BBC West Midlands schedule - and "Midlands Today" in 1964, one of the UK's first daily regional news programmes. Regional television had been established in 1957 with the launch of local evening news bulletins. Although it fared better than the struggling BBC North or BBC West (which was threatened for a while with being absorbed by the Midlands Region), it was clear that if BBC Midlands was too large to be truly local in the radio market, it was equally too small to be as self-sufficient across the full range of television programming as it had been in radio. The result was the
BBC Radio 2 title the BBC formerly used for BBC Radio 1. It is the most listened-to station in the UK, its schedule filled with broadcasters such as: Steve Wright, Chris Evans, Simon Mayo, Tony Blackburn, Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Mark Radcliffe, Jo Whiley, Paul Gambaccini, Johnnie Walker and Bob Harris. As well as having most listeners nationally, it ranks first in many regions above local radio stations. BBC Radio 2 played to 27% of the available audience in 2006. In February 2007, Radio 2 recruited Jeff Smith, director of UK and International programming at Napster and a former head of music at