BBC Radio 5 Live live

BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC’s rolling news and sport network, broadcasting nationally on medium wave at 693 and 909 kHz, on DAB and online. Unlike the BBC’s other national networks it has never been on FM, which is why reception on an ordinary radio can be uneven and why most of its audience now listens digitally. The station splits its day between live news and live sport. Weekday mornings and afternoons run as a rolling news service with phone-ins and interviews; evenings and weekends turn over to commentary, and 5 Live holds broadcast rights to a large share of British sport, including Premier League football, the Olympics and international cricket. What distinguishes it from a conventional sports station is the commentary tradition it inherits. BBC radio football commentary is a specific craft — one commentator, one summariser, no pictures assumed — and 5 Live is where that continues. For many listeners in the UK the radio commentary is preferred to the television coverage, and it is common to watch a match with the sound turned down and the radio on. Its sister station, 5 Sports Extra, carries additional live events when the main network is committed elsewhere.