoch begins presenting a monthly phone-in on
LBC. • 19 September –
Pete Murray celebrates his 100th birthday by presenting an edition of the Boom Top Five at 11am on Boom Radio. • 20 September – Actor
Colson Smith joins BBC Local Radio in Yorkshire to present a weekly Saturday show on
BBC Radio Sheffield,
BBC Radio York and
BBC Radio Leeds. • 26 September –
BBC Radio 1 takes part in
Europe's Biggest Dance Show 2025. • 29 September – • Small-scale DAB licences are awarded for Banbury and Bicester, Enniskillen, Rugby and Daventry, Stockton-on-Tees, the Western Isles, Weston-super-Mare, and Worcester. •
Heart Christmas and
Smooth Christmas return to DAB.
October • 1 October – • Lincs Sound, which launched online on 30 June, becomes available on DAB to mark
Lincolnshire Day. • Christmas Radio returns to DAB in Portsmouth, as well as online. • 3 October – •
Taylor Swift appears on a number of UK radio stations to promote the launch of her latest album,
The Life of a Showgirl. •
BBC Radio Ulster wins four gold awards at the 2025
Irish Music Rights Organisation Awards. • 6 October – •
Ofcom finds Birmingham's
BRMB in breach of its broadcasting licence for not airing enough content that reflects the ethnic communities in the
Aston area. BRMB says its output reflects the diversity of the community it serves. • Ofcom finds Belfast station Juice FM in breach of the Key Commitments part of its licence for failing to produce the require amount of
LGBT-themed programming. • 7 October – • Ofcom finds
West Somerset Radio in breach of its licence after being off air since May 2024. • Following a trial at
Birmingham Crown Court, Peter Windsor, who sent the television and radio presenter
Myleene Klass items including handcuffs, a gun and a police uniform, is convicted of stalking her, along with
Classic FM presenter
Katie Breathwick. • 9 October – Former Radio 1 DJ
Tim Westwood is charged with four counts of rape, nine counts of indecent assault, and two counts of sexual assault, relating to alleged offences against seven women between 1983 and 2016. He is due to appear at
Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 11 November. • 10 October – Global Radio's 2025 Make Some Noise Campaign raises £4.8m for charity. • 14 October – • The Audio Always comedy podcast
Help I Sexted My Boss joins
Global Player and will appear there a day ahead of other outlets. •
BBC Radio 3 show
Round Midnight is named Jazz Media Award winner at the 2025
Parliamentary Jazz Awards. • 15 October – • The BBC asks
Ofcom to remove the requirement to report how many hours of live commentary are provided for each sport on
BBC Radio 5 Live. • The BBC also asks Ofcom to change its quota for locally produced programming for
BBC Local Radio. • 16 October – Ofcom launches a consultation proposing new rules to guarantee access to UK radio via voice assistant platforms such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. • 17 October – Voiceover artist and performer
Elisa Canas joins BBC Radio to present a Saturday Breakfast show on
BBC Radio Jersey and
BBC Radio Guernsey. • 19 October –
BBC Radio Scotland presenter
Kaye Adams is taken off air following an internal complaint about her behaviour. Her morning programme will be presented by Connie McLaughlin when it returns on Monday 20 October. • 20 October – Ofcom introduces new guidance for broadcasters on how politicians can appear as presenters in programmes that include news content. • 21 October – •
Heart 80s breakfast presenter Simon Beale reveals that he is recovering at home following a heart attack three weeks earlier. • The
Radio Today website reports that
QVC has become the official sponsor of
Mellow Magic in order to support midlife wellbeing. • 22 October –
Global Media & Entertainment launches dedicated video podcast and sports entertainment divisions. • 29 October – Global Media & Entertainment is named
Team GB's Official Audio and Outdoor Partner ahead of the
2026 Winter Olympics. • 31 October – •
STV Radio announces that Jane McCarry, Micky Gavin and Jodie McCluskey will join its presenting team for its launch in 2026. •
Greatest Hits Radio listeners have voted
Bohemian Rhapsody by
Queen the greatest hit of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for the seventh consecutive year.
