Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
Our output covers an unrivalled range of musical genres including big band, light classical, brass band, reggae, organ music, jazz, soul, folk, country, blues and sacred music. Our schedule is built around regular strands, presented by credible experts who can also communicate with listeners who have no specialist knowledge.

Programmes such as Big Band Special, Bob Harris Country, the Paul Jones rhythm and blues show and the BBC Jazz Awards will continue to reflect live performances by UK and world-renowned performers.

In comedy, we will commission original programmes and seek to develop new formats, building on the success of series like Radio Rivron and Clive Anderson’s Chatroom.

Documentaries on Saturday and Tuesday evenings will reflect and explain popular culture.

This year:

• Key events covered will include the Cambridge Folk Festival, Guilfest and The Brits.
• We will continue to support new talent through initiatives such as the Young Folk Award, Young Brass Soloist and Young Chorister of the Year.
• We will commission new musical arrangements from leading arranging talent for use within Friday Night is Music Night, Big Band Special and Listen to the Band.

Promoting education and learning
Radio 2 has a heritage of using its learning campaigns to help listeners of all ages engage practically with the modern world and its challenges.

Sold on Song, our music learning initiative, continues to connect aspiring songwriters and those interested in the art of songwriting with established songwriters, local events and music masterclasses.

This year, Radio 2 will:

• Launch a drama initiative that will invite listeners to write a short piece for transmission, supported by writing workshops around the UK and online.
• Establish a Music Club that will set out to link music presenters, all of whom are recognised authorities in their own musical field, with listeners so that their expertise can be shared beyond the scope of traditional broadcasting. The Club will also encourage listener-to-listener engagement, creating communities of music interest.

Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities
Our religious broadcasting reflects the diversity of faiths and beliefs in the nation. Social action is also a core element of our speech programming.

Our website is an integral part of the network, used to encourage contributions from listeners through email, online voting and comments systems – generating a range of opinions from across the UK.

This year:

• Several social action campaigns will be mounted, including Student Essentials providing advice and support for students and their families as they receive their results and plan their futures.
• We will broadcast Don’t Start Me Talking, a series tracking personal responses from people across the UK to music and its effect on their lives.

Sustaining citizenship and civil society
News and current affairs aimed at a mass audience are a key part of Radio 2’s mix across the schedule, including comment in the peak breakfast and drivetime slots, as well as prominent windows in daytime.

The Jeremy Vine show continues to serve our daytime audience with an accessible mix of stories, interviews and phone-ins.

The drivetime show will continue to feature a business news slot, analysing current business issues for a mainstream audience.

Radio 2 is the primary radio broadcast partner for BBC Children in Need.

Bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world
Through our documentaries, we aim to bring a broad range of international music, history and culture to a UK audience.

We will also once more cover key overseas music events including South by Southwest – which promotes British music in America – and the Country Music Association Awards.

This year:

• Documentaries will include an exploration of how Asian music in the UK has developed in Birmingham to Bollywood.
• We will follow singer Joan Armatrading’s return to her roots in Joan’s Journey to St Kitts.
• We will broadcast American singer Randy Newman’s musical history of the United States.

Building digital Britain
bbc.co.uk/radio2 has evolved to become an integral part of our service, enabling listeners to connect with us and with each other.

The website is also where listeners can access BBC Radio Player to catch up with programmes they have missed and listen on demand.

The range, quality and innovation of Radio 2’s programming led to the station once more being named Station of the Year at the 2005 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

The network aims to reflect the diversity of its audience, and we schedule and commission programmes to reflect this ongoing and long-term ambition.

In the year ahead our key priorities will be:

• Continuing to seek a more diverse audience to programmes through the choice of topics, contributors and interviewees. Specifically, we plan to identify key contributors from the Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities for the Jeremy Vine show and for our arts programming.
• Extending our commitment to BBC Radio’s portfolio of radio comedy by commissioning new performers, writing and formats, seeking to bring fresh talent into the mainstream of UK comedy.
• Maintaining our commitment to live music output, reflecting a selection of key UK and international music events and performances, and presenting a raft of concerts and studio sessions.

We remain fully committed to our voluntary pledge that at least 10% of eligible hours on our national analogue radio networks will be made by independent producers.