Jonathan Wall appointed 5 live Controller

Jonathan Wall has been appointed as Controller of BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra, taking up the post immediately.

He’s been covering the postion for the last few months since Adrian van Klaveren stepped down, who has now taken over responsibility for the BBC’s forthcoming coverage of the centenary of the First World War.

Jonathan is based at Media City UK and will report directly to BBC North Director Peter Salmon. He will sit on the BBC North board as well as the BBC Radio Board.

Jonathan Wall began his career at BBC Radio Humberside before moving into BBC Sport. He later became Editor, 5live Sport before being appointed Deputy Controller and Commissioning Editor, 5 live, in July 2008.

Feel very privileged to be given the 5 live controller job today. Bit of a lump in throat reading a lot of nice messages. Excited. Thank u

— Jonathan Wall (@wallj10) February 19, 2013

Peter Salmon said: “Jonathan has shown enormous commitment to BBC Radio 5 live already and now earns the right to take on one of the best Controller roles in the BBC. He played a crucial role in the highly successful move of the station to Salford and helped build a talent roster and schedule that has just clocked up a record number of successive quarters of over six million listeners. More than anything Jonathan has a passion for R5l’s audience and I am certain he is going to make a superb station leader.”

Jonathan Wall commented: “It’s a privilege to be given this opportunity – for me the best job in British radio. I inherit a station in good health after the successful move to Salford and the wonderful London 2012 coverage. We have the potential to build on all of that and grow even stronger. I want to wake up every day knowing we are delivering live radio that you don’t hear anywhere else in the UK. We will look to make a bigger impact with our news journalism and continue to bring people together for major events off and on air. I have a wonderfully committed and supportive team to help achieve all this with and am looking forward to getting started.’