Television and radio listings magazines are now commonplace. They fall out of every national newspaper once a week. They drop on to the floor as you open your regional paper. They come unsolicited in the post. They are accessible internationally via the internet. They even come up on screen with digital broadcasting.

When the BBC launched its radio services (2LO in London, followed a day later by 5IT in Birmingham and 2ZY in Manchester) in 1922, few enough people had a wireless that schedules were unimportant.

Additionally, programmes were fairly ad hoc, being live and relying on guest speakers and acts (no news was permitted and little variety was to be heard).  At first, frequency information was all the BBC needed to disseminate.

As the listening population grew, and stations in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (5NE), Cardiff (5WA), and Glasgow (5SC) were opened, the BBC became increasingly professional in content and outlook.  This scared the newspapers, who dropped what listings they carried lest the BBC should drive them out of business.

On 28 September 1923, ten months after broadcasting from 2LO had begun, the BBC launched 'Radio Times'.  With listings of all BBC programmes, features, news articles and technical information, the Radio Times soon became an essential magazine for all radio owners.

When ITV was created in 1954, both the ITA and the first of the new companies (Associated-Rediffusion and Associated TeleVision) felt that the new service should also have a programme guide.  After some initial finger pointing between regulator and regulated, the TV Times was born for the London service that began in September 1955.

When ITV moved into the midlands, a private schedules magazine also followed.  The TV Times appeared in the North for the start of ABC and Granada's northern services, while the regional companies produced various programme guides of their own.

In 1968, the smaller guides and the midlands TV World were swept away.  The TV Times was relaunched as a national magazine with individual editions for each region.  This system lasted until deregulation mania set in under Mrs Thatcher and Mr Major's governments, and monopoly control of weekly listings was prohibited.

From that moment, hundreds of listings magazines have appeared - TV Quick, TV Choice, TV and Satellite Week with Cable and Digital, The Guardian Guide.

However, the magazines of the monopoly age stand out from the modern crowd. With only the one channel to promote, a day could be listed over 3, 4 or even 6 pages. With a remit to promote only that which appeared on their own channels, the magazines could be specific and detailed, with pieces on the background of programmes and even, at franchise changeovers, new companies.

From these magazines it is possible to get a true glimpse of television as it once was.