November • 4 November – Global founder
Ashley Tabor-King is presented with the 2025
Music Industry Trusts Award in recognition of his impact on British broadcasting and music. • 5 November – Chloe Straw confirms she will stand down as chief executive officer of
AudioUK at the end of the year. • 5 and 8 November –
Pet Classics returns to
Classic FM to coincide with
Bonfire Night, playing classical music to help calm pets and their owners. The 5 November edition is presented by
Dan Walker and the 8 November edition by
Charlotte Hawkins. • 7 November – BCfm and Ujima Radio launch the Civil Unrest Broadcast and Response Protocol for Local and Community Radio, a new national guide to help community stations respond safely and responsibly during times of civil unrest. • 8 November –
Josie Gibson returns to Magic Radio to present a festive Saturday evening show in the run up to Christmas. • 11 November – Small-scale DAB licences are awarded for Lancaster, North Somerset, Oban, Taunton, and West Oxfordshire. • 12 November – • Talk Radio confirms that
Mike Graham will not return to the station following an internal investigation into what it described as a "vile and abhorrent" Facebook post. • The
Radio Today website reports that north Wales's Drift Radio has launched on DAB+ to celebrate its fifth anniversary. • 13 November – It is announced that
Ezra Collective drummer and bandleader
Femi Koleoso will join
BBC Radio 6 Music as a regular presenter from 2 January 2026. • 14 November – •
BBC Radio 2 presenter
Sara Cox completes her five-day, 135-mile Great Northern Marathon Challenge, raising more than £7.6m for
Children in Need. • Commercial station
Derby ONE launches online at 8am, with plans to become available on DAB. • 17 November –
Harrogate Hospital Radio is awarded £18,000 by the
National Lottery Community Fund to help improve its broadcasting facilities. • 18 November –
BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend 2026 will be held in
Sunderland from 22 to 24 May, it is announced. • 19 November – Dorset community station
Air107.2 announces it will close at the end of November due to funding issues. • 21 November – Jo Lloyd, formerly of Smooth Radio and Century Radio, joins Dune Radio to present a new Saturday programme. • 24 November – •
BBC Radio 4 announces its festive guest presenters for the
Today programme, with the list including former prime minister
Theresa May and actress
Cate Blanchett. • Launch of
Radio Scotland Breakfast, replacing
Good Morning Scotland on
BBC Radio Scotland. The programme is presented by
Martin Geissler and
Laura Maciver. • 25 November –
Lyca Radio expands its DAB coverage to parts of the Midlands, with the station now available in
Coventry,
Derbyshire,
Wolverhampton and
Shropshire. • 26 November –
Madness play an exclusive
Radio 2 in Concert gig at the
BBC Radio Theatre in London for broadcast on Radio 2 on 11 December. • 27 November – • Air107.2, scheduled to close on 30 November, is saved from going off air with the return of founder Carl Greenham as its managing director. • BBC Radio 2 announces the launch of a new programme, ''Tony Blackburn's Sounds of Soul'', which will air on Saturday lunchtimes from January 2026. • 28 November – Richard Maddock is appointed as Head of BBC Radio 5 Live. • 29 November – BBC Radio Scotland sports broadcaster
Kenny Macintyre announces that he has been diagnosed with
prostate cancer during an edition of the station's
Off the Ball programme.
December • 1 December –
Radio Scotland Breakfast is taken off-air for two hours following a fire at BBC Scotland's headquarters. Music, then a simulcast of
BBC Radio 5 Live, airs from 6.30am to 8.35am. • 2 December –
Virgin Radio releases its Christmas schedule, with programmes including a three-hour show presented by
Alan Carr on 20 December, and Tony Mortimer presenting on Christmas Day. Evening shows on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day will be presented by
John Power,
Richard Ashcroft and
Pete Doherty respectively. • 3 December –
BBC Radio 4 announces that
Misha Glenny will succeed
Melvyn Bragg as presenter of
In Our Time when the series returns in January 2026. • 4 December –
Fix Radio announces that Daryl Robinson will join the station to present a Saturday morning programme from 17 January 2026. • 5 December – •
Radio News Hub appoints Lisa Darvill as its Newsroom Manager. • BBC Radio 1 presenter
Greg James presents the Radio 1 Breakfast show from the Scilly Isles as part of Greg's Rogue Promises. • 6 December –
Alan Brazil joins
Virgin Radio to present a four-hour Saturday evening show in which tells stories from his careers in broadcasting and sport, and plays some of his favourite music. • 6 and 7 December – Capital's Jingle Bell Ball is held at
The O2 Arena in London, with headlining acts including
Ed Sheeran on 6 December and
Kylie Minogue on 7 December. • 8 December –
STV Radio announces that its breakfast show will be sponsored by CR Smith when it launches in early 2026. • 9 December – • KISS announces that Tyler West and Chloe Burrows will take over the KISS Breakfast Show in early 2026. • Plans are announced for the launch of Magna Radio and Magna Mix, two local stations for Lincolnshire, on DAB in 2026. • 10 December – • Ofcom awards four more small-scale DAB multiplex licences for Ely and March, Market Harborough, Wakefield and Castleford, and Wellingborough. • Happy Radio UK is confirmed as the official radio partner for the new Greater Manchester Wellbeing Series. • 11 December – • Global unveils the winners of its inaugural
Global Player Awards, recognising the artists and podcasters most listened to across its radio network and on
Global Player. • Affinity Radio North East officially opens new broadcast studios in
Pelaw. • 13 December –
Zoe Ball announces she is leaving her Saturday afternoon show on
BBC Radio 2 and will present her final edition on 20 December. The show will then be presented by
Emma Willis. • 15 December – •
BBC Radio Cymru confirms that author
Manon Steffan Ros will present its weekly arts programme on Sunday afternoons from the end of January. • Milton Keynes-based Horizon Radio is resolved of a breach of broadcasting by Ofcom over a 26-minute interruption of its pre-recorded evening show on 9 October during which the
F-word was played on repeat. The incident is found to have been out of their control as it involved a third-party streaming service with which Horizon was involved in a dispute. Horizon made multiple attempts to contact the service during the incident, and have since moved their streaming services in house. • 16 December –
PRS for Music has paid out a record £274.9m in royalties during 2025, including £13.5m generated from radio play, shared between 51,500 members. • 17 December – Comedian Josh James joins
Fix Radio as drivetime presenter, and will begin presenting the show from 12 January 2026. Present hosts Rich and Trev will move to Saturdays as part of changes to the weekend schedule. • 18 December –
STV Radio confirms it will launch on Wednesday 7 January 2026, with
Ewen Cameron and Cat Harvey presenting the weekday breakfast show. • 22 December – •
BBC Radio Manchester stages a carol concert at the
Trafford Centre with a choir made up entirely of women named Carol and Carole. •
Nation Radio Yorkshire announces it will begin daytime local programming from Monday 5 January 2026. • 23 December – BBC1Xtra presenter Nick Bright announces he is leaving the station after 15 years. • 24 December –
BBC Sounds has recorded more than 2.5 billion plays of radio, music and podcasts during 2025. • 25 December – •
Greg James presents his first live Christmas Day edition of
The Radio 1 Breakfast Show. •
Radio Caroline broadcasts live from
MV Ross Revenge for the first time since the ship last operated offshore. •
Fred Dinenage broadcasts a special Christmas Day programme on
Nation Radio South. •
Radio Exe gives over some of its schedule to students from the
University of Exeter. • 30 December –
2026 New Year Honours: Among those in the world of broadcasting to be recognised in the New Year Honours are John Pickford, who receives an
MBE for his services to radio and local news,
Charlotte Moore and
Gabby Logan, who both receive OBEs for their services to radio and television. • 31 December – Former Prime Minister
Theresa May guest edits an edition of Radio 4's
Today programme, which includes an appearance by
Queen Camilla for a discussion about violence against women. ==Station debuts==