BBC Radio 2

The station was launched at 05:30[3] on 30 September 1967, replacing the Light Programme—with some of the Light Programme's music shows transferring to the newly launched BBC Radio 1. The first show had started at 05:30 (on both Radio 1 and Radio 2) but continued with The Radio 2 Breakfast Show from Paul Hollingdale as Radio 1 split.

In early years, much programming and music was common to both stations, particularly on the shared FM frequency. Radio 1 was targeted at the audience of pirate radio stations whereas Radio 2 settled down as a middle-of-the-road station playing laid-back pop/rock, folk and country, jazz and big-band music, easy listening, light classics, and oldies, with significant amounts of comedy and sport. Notable broadcasters on Radio 2 in the 1970s and 1980s were Tom Edwards and Ray Moore who both singly presented the early breakfast show, Terry Wogan on breakfast, replaced by Ken Bruce and later Derek Jameson; Jimmy Young and his lunchtime news and current affairs show; David Hamilton on mid-afternoons, John Dunn at what became known as drivetime. In its early years, the station – as the Light Programme had done – played a large amount of specially-recorded music because of needle time restrictions imposed by the Musicians' Union.

On 6 January 1975, broadcasting hours for BBC Radio 2 were reduced due to budget cuts at the BBC. The 05:00–02:00 schedule was cut-back to a 06:00 start-up Mondays to Saturdays with an 06:55 start-up on Sundays. The station closed down at around 00:30 each day. However, from 29 September 1975 the closedown was brought forward to 00:10 Mondays to Fridays and 00:33 on Saturdays and Sundays. There were exceptions, especially over Christmas and New Year periods when hours would be temporarily extended. Broadcasting hours would revert to 05:00–02:00 on 1 April 1978.[4][5] On 23 November 1978, the station moved from long wave to medium wave.

On 27 January 1979, BBC Radio 2 became the first national 24-hour radio station in the UK.[6] In the first half of the 1980s, presenters such as Kenny Everett, David Hamilton and Steve Jones increasingly featured more contemporary pop in their playlists, leading to the station being referred to as "Radio 1 and a half" by some.

In response to the controversy these changes had caused in some circles, Frances Line, head of music, repositioned the station in April 1986. She would become Controller in 1990. An ageing Radio 1 audience which had grown up with the station was sticking with it into their 40s and beyond; Line repositioned Radio 2 to appeal exclusively to the over-fifties, introduced older presenters and based the playlist around nostalgia, easy listening and light music. As a result, David Hamilton quit the station at the end of 1986, claiming the music policy had become "geriatric"; Terry Wogan's replacement Derek Jameson also appealed to an older, down-market demographic. Although popular with its target audience, the policy alienated many younger listeners who had listened to both Radio 1 and Radio 2 and the station's audience fell.

It took another hit in 1990 when it lost its medium wave frequencies to a new network, BBC Radio 5 and BBC radio's sports coverage moved from Radio 2 to the new station at the same time. Further blows were struck by the rise of album-rock commercial stations (particularly Virgin Radio) and 'gold' spinoffs from Independent Local Radio stations playing classic pop and rock. With the station's audience in decline a change of emphasis was needed. In 1992, the weekday daytime music policy was slightly adjusted with pre-1950 music largely confined to Sundays, the launch of Classic FM reduced the need for the station to play light classical music, and the station's profile was boosted by the return of Terry Wogan. But following the generational shift at Radio 1, commercial radio had taken the highest share of the national audience by the mid-1990s.

Line was replaced by James Moir in 1996. Moir repositioned Radio 2 with a largely AOR/contemporary playlist by day, aimed at a more mature audience than Radio 1 (which, post-Britpop, was again starting to focus on a young audience) but still embracing new music, and more specialist broadcasting by recognised genre experts in the evenings. Unlike the early-1990s repositioning of Radio 1 in which the BBC lost many well-known names, many former Radio 1 presenters stayed with the BBC and moved across to Radio 2.

Radio 2 is now termed "the nation's favourite", a title the BBC formerly used for BBC Radio 1. It is the most listened-to station in the UK, its schedule filled with broadcasters such as: Steve Wright, Tony Blackburn, Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Mark Radcliffe, Trevor Nelson, Craig Charles, Jo Whiley, Paul Gambaccini, Gary Davies, Zoe Ball, Johnnie Walker and Bob Harris.

As well as having most listeners nationally, it ranks first in many regions above local radio stations. BBC Radio 2 played to 27% of the available audience in 2006.[7]

In February 2007, Radio 2 recruited Jeff Smith, director of UK and International programming at Napster and a former head of music at Radio 1, as its new head of music. Smith joined the network on 26 March.[8]

The licence fee funding of Radio 2, alongside Radio 1, is often criticised by the commercial sector. In the first quarter of 2011, Radio 2 was part of an efficiency review conducted by John Myers.[9] His role, according to Andrew Harrison, the chief executive of RadioCentre, was "to identify both areas of best practice and possible savings."[9]

On 29 July 2013, Radio 2 changed its "sonic logo" for the first time in 15 years, replacing the one composed by US jingle company Groove Worx with a new seven-note melody composed by British composer and producer Jem Godfrey.[10] This coincided with the launch of a new jingle package produced by Godfrey in association with Wisebuddah Productions, marking Radio 2's second new package in as many years.

Radio 2 has run several "pop-up" DAB services to cover special events, the first being BBC Radio 2 Eurovision, providing coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.[11] The station returned in 2015 for coverage of that year's contest. Others include BBC Radio 2 Country covering the C2C: Country to Country festival and BBC Radio 2 50s, a service dedicated to music programmes covering the 1950s.

During 2018, Radio 2 had numerous presenter reshuffles. In May, long-time drivetime host Simon Mayo was joined by evening DJ Jo Whiley in a new format. The move proved unpopular with listeners and by October 2018 Mayo announced his intention to leave the station, later adding that this was so he could help launch the new classical music radio station – Scala Radio – in March 2019, and continue his BBC Radio 5 Live film review programme. Mayo and Whiley's last show together was broadcast on 20 December 2018, while Whiley moved back to her evening slot. with Mayo's final show on Radio 2 broadcast on 21 December. Sara Cox was later announced as the new drivetime host, starting on 14 January 2019.

Additionally, in September 2018, Chris Evans announced that he was leaving The Radio 2 Breakfast Show and the station where he had worked since 2010, to move to Virgin Radio. He was replaced by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zoe Ball from 14 January 2019 .

These presenters do not have permanent slots on Radio 2 but have stood in relatively recently for shows on the network. The list does not include regularly scheduled presenters who also stand in for other shows, such as Gary Davies covering Ken Bruce or Dermot O'Leary covering Zoe Ball. Some of those listed below, such as Phil Swern, regularly appears on shows as guests but don't present a programme themselves.

In addition to its regular and stand-in presenters, Radio 2 is often joined by guest presenters that host one-off documentaries or short series. Such guests have included Bryan Adams, Tony Bennett, Carla Bruni, Kristian Bush, Neneh Cherry, Petula Clark, Jason Donovan, Gloria Estefan, Morgan Freeman, Michael Grade, Don Henley, Jennifer Holliday, Barry Humphries, Sir Elton John, Cyndi Lauper, Hugh Laurie, Motsi Mabuse, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Ed Miliband, Kylie Minogue, David Mitchell, Mica Paris, David Quantick, Suzi Quatro, Martha Reeves, Sir Tim Rice, Nile Rodgers, Ricky Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Sir Rod Stewart, and James Taylor.

Many of Radio 2's additional on-air staff (particularly newsreaders) are shared with sister station BBC Radio 6 Music.