Radio 4 Extra
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| Broadcast area | United Kingdom – national |
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| Slogan | Showcasing the best in comedy drama and entertainment. With quizzes, sitcoms, panel games, satire, stand up, life stories, classics from the archive, science fiction and fantasy |
| Frequency |
DAB: 12B Freeview: 708 Freesat: 708 Sky (UK only): 0131 Virgin Media: 910 Virgin Media Ireland: 929 |
| First air date | 15 December 2002 (as BBC 7) 2 April 2011 (as BBC Radio 4 Extra) |
| Format | Comedy, Drama |
| Owner | BBC |
| Sister stations | BBC Radio 4 |
| Webcast |
HTTP Streams HLS Streams
MPEG DASH Streams |
| Website | www |
HTTP Streams
HLS Streams
MPEG DASH Streams
BBC Radio 4 Extra is a British digital radio station broadcasting archive repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcaster of the BBC's spoken-word archive, and as a result the majority of its programming originates from that archive. It also broadcasts extended and companion programmes to those broadcast on sister station BBC Radio 4, and provides a "catch-up" service for certain Radio 4 programmes.
The station launched in December 2002 as BBC 7, broadcasting a similar mix of archive comedy, drama and current children's radio. The station was renamed BBC Radio 7 in 2008, then relaunched as Radio 4 Extra in April 2011. For the first quarter of 2013, Radio 4 Extra had a weekly audience of 1.642 million people and had a market share of 0.95% - in the last quarter of 2016 the numbers were 2,184 million listeners and 1,2% of market share.
The station was initially launched as BBC 7 on 15 December 2002 by comedian Paul Merton. The first programme was broadcast at 8pm and was simulcast with Radio 4. The station, referred to by the codename 'Network Z' while in development, was so named to reflect the station's presence on the internet and on digital television in addition to radio. The station broadcast mostly archived comedy and drama, in that the programme was either three or more years old or had been broadcast twice on their original station.
The station also broadcast a themed section for Children's programmes. This section carried a variety of programmes, including The Little Toe Radio Show (later renamed CBeebies Radio), aimed at younger children and consisting of short serials, stories and rhymes, and The Big Toe Radio Show with phone-ins, quizzes and stories for the 8+ age group. The segment also hosted the only news programme on the network presented by the Newsround team.
The station won the Sony Radio Academy Award for station sound in 2003, was nominated for the Promo Award in 2004, and in 2005 received a silver for the Short-Form award, plus nominations in the speech and digital terrestrial station-of-the-year sections. Because of the station's archive nature the station was scheduled, produced and researched by 17 people, excluding presenters.
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Wikipedia