BBC Radio

“Local Radio has now emerged from its vacuum – and is now serving the whole community”

31 December 2023

DJ STEVE COSSER looks at BBC Radio Teesside

Calling 4,000,000 Women A Day

12 June 2023

At two o’clock, five days a week, the BBC takes Britain’s housewives out of their kitchens

Plans for the coronation broadcast

6 May 2023

How the BBC will cover the coronation of George VI

Coronation broadcast

6 May 2023

The text of George VI’s message to the Empire

The Archers Go On The Air

6 March 2023

The BBC Light