The 2012 London Olympics on radio – preview

In just a few days time – the eyes of the world will be on a small town in East London as the Olympic games descends on London. Without a doubt, it certainly is one of the biggest events to come to London and for those not in front of the television – radio will be playing its part to bring coverage to life.

Those clever folks at Radioworks (my money is on MCH) have put together a bespoke site offering a run down on which stations will be providing Olympic and Paralympic content. Go and take a look over at http://www.olympicsradio.co.uk/

The BBC

So what’s happening? The official broadcaster of the games is the BBC. They have been providing incredible live coverage of the Torch Relay and associated events to date.

Take a look back at Steve’s recent post on the how the games is being portrayed by the BBC across the world as well as by other international broadcasters. 

BBC Radio 5 Live will the central point of the BBC radio’s coverage with world class commentators and presentation offering all the drama and passion. This will be delivered via daytime programming (on a revised schedule) along with regular round ups and updates.

In the run up to the games – 5 Live has created some bespoke programming including ‘Colin Murray’s Gold Run’ where Colin is tasked to meet every living British gold medalist and ‘Dave Vitty’s Kids Guide to the Olympics’.

Additionally -there will be a pop “pop up” digital radio station called ‘BBC Radio 5 live Olympics Extra’ featuring extended commentary and highlights.

So what about the commercial offering?

Absolute Radio and Bauer Media (Kiss/Magic) have teamed up to provide coverage of BT London Live events each day during the games plus major concerts for the opening and closing ceremonies. Additionally, Absolute Radio have hired Johnny Vaughn– who will be will be broadcasting on Absolute Radio every day, with interviews from comedians and presenters, alongside our athletes and sportspeople, reflecting the big events, the obscure sports, and the day’s talking points on and off the track.

Global’s coverage …

LBC 97.3 will be the voice of London during the games with both games coverage from their Olympic correspondent James Cushing but will be reflecting the conversations from London of the games – whether that by games lanes, public transport, updates, ticketing, who’s who .etc. Additionally – daily updates (in the form of editorial bulletins) will run across the entire Global Radio network. Capital FM have been media partners with both Samsung’s and Coca Cola’s coverage of the Torch Relay including Hyde Park finale event featuring Dizzie Rascal, The Wanted, Eliz Doolittle and many more. It must also be noted that during the torch relay – many local radio stations presented incredible coverage of their local activities – just helping to raise the profile of how important local radio still is today.

What about talkSPORT?

The folks at talkSPORT will be keeping their 3.2 million listeners a week happy with editorial coverage of the Olympic games throughout the day in its news bulletins as well via social media and their weekly Sport Magazine.

International Radio Festival’s Pop Up Station

From 20th July to 12th August, during the London 2012 Olympic Games, the International Radio Festival (IRF), will take seat in London and launch its Olympic Pop-Up Edition, presenting listeners with a taste of the very best Swiss and British radio stations together with their presenters, and featuring artists, bands, festivals, and leading nightlife brands, including daily news from the House of Switzerland’s events.

The pop-up edition will present a varied 24/7 on-air listening experience as unique as the 2012 Olympic Games itself, whilst also building an acoustic cultural bridge between the two nations long standing friendship. The IRF will also act as a “lifestyle -hub” interviewing Swiss athletes, leading public figures, celebrities and opinion leaders from the world of music and fashion, offering an insight to their musical tastes, their opinions about the Games and its host city London.

Olympic Production

If you’re looking for some production elements for summer production this year – then take a look at Wrong Planet who have put together a variety of beds and sound fx with olympic proportions.

You can pick up all the elements on one album by visiting http://wrongplanet.co.uk/albums/view/61. Simply register with Wrong Planet (also very good for beds etc) and download. You’ll get a load of beds, plus all the Olympic sound design elements too, all for free – just log PRS. A sheet with all PRS details will be sent via email after download. There’s some nice bits here and definitely worth a checking out. Thanks to Adam and UKRD for sending us the link.

Over to you …

What are you doing on your station? Have you got something pretty cool up your sleeve that you can share with Earshot? C’mon tell us! Drop me a line on jonathan@earshotcreative.com and we’ll update the blog as we go along.