The BBC’s 5 Live is trying to shake off its reputation as “Radio Bloke” by trying to persuade more women to participate in phone-ins.
Producers routinely respond to women who text the station and encourage them to phone in, the corporation’s governing body revealed in a report this week.
Staff have also been told to make sure the “tone” of 5 Live’s programming – which is heavily football focused – is not “skewed towards men”.
The BBC Trust analysed Nicky Campbell’s breakfast show Your Call for a week in April and found that 75% of callers were male.
“The station is aware of the disparity in contributors,” it said, “and has made efforts to encourage more women to take part in phone-ins.”
About 28% of 5 Live’s 5.8 million weekly listeners are women, a rise of 2% in the past three years.
BBC insiders admitted they often struggle to attract interest from women as the station has a reputation for being skewed towards men.
A source said: “We typically get around 100 calls to each phone-in show, and there are more men than women. When we get a woman caller, we try to put them on air early in the programme to encourage others to ring in.
“We also try to make sure the subjects we cover don’t put women off.”
Although it is still dominated by traditionally male sports such as football, rugby and cricket, 5 Live broadcast live coverage of this year’s women’s football World Cup, and took part in BBC Women’s Sport Week in June.
The BBC Trust said the departure of Shelagh Fogarty and Victoria Derbyshire last year had contributed to the “impression that women are less well represented on the station”.
As they left, the station hired Adrian Chiles and Football Focus’s Dan Walker, leading to allegations it had abandoned its pledge to represent women better.
In fact, the number of female presenters has increased slightly from eight in 2012 to 11 this year.
They are still heavily outnumbered by the station’s 24 male presenters.
The BBC Trust also warned that 5 Live has seen its reach among black, Asian and minority ethnic listeners fall in recent years, “making the station more skewed towards white listeners”.
It said: “For Radio 5 Live, we think the focus should be to continue to find ways to appeal to women and BAME listeners, particularly within news programmes, and improve participation from women in phone-ins and as expert contributors.”
It ordered 5 Live to report on improvements in the diversity of audience debates in six months.
A BBC spokesperson said: “By covering an even wider range of topics and by embracing social media we have increased our appeal to women and ethnic minority listeners.
“We are pleased that the trust acknowledge our efforts to increase diversity within our phone-ins, and we’ll look to continuing our efforts in this area.”
