Newsbeat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Newsbeat | |
| Genre | News |
|---|---|
| Running time | Monday - Friday 12.45pm, 5.45pm |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Languages | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 1 |
| Producers | BBC News |
| Recording studio | London |
| Air dates | 1973 to Present |
| Audio format | FM and Digital radio |
| Website Official Website |
|
Newsbeat is the name of the flagship news programme on BBC Radio 1. Newsbeat is produced by BBC News but differs from the BBC's other news programmes in its remit to provide news tailored for a specifically youth audience, as it may well be the only news programme that these young people come into contact with throughout the day.
Newsbeat's flagship bulletins go out on Radio 1 Monday-Friday at 12:45pm and 5:45pm, and are usually presented by Georgina Bowman, but she is on maternity leave at the moment so Anna Lee is filling in. The sports news is read by David Garrido. There are other presenters, such as Dominic Byrne (of The Chris Moyles Show fame), Mark Chapman from the Scott Mills Show, Hannah Morrison, Tulip Mazumdar, Debbie Randle, Maddy Savage and Jonathan Blake.
In keeping with its specific targeting of young audiences, Newsbeat has its own set of reporters based at Yalding House in Central London (as opposed to the main Newsroom BBC Television Centre, where most BBC News operations come from). The team's reporters are themselves young[citation needed] and often report on the location of the big news stories of the day.
Newsbeat's shorter bulletins are usually every hour (on the half-hour) weekdays, plus at various times throughout the evening and weekends. There are also extra bulletins on the hour at 7am, 8am and 5pm. A Radio 1 News schedule is available in a copy of the weekly publication Radio Times. In all, 9 million people a week hear the news on Radio 1 through Newsbeat.
There are close ties between Newsbeat and 1xtra News (formerly known as TX), the informal news service provided to listeners of BBC Radio's digital-only urban music station, 1Xtra.
Newsbeat was launched in 1973 in response to the launch of a network of commercial radio stations across the UK which supplied a news service very different from the style of traditional BBC News. The programme's first presenter was the Radio 1 DJ Ed "Stewpot" Stewart and he was succeeded by Lawrie Mayer and Richard Skinner. Newsbeat's first editor was Mike Chaney - hired from The Sun by the then Director-General to inject a populist flavour to the news coverage of Radio 1. Newsbeat's current editor is Rod McKenzie, himself a former presenter of the programme and the news presenter on the Simon Mayo breakfast show on Radio 1 from 1987 to 1993.
In 2007, Newsbeats Oddbox was launched. A 4 minute video, which looks at the weeks strangest news, presented by Dominic Byrne and Natalie Jamieson when he is away. It is available to watch at www.bbc.co.uk/oddnews, the Radio 1 Newsbeat website and BBCi.
