This week on 5 live has seen the start of our new schedule changes. 

As I write this our late night news team are busy planning the first of our new Thursday night politics shows – 'Question Time Extra Time'.  This is a chance to partner with a great brand like Question Time and showcase how we do politics on 5 live.  Stephen Nolan and John Pienaar are the hosts and, within the programme, they will simulcast BBC 1’s Question Time and then will continue the debate after the show.   If you can, join the show tonight from 10pm and have your say.

In other changes we’ve also added a 'Late News Hour' between 10.30pm and 11.30pm Monday to Wednesday hosted by Phil Williams and, in typical 5 live-style, the running order was ripped up and put back together for the very first show as news came through of Roberto Mancini’s sacking from Man City. It was also great hearing Tony Livesey settle into his new role on weekend breakfast, with Eleanor Oldroyd on Saturday and then Sam Walker on Sunday. He already sounds at home.

We were very happy earlier this week to get recognised by our colleagues across the radio industry at the annual Sony Radio Academy Awards.  Danny Baker triumphed yet again with a gold award for the Best Entertainment Show. He also picked up a bronze in the Best Speech Broadcaster category. Peter Allen and Colin Murray won Best Sports Programme for their Olympics show, and we also won the Best Live Event award for our Olympics and Paralympics coverage.

The icing on the cake was UK Station of the Year award, reflecting what a truly memorable year 2012 was for us here at 5 live. We are very grateful to our listeners for the huge part they played in this; we were very proud to share 2012 with you.

Special mentions should also go to Victoria Derbyshire who won a silver award in the Best Speech Broadcaster category (which was won by our colleague from Radio 4 Eddie Mair), Not Just Cricket - presented by Greg James, Graeme Swann, and Jimmy Anderson - which won a silver award for Best Sports Programme in its inaugural year and Adventures of a Blue Badger, Nikki Fox’s documentary on disability in the UK which won a bronze award for Best News Feature.

Today we’ve also received our latest audience figures. It is a mixed story for us.  There's the good news - our total audience reach is very strong at 6.3 million for 5 live (up 160,000 on the quarter) and for 5 live sports extra at 860,000 (the 2^nd highest ever for this time of year) and there are challenges - we, as do lots of other parts of radio, need to find ways to keep our audiences listening for the same amount of time as they used to. The average amount of listening to our linear radio output has fallen by 10% over the last year.  There are some good stories coming through around the growth of those listening to our best clips via social media, and listening back to programmes via our podcasts, so we’ree focused on looking at all the different ways we can get our content to our audience.

Anyway, the huge presence that is John Pienaar has just walked in the building and he looks raring to go so I better go and wish him luck. 

Jonathan

It is a strange evening when you manage to speak to the man who is directing the next Star Wars film, but are stood-up by Barry McGuigan.

That is how day one of my Oscars trip ended. 

The morning was spent negotiating the joys of collecting my Oscar accreditation. This photo pass, where my head looks spookily like an Oscar, allows me access to the red carpet during the build-up. At the moment the area consists of men running around in caber-tossing stances carrying shrubbery, combined with more vacuuming than Queen’s “I Want to Break Free” video. However, there is still a real sense of excitement as every few minutes somewhere in the globe has a breakfast show needing an over-excited reporter revealing exactly what is in the nominees’ goodie bags (answer: it includes a trip to Australia, a $5000 face-life voucher, a $4 bottle of Windex and six condoms).

When you receive your accreditation it comes with a free poster for that year’s Oscars. However this time journalists were actually saying “No thanks” as the 2013 design has Seth MacFarlane to the fore. Journalists almost never pass on free stuff.

The main event today was taking place a half-hour car journey away in Santa Monica. Irish Film was being celebrated at The Oscar Wildes. Colin Farrell was the guest of honour at the event organised by the US-Ireland Alliance. He arrived on time, spoke to everyone and paid tribute to Daniel Day Lewis on Radio 5 live: “I really think if you were to break up the genders he and Meryl Streep are two people who do things and have created a reaction in me that no other actors do. They are streets ahead.”

On Sunday Daniel Day Lewis could become the first actor in history to win three Best Actor Oscars. I noticed the guest list included Barry McGuigan who trained Daniel Day Lewis back in 1997 on The Boxer and once said he thought Lewis could have gone pro. I hoped Barry would be able to give 5 live listeners a unique insight into Lewis’s method acting. Sadly he joined Cameron Crowe, Garry Lightbody and Molly Ringwald by appearing on the guest list, but not on the red (or rather green) carpet.

I did however manage to speak to JJ Abrams. The event was being held at his production company Bad Robot. This gave me the perfect opportunity to ask him about directing Star Wars VII. His reply?

“It’s a little bit like being in the middle of lunch and trying to think what’s for dinner. We’re just finishing up Star Trek, so the idea of Star Wars and the release date is of far less concern than making a movie that’s worth your time,” he said.

Barry McGuigan might have blown his chance to play one of the Ewoks.

Colin will be reporting on The Oscars on 5 live Breakfast on Saturday 23rd February and Sunday 24th February and on Monday will be live with the winners from The Vanity Fair Party.

On Sunday 24th February Colin hosts a one hour Oscars preview show on 5 live from 9pm.