Radio in the United Kingdom

Radio enjoys a large number of listeners in the United Kingdom. There are around 600 licensed radio stations in the country. The most prominent stations are the national networks operated by the BBC.

BBC Radio 1 broadcasts mostly current pop music output on FM and digital radio, with live music throughout the year.

BBC Radio 2 is the United Kingdom’s most listened-to radio station, featuring presenters such as Chris Evans and Terry Wogan, and playing popular music from the last 5 decades as well as special interest programmes in the evening.

BBC Radio 3 is a classical music station, broadcasting high-quality concerts and performances. At night, it transmits a wide range of jazz and world music.

BBC Radio 4 is a current affairs and speech station, with news, debate and radio drama. It broadcasts the daily radio soap The Archers, as well as flagship news programme Today.

BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts live news and sports commentary with phone-in debates and studio guests.

The introduction of digital radio technology led to the launch of several new BBC stations: BBC 1 Extra, BBC Radio 4 Extra, Radio 4, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Asian Network.

The BBC also provide 40 local radio services, mainly broadcasting a mix of local news and music aimed at an older audience.

Also there are three national commercial channels available nationally, namely Absolute Radio, Classic FM and talk SPORT. As with the BBC, digital radio has brought about many changes, including the roll-out of local stations such as Xfm, Kiss 100 and Kerrang Radio to other areas of the United Kingdom.

Most local commercial stations in the United Kingdom broadcast to a city or group of towns within a radius of 20–50 miles, with a second tier of regional stations covering larger areas such as North West England. The predominant format is pop music, but many other tastes are also catered for, particularly in London and the larger cities, and on digital radio.

Many local radio stations are owned by large radio groups which broadcast a similar format to many areas. The largest operator of radio is Global Radio which bought the former media group, Gcap Media. It owns Classic FM and London's most popular commercial station, 95.8 Capital FM.

Community radio stations broadcast to a small area, normally within a 3 mile (5 km) radius, and are required by the Act to be not-for-profit organisations, owned by local people, on which the broadcasters are mostly volunteers. They are recognised under the Communications Act 2003 as a distinct third tier of radio in the United Kingdom. The community radio movement in the United Kingdom was founded in the mid-1970s, broadcasting through Restricted Service Licences, the internet and cable.