2022 in British radio

This is a list of events taking place in 2022 relating to radio in the United Kingdom.

Events January 1 January – Moira Stuart, Kate Garraway and Margherita Taylor are among those from the world of broadcasting to be recognised in the 2022 New Year Honours. 3 January – Jazz FM presenter Anne Frankenstein announces she will change her on air name to her actual name, which is Deb Grant. 4 January – Launch of GB News Radio on the Digital One platform; the station is a simulcast of the GB News TV channel. Former BBC Asian Network presenter Yasser Ranjha joins Capital Xtra as the station's new drivetime host. Absolute Radio launches its "Absolute Radio You" competition which will see it name a radio station after one of its listeners. 5 January – The UK government gives the regulator Ofcom power to renew licences for the two national DAB multiplexes, Digital One and Sound Digital, until December 2035. Hits Radio announces a new weekday schedule that will see Tom Green present the mid morning show, replacing Mike Toolan, while Hattie Pearson will replace Greg Burns on afternoons. Mike Toolan will co-present drivetime alongside Gemma Atkinson, replacing Wes Butterfield. The family of Captain Sir Tom Moore thank Milton Keynes station MKFM for being the first media organisation to get behind his 2020 fundraising campaign for the NHS. 6 January – KISS announces plans for an overhaul of its weekend schedule that will include Sam Darlaston and Omah Howard be moving to weekend mornings, and Tatum McGreal presenting an afternoon show. 7 January – LBC announce that presenter Maajid Nawaz has left the station with immediate effect. No reason is given for his departure. 9 January – Bob Harris joins Boom Radio to present a Sunday evening programme. 10 January – Numi Gildent takes over as presenter of the KMFM evening show The Hit List. Radio Exe celebrates its tenth birthday with a message of congratulations from Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 11 January – Singer Elvis Costello asks radio stations to stop playing his 1979 song "Oliver's Army". Costello had announced he would stop performing the song live due to a racial slur in the lyrics. Times Radio appoints Daily Telegraph Deputy Political Editor Lucy Fisher as its Chief Political Commentator. 12 January – BBC Radio 4 presenter Joe Lynam announces he will leave the station to join Irish radio station Newstalk as its business editor. Gaydio breakfast presenter Paris Munro reveals to his co-host Dave Cooper and listeners that he is transmasculine non-binary. 13 January – Clare McDonnell is announced as the new co-presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live's Drivetime programme, replacing Anna Foster. She will take up the role from 14 February. 14 January – Bauer has signed a deal to syndicate American country presenter Elaina D Smith's evening show, Nights with Elaina, on Absolute Radio Country. 16 January – UK Youth Mental Health Ambassador Alex George joins Classic FM to present Inner Harmony. The series will focus on the effect listening to classical music can have on mental health and wellbeing. 17 January – BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 have commissioned a series of programmes to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's novel Ulysses, which was published in February 1922. Terry Christian returns to BBC Radio Derby to present a week of editions of Barbed Wireless, the youth programme he launched in 1982 to mark the show's 40th anniversary. Talksport announces that it has won exclusive broadcasting rights to the England tour of the West Indies, which begins later in January. 18 January – At 5.59am GB News Radio begins a daily broadcast of the national anthem before the start of its live programming. Northampton's Shire Sound Radio launches a training academy for teenagers aged 13–18 interested in following a career in broadcasting. 19 January – Launch of the "Doctor Next Door" podcast presented by Absolute Radio's Dave Berry. 23 January – BBC Radio 2 airs a special programme paying tribute to presenter Janice Long, who died on Christmas Day 2021. The programme is presented by Zoe Ball and simulcast with BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Merseyside. Radio Today reports on the forthcoming launch of Pompey Sound, a station for Portsmouth F.C., and a joint project put together by Tommy Boyd and Duncan Barkes. Schedule changes are announced for Virgin Radio Anthems UK, Virgin Radio Chilled UK and Virgin Radio Groove UK. 24 January – BBC Radio 3 begins a week of live and pre-recorded concerts celebrating the music of Manchester. BBC Asian Network announces that twelve new presenters will join the network as part of its search for up and coming talent. Sam Lavery joins Capital North East to prevent the weekday drivetime show. Tom Green begins presenting the mid-morning show on Hits Radio. Following talks between the BBC and Department of Culture, Media and Sport it is announced that the Audio Content Fund will not continue beyond its pilot phase, ending in March. 25 January – Ofcom announces the fourth round of small-scale radio multiplex licensing. 28 January – Phil Jones, Editor of the Jeremy Vine Show, retires after 30 years with BBC Radio 2. He has edited the show since it began in 2003, and edited the Jimmy Young Programme before that. Greatest Hits Radio announces it has become the official partner of the 2022 Rewind Festival, scheduled for July and August. 29 January – Capital Breakfast launches a television advertising campaign featuring Roman Kemp, Sonny Jay and Siân Welby as a panel of judges auditioning famous music artists including Ed Sheeran and Olly Murs. 30 January – BBC Radio 2 airs highlights of The Big Night of Musicals by The National Lottery, recorded at Manchester's AO Arena. Shown in full on BBC One, the show is presented by comedian Jason Manford and is a thank you from the National Lottery to players who have supported it during the COVID-19 pandemic. 31 January – BBC Radio 2 launches its "Piano Room Month" live music initiative as part of Ken Bruce's show, with performances by artists each weekday until 25 February. The list of artists appearing on the feature is as follows: David Gray (31 January), Jack Savoretti (1 February), Stereophonics (2 February), Anne-Marie (3 February), Katie Melua (4 February), Clean Bandit (7 February), Joy Crookes (8 February), Will Young (9 February), Rebecca Ferguson (10 February), Tom Odell (11 February), James Morrison (14 February), Ella Henderson (15 February), Craig David (16 February), Natalie Imbruglia (17 February), James Blunt (18 February), Tears For Fears (21 February), Simple Minds (22 February), Emeli Sandé (23 February), Jamie Cullum (24 February), and Ed Sheeran (25 February). BBC Radio 6 Music celebrates Independent Venue Week with a series of special programmes presented by Steve Lamacq. Bauer Media Audio UK announces plans to migrate its digital listeners from radio aggregators to its own platforms. BBC Radio 5 Live begins producing daily editions of its Rugby Union Weekly podcast for the duration of the 2022 Six Nations Championship.

