How the digital channel complemented BBC Radio 5 live

On the 5 live blog station controller Adrian Van-Klaveren has written a post detailing 5 live's coverage of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. He recalls where he was at the time (as I'm sure we've all done in the last few days):

At the time I was Head of BBC Newsgathering. I remember catching up with the breakfast news and then setting off for some meetings at the BBC's Washington office. It seemed an entirely unremarkable news day. After 15 minutes walk, I arrived in the office to find an extraordinary amount of activity for that time of the morning. The first plane had struck the Twin Towers.

Within the coverage Peter Allen and Stephen Nolan will be reporting and presenting from the United States, including special programmes from Florida where President Bush heard the news and Victoria Derbyshire will have rare access to Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, presenting her Friday programme from there. You can find more details and leave a comment on the 5 live blog.

On Monday night Radio 1's Mike Davies presented a musical history of 9/11 and its aftermath, featuring interviews, archive and the sounds of the likes of Moby, My Chemical Romance and the Beastie Boys.

Radio 2 marks the anniversary with Faith and 9/11. Journalist and Pause For Thought contributor, Abdul-Rehman Malik guides listeners through a reflective anthology combining personal reflections - past and present - with news archive including an interview given to the BBC by the Archbishop Of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, shortly after the terrorist attacks.

A Guernica for Gotham on Radio 3 investigates how New York artists have responded to the destruction of the Twin Towers. Interviewees include composer Steve Reich and writer Meg Wolitzer.

Radio 4 is currently broadcasting the second half of this year's Reith Lectures under the title Securing Freedom and you can download the first of Eliza Manningham-Buller's lectures, Terror, from the website.

There are details of Radio 4's other coverage on this page 9/11 - Ten Years On including The Saturday Play Washington, 9/11 and The Day before 9/11, a portrait of New York, America and the wider world as it was - the day before.

Gwyneth Williams, the controller of Radio 4, has written about Radio 4's coverage of 9/11 on the blog, where you can find out more and leave a comment.

Paul Murphy is editor of the Radio blog

Editor's note: Brett was previously the interactive editor of 5 live before becoming the managing editor at Three Counties Radio. I asked him for his thoughts on the role of social networks in local radio. (PM)

Last July I left BBC Radio 5 live after six years and drove north to Luton. I hadn't worked in local radio since the early nineties, but the chance to run my nearest radio station was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The 5 Live newsroom I left was fully engaged with social media, with a variety of Facebook and Twitter accounts, presenters engaging with the audience and audio and video shared and distributed daily.

At BBC Three Counties Radio I quickly found that social media was not really on the agenda. So as we set about putting together a new schedule and defining how we were going to re-shape the programming, I thought it was important to get the station working in digital spaces at the same time.

Working with the brilliant Claire Wardle and Sue Llewellyn we designed two days to talk to everyone in the station about what could be achieved. Every producer and presenter spent 2 hours learning the essentials. There was a clear message: if we do this, it will increase the reach of our radio content.

But it's not just about teaching people what to do. Integrating social media into the radio station needs support from the very top. The management needs to be engaged and actively involved. It's not enough to have a lone person in the newsroom responsible for social media, it's everybody's job.

At 3CR the two news editors that cover the broadcast day now have it as part of their job description to update social media, share content and engage with the listeners. We created time in their day to do this. Just as crucially the journalists are using it as a newsgathering tool.

In just a few weeks we found on Twitter a gamer addicted to playing 18 hours a day that tied into a Panorama programme, friends of a murder victim and a local man who was designing a space mission to name just three. We uncovered local stories, new guests and shared masses of content. When we tweeted and engaged on Facebook about a local park being closed in Bushey, the callers that rang in were keen to point out that they had never listened to 3CR - and didn't know it covered their area. We found an 18 year old dancer from Hertfordshire waiting in a queue outside the Hammersmith Apollo to audition for Britain's Got Talent.

Additionally, and just as importantly, the presenters are connecting with the listeners in digital spaces for the first time. Social media is being used to extend the reach of the radio station and bring new ears to 3CR content. Just a couple of weeks ago, there was Melvin, a caller ranting about how much he hated the Royal Wedding. He was on air at 0920. Laura Miller, who produces the mid-morning show, had this on Audioboo and in the Twittersphere by 0935, as she continued to output the show. To date, as a result of social media, it's been played 115,000 times, that's greater than the weekly reach of some stations. Melvin may have called his local station in Luton, but the next day he could hear his call being played and talked about on WNYC in New York.

So has this strategy it worked? Well admittedly it's difficult to equate social media activity directly to gains in listeners. But last week BBC Three Counties Radio had its best Rajar for six years. I would like to think the two are connected.

Brett Spencer is currently working on social media innovation projects for BBC English Regions. Follow his personal account on Twitter @brettsr

• Follow BBC Three Counties Radio on Twitter at @bbc3cr
• Read radio and new media consultant Matt Deegan's blog post on radio and Twitter ("...Overall, Twitter is a great resource and platform to help grow audience and engagement. Remember though that the vast majority of your listeners probably don't care..."): Radio's Twitter Obsession

Of all the highs and lows of my job, visiting the Test Match Special commentary box at Lords in July last year must rank as one of my most memorable and uplifting moments. As I listened to Aggers, Blowers, CMJ and the rest of the team analyse the quality of each delivery while conveying the whole glorious mood of the occasion, from stray pigeons to the sunburnt crowd, I was struck by the preciousness of the whole enterprise.

Like many ideas that prove a triumph for radio, ball-by-ball cricket commentary was considered by many to be too slow to be a compelling proposition. Indeed, the very idea of communicating something so visual on radio was seen as largely impossible (rather like some of the initial concerns about the recent series A History of The World in 100 Objects). Segments of ball-by-ball commentary began in the mid 1930s following the launch of cricket reporting in 1927. In 1957 the first full day of cricket commentary was broadcast leading to TMS becoming fully-ingrained in English culture in a way that is perhap unparalleled in broadcasting.

This year as the first test begins in Brisbane (with a slightly wobbly English first innings), I hope that everyone with the vaguest interest in how the Strauss vs Ponting battle develops will find time to sit quietly listening to TMS. Even if you are able to watch it on television, let my offer a friendly challenge to sit listening to an hour of TMS after watching the television. I suspect that the most vivid pictures that will be created in your head by the likes of Geoff Boycott, Michael Vaughan or Ian Chappell.

Below you will find details of our coverage (including not only TMS but our excellent 5Live programming) as well as the link to a rather good Ashes archive for your to explore. Enjoy the cricket.

Tim Davie is Director of Audio & Music at the BBC

• Join the discussion of The Ashes on Twitter. Follow BBC cricket people and use the hashtag #BBCAshes.
• The schedule of commentaries on 5 live Sports Extra and a blog post about Radio 4's LW coverage by Andrew Caspari.
• BBC Sport's Ashes archive is full of clips from television and radio coverage over the decades - going back to 1938.
• The Test Match Special blog brings together posts from all of the BBC's cricket blogs.
• Adam Mountford, Test Match Special producer, has written about the BBC's Ashes coverage on his blog.
• The picture shows Trevor Bailey and Brian Johnston - the Test Match Commentary Team - in action at Lords in 1981.