Salford alumna named BBC's Head of Salford

Heidi Dawson, the controller of BBC Radio 5 Live, who graduated from the University in 1997, is the BBC’s new internal figurehead at its base at MediaCity.

The journalist has worked through the ranks at the BBC, starting at Radio Solent on the Hampshire coast before working at Radio 4’s World at One and PM programmes. In 2013, she joined 5 Live’s management team and became managing editor before taking on the controller title in September 2019.

Heidi said: “As a graduate of the University of Salford, I am incredibly proud to now lead the BBC’s Salford site. Being a student in Salford taught me about people and about local pride as much as it taught me about television and radio.

“I hope to bring the authenticity and passion as I felt as a local student to the BBC community here, so that it continues to be a vibrant and creative hub of content production for both existing and new talent to develop.”

The BBC opened its base in Salford in 2011 and Heidi has been based there ever since.

She told the BBC: “I’ve worked at our Salford base since it opened and it’s still just as exciting to me.

“There’s a special North West energy, creativity and authenticity that drives the teams here and I am looking forward to seeing how we harness that further to work even better together.”