February 1 February – The BBC confirms that some radio content from BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live will be made exclusive to the BBC Sounds app for 28 days before becoming more widely available. 2 February – In a special broadcast BBC Radio 3 showcases the work of forgotten classical music artists Margaret Bonds, Ali Osman and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. It is announced that Paul O'Grady will take a break from his BBC Radio 2 Sunday teatime show Paul O'Grady on the Wireless for 12 weeks. Rob Beckett will host the slot during this period. The show will return on 22 May 2022. 3 February – RAJAR releases its figures for the fourth quarter of 2021, indicating that one billion hours of radio were listened to during that time by roughly 49.5 million adults who listened for an average of 20.3 hours per week. 4 February – BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru broadcast a series of special programmes to celebrate Welsh Language Music Day. V2 Radio in West Sussex has started playing the national anthem each day at midnight, it is reported. Absolute Radio launches Absolute Radio Natalie, a temporary station named after one of its listeners, Natalie Cole, who suggested a station of singalong anthems. 6 February – Scala Radio launches The Classic Comedy Club, a four-part series in which comedians Isy Suttie, Sindhu Vee, Maisie Adam and Andy Parsons each present their own show, curating a playlist of music that makes them happy. 7 February – BBC Radio 2 launches 21st Century Folk in partnership with local BBC radio stations, an initiative to capture the essence of life in the North East of England in 2022. It is confirmed that a limited number of commercials will shortly begin airing on Virgin Radio's The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, which has been ad-free since its launch in 2019. Times Radio also plans to introduce commercials for the first time since its launch. Radio Today reports on Shaun Keaveny's return to radio, with the launch of Shaun Keaveny's Creative Cul-de-sac, a podcast on his Patreon page beginning on this date; Keaveny has also launched his own radio station, Community Garden Radio, through the page. 9 February – Figures released by industry body Radiocentre reveal commercial radio took £718.7 million in advertising revenue during 2021, the highest annual revenue to date. Launch of The Radio Academy Podcast, a weekly podcast presented by Roisin Hastie that will look at radio and audio projects. 10 February – Greatest Hits Radio have signed Richard Allinson and Kate Thornton to present Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening shows respectively. Former LBC presenter Maajid Nawaz has signed a deal with social media platform Gettr to produce content for them. Radiocentre Client Director Lucy Barrett is appointed inaugural President of the new World Radio Alliance. 12 February – A new study by radio manufacturer Pure highlights the increase of people tuning into radio, which they regard as a trusted source of breaking news and instant information. 13 February – Reality television star Sam Thompson joins Hits Radio to present Sunday morning breakfast. The Community Media Association launches "Radiole", an online word game to celebrate World Radio Day 2022. 14 February – Fun Kids hosts a live event from London's Royal Greenwich Observatory during which a love letter from Earth is broadcast both nationwide and into space. The event earns the station the Guinness World Record title for the First Radio Programme Beamed into Deep Space. 15 February – Sixteen-year-old Josh Holmes-Bright, a presenter on Caroline Community Radio, joins Radio Caroline after being approached by station bosses who heard him presenting on the community station. 16 February – The online output of Bauer Radio's stations goes down for around half an hour just before 8am because of an internal update to their streaming service. 17 February – Ofcom awards grants totalling £390,689 to 26 community radio stations for projects. 18 February – Nation Radio gains nearly half a million listeners for the fourth quarter of 2021 after RAJAR reattributes some of the listening figures for that period from national to local services. Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson joins Times Radio to present the Friday afternoon show. Chris Moyse, managing director and Station Manager at Park Radio since 2010, announces his intention to step down from the roles in order to concentrate on new projects. 19 February – Talksport exclusively broadcasts the boxing match between Amir Khan and Kell Brook, held in Manchester. 20 February – David Jensen's Jazz returns to Jazz FM for a second series.