BBC Radio 4 Extra
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BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a BBC digital radio station. It has been on air since 15 December 2002 and is the main station for the BBC's vast speech archive. Until 4 October 2008, the station was known as BBC 7.
It repeats programmes from other BBC stations that are at least three years old or have already been broadcast twice on their original station, including many BBC Radio 4 programmes, classics such as the Paul Temple series (1938-1968) with Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury among others, Goon Show from the 1950s, current affairs shows such as Little Britain, and also shows produced especially for BBC Radio 7 such as Old Harry's Game.
The 18:00 and 00:00 slots, called The 7th Dimension, broadcast fantastic literature of various kinds such as science fiction and horror. A new Doctor Who series with Paul McGann as the "Eighth Doctor" has also been running there since 2007.
BBC Radio 7 broadcast two children's programmes daily: The Little Toe Show, aimed at younger listeners, and The Big Toe Show, aimed at children older than eight. In February 2007, Big Toe Books took over the second slot and Cbeebies Radio replaced Little Toe Show. These shows contain almost exclusively new material.
The station is characterized by less formal pretensions than the others. The announcers linking the programmes are presented as personalities, each associated with their own thematic block.
The station can be received worldwide on the internet, in the British Isles, northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and western Germany via the Astra 2D satellite, in the UK on DAB digital radio and via cable television.
