All posts tagged: Radio

Vote for the Radio Times Moment of the Year at the 2026 Audio and Radio Industry Awards

Vote for the Radio Times Moment of the Year at the 2026 Audio and Radio Industry Awards

The Audio and Radio Industry Awards (ARIAs) are returning for a landmark 10th annual ceremony, celebrating the biggest names and rising stars in radio. For another year, Radio Times is honoured to partner with the Audio Academy to celebrate the biggest moment of the year – and it’s down to the public to decide who wins! This year is a tough competition, from political confrontations and sobering reflections, to joyous sporting celebrations and royal revelations. But who will get your vote? You have until 8 May to cast your votes and don’t forget – don’t click until you’re really sure who you want to win as once you’ve clicked, your vote will be submitted! Interviews by Caroline Frost and Gareth McLean The ARIAs Radio Times Moment of the Tear nominees are… Sarah Speaks: The Southport Attacks, on BBC Radio Merseyside As odd as it sounds, hearing the testimony of Sarah, a survivor of the mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in July 2024, was, says BBC Merseyside presenter Kev Duala, “life-affirming”. …

Hello stranger | Radio Times

Hello stranger | Radio Times

Add Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 to your watchlist Netflix’s Stranger Things may have ended only recently, but it’s already back in an animated spin-off, Tales from ’85, which swaps the horror of Hawkins with a more family-friendly feel. “We wanted to focus on kids being kids, riding bikes, solving mysteries with their walkie-talkies and flashlights,” says showrunner Eric Robles, though he notes the series still promises plenty of monsters and mysteries. The team behind the animated show, which is set between seasons 2 and 3 of Stranger Things, wanted to honour the original by using the show’s posters as the basis for the animation style. “We have a very stylised look to our show,” Robles says. “We brought this very illustrative feel.” The animation allows for more freedom compared to live-action. “We can really crank up the kinds of visuals that you wouldn’t get in the flagship series. We can push our cameras in a certain way and get the characters to do dynamic things that they normally wouldn’t be able to do.” Capturing …

Doorway to hell | Radio Times

Doorway to hell | Radio Times

Add Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown to your watchlist For decades, Sergei Belyakov had the same recurring nightmare. He was inside the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine, soon after the explosion on 26 April 1986 that created the worst nuclear disaster in history. “I turned down a short corridor which seemed to be yellow everywhere – the floor, the walls, the windowsills,” he says. “Suddenly I realised the yellow colour was thousands of butterflies, all dead.” Yet this haunting vision was not the conjuring of dark imagination but a sight he saw with his own eyes, little more than three months after Reactor Four at Chernobyl blew apart. Belyakov, then a 30-year-old university chemistry lecturer in Dnipropetrovsk, 390 miles south-east of the nuclear plant, was one of the thousands of Soviets drafted in to clean up the lethal radioactive waste – a necessary step before the giant reactor could be entombed in concrete to limit the further spread of radiation. Sergei Belyakov in the 1980s when he was among the many tasked with cleaning up after …

The heat is on | Radio Times

The heat is on | Radio Times

Add MasterChef to your watchlist Here they all are, trooping into Day One of this year’s contest with shining, enthusiastic faces. There’s the woman who wants to show her expertise at cooking steak and chips; the man who only ate an egg for the first time in his 20s; the chap who has spent years dreaming of wearing a MasterChef apron. Watching at home, we’ll come to know and root for the new tranche of amateur chefs being put through their paces on the legendary cooking show. But they’re not the only fresh faces this time – there are new judges, too. Restaurant critic Grace Dent and chef Anna Haugh have both had stints as judges on the celebrity and professional MasterChef variants, but the cut and thrust of the OG version is where Dent and Haugh now reign. And they like it that way. “To anyone who can get through those first few rounds, I think, wow,” says Dent. “Everyone says, ‘I will make, say, beef bourguignon and some fuffy rice as my signature …

