Monocle 24 is a global radio station focusing on global affairs, business and geopolitics, as well as having specific shows themed around subjects such as urbanism, food, culture, design, publications and entrepreneurialism. Monocle 24 was launched in October 2011 and broadcasts in English, primarily from London. It is a brand extension of Monocle magazine, founded in 2007 by Canadian journalist and entrepreneur Tyler Brûlé, with a circulation of 73,000 per edition.^[1]

The first Monocle podcast appeared on 28th December 2008, 'The Monocle Weekly' ^[2] hosted by Editor-in-Chief Tyler Brûlé, Editor Andrew Tuck and Culture Editor Robert Bound, covering topics such as politics, business and culture and featuring key interviews with big names across everal disciplines, and eventually hit download figures as high as 250,000 per month.^[3]

Monocle 24 officially launched on October 17th 2011 with four live shows per weekday; The Globalist, The Briefing, Midori House andThe Monocle Daily, as well as several extras shows over the weekend. Surrounding those shows were music hours known as The Continental Shift and The Atlantic Shift, as well as hour-long themed shows Culture with Robert Bound, Section D, The Entrepreneurs, The Urbanist and The Menu.^[4] The station was branded by bespoke music idents, including a number featuring the voice of pop star Kylie Minogue.^[5]

The station is heavily influenced by the BBC World Service, as another global current affairs station with editorial programming on subjects all over the world. Tyler Brûlé said “From the point of view its ambitions for global reach and coverage of world affairs, Monocle 24 will probably resemble and sound like many commonwealth public service broadcasters, including BBC World Service, as well as shades of ABC and Canada’s CBC. We are hoping to create a station which follows the tradition of the great Commonwealth broadcasters. It’s no surprise that we have drawn a lot of great people from the BBC World Service.^[6]”

Changes to the schedule since its launch have included the introduction in August 2012 of The Stack, a live hour-long show on magazines and publications hosted by Tyler Brûlé on Saturday mornings, and also the splitting in April 2013 of The Globalist into The Globalist and The Globalist Asia, with the latter focusing more on listeners waking up in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Some of the most frequently heard voices on Monocle 24 are those of magazine staff, such as Tyler Brûlé, Andrew Tuck, Robert Bound, Steve Bloomfield, Hugo Macdonald and Sophie Grove. However there are also regular radio staff, such as News Editor Tom Edwards, and producers Markus Hippi and Phil Han, whose voices can be heard across many shows. There is also an lengthy list of freelance staff who appear often on the station, such as Georgina Godwin, Nancy Durham, Emma Nelson, Dominic Reynolds, Andrew Mueller, Clemency Burton-Hill and Ted Kravitz.