BBC Radio Explorer
Inside story

We spoke to Jason Williams, a Web Developer from BBC Radio & Music, who came up with the idea

What does Radio Explorer do?

Radio Explorer offers you a stream of available content, giving you your own radio station of episodes and clips, which are related to your search. Its continuous so you can just leave it to play!

What does that mean for fans of Radio?

It makes it easier for listeners to find new content based on the topic of their choice, rather than through linear radio. It makes the playlist from the topic you search for. We want to help people find the best of the BBC.

You sound quite passionate about it. How did you come up with the idea?

I was in the car listening to shows like The News Quiz or The Now Show and thought there must be an easier way to find out if there was more comedy on offer from BBC Radio.

I had look online using BBC and other search engines to see if I could find any more Comedy. I realised this could be simplified if I could search exactly for what I want within the BBC and have those clips or episode available instantly.

When I started testing this concept I found it worked even better for more specific searches, such as politician’s names or topical subjects.

We developed the idea further at a Radio 4 Hackday. And now it’s a live on BBC Taster.

What’s a Hackday?

It’s an event where people who are involved with software development can get together and work on something new which doesn’t necessarily have to adhere to the normal restrictions we have.

So you get to let your hair down.

Exactly. Some Hacks can be more structured than others, but in this case we had a lot of freedom to experiment with new development and design techniques.

What are the next steps?

Initially it took radio clips and programmes from Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. There was interest from Taster users to offer content from music stations such as Radio 1 and 6Music so interviews with bands/artists can be heard. And also include BBC Local Radio. So we changed it so it now includes all BBCRadio stations. Another improvement would be to make it a better experience on mobile.