Andy Kershaw death: Former BBC Radio 1 DJ and Live Aid host dies, aged 66

Andy Kershaw death: Former BBC Radio 1 DJ and Live Aid host dies, aged 66

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Andy Kershaw, who co-presented the TV coverage of Live Aid in 1985, has died, aged 66. Kershaw’s family announced the death of the broadcaster, months after sharing his spinal cancer diagnosis. He was diagnosed in August 2025, and had been left unable to walk. He was best known for his 15-year stint on Radio 1, where he championed world music. Kershaw was diagnosed with spinal cancer last year (PA) The presenter had been undergoing treatment including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, physiotherapy and “a lot of scans and painkillers”, his friend and podcast producer Peter Everett wrote in a Facebook post in January. He shared a message from Kershaw himself, who said at the time: “I am in good spirits, feeling very positive and planning another podcast. “I am determined not to die before Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Donald …

Sky News halted for breaking alert and it’s terrible for Brits travelling abroad | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

Sky News halted for breaking alert and it’s terrible for Brits travelling abroad | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

Sky News ground to a halt this afternoon for a breaking announcement – and it could be very bad news for British people wanting to travel abroad this summer. As the breaking news banner flashed across the bottom of the screen, the show’s presenter began: “Breaking news to bring you now. This is from the International Energy Agency Chief Fatih Birol, saying that Europe may have six weeks or so of jet fuel left, warning of possible flight cancellations.” He added: “We, of course, heard similar warnings from the boss of Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair, in previous weeks as well, talking about potential disruption through the course of the early summer. As we approach mid-April, that would align with about June, according to these warnings from Fatih Birol.” The Sky News host said he was sure the markets would be watching the outcomes of any potential talks between the US and Iran very closely. He added: “For the moment, looking at maritime tracking data right now live, it is showing a pretty bleak scene across …

What to read this week: Emma Chapman’s mind-expanding Radio Universe

What to read this week: Emma Chapman’s mind-expanding Radio Universe

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, Chile ESO/C. Malin Radio UniverseEmma ChapmanJohn Murray When he was 16 years old, Albert Einstein imagined chasing after a beam of light and, as the story goes, this feat of imagination helped him develop the now-famous theory of special relativity. Physicist Emma Chapman also chases a light signal through the known universe and up to its very edges in her new book, Radio Universe: How to explore space without leaving Earth (in the US, its title is The Echoing Universe and it is out on 19 May). But while Einstein wanted to hop onto the light beam and experience the cosmos’s fastest speed, the light Chapman is after plays the role not of a carrier, but of an explorer, guide and messenger. “The universe already speaks the language of light,” she writes, and her book offers a wonderful insight into how humans have used radio telescopes to learn and become fluent in that language, too. As a wave of electromagnetism, light can have many different wavelengths. For example, ultraviolet …

Radio 2 ‘lining up wildcard’ Scott Mills replacement after BBC firing

Radio 2 ‘lining up wildcard’ Scott Mills replacement after BBC firing

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter The BBC is “lining up a wildcard” replacement for Scott Mills, who was sacked from the Radio 2 breakfast show last month. Mills, 53, was fired shortly before it emerged he’d been investigated by the Metropolitan Police in 2016 over allegations of serious sexual offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000. Gary Davies has been filling in for Mills on the breakfast show slot, with a permanent replacement yet to be announced – but while high-profile names including Vernon Kay, Sara Cox and Claudia Winkleman have been touted, reports suggest these three won’t be stepping up to the plate. Scott Mills was fired from BBC Radio 2 over serious allegations (Getty Images) Instead, OJ Borg, who presents a weekday overnight show from midnight to 3am on the station, is now a frontrunner, according to The Sun. “Bosses …

Meghan Markle ‘brutally snubbed radio host’ | Royal | News

Meghan Markle ‘brutally snubbed radio host’ | Royal | News

Meghan Markle is due to appear at the women’s weekend event, Her Best Life Retreat (Image: Getty) Meghan Markle allegedly asked a media executive to interview her for an event, rather than an Australian radio star, out of concern that her cause might be overshadowed. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are beginning a visit to Australia this week, which includes charitable and commercial engagements across Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. Meghan, 44, is due to appear at the women’s weekend event, Her Best Life Retreat, where a ticket costs over £1,500 (AUS$3,000). The Duchess will be interviewed at a gala dinner being led by talent agent Gemma O’Neill. The event is being organised by O’Neill and her pal Jackie Henderson’s [Jackie O] company, We Are Besties. READ MORE: Harry and Meghan suffer humiliating blow as Australia ‘doesn’t want them’ READ MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle warned about huge ‘risk’ with Australia tour Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will visit Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra (Image: Getty) Ms Henderson is a high-profile radio DJ in Australia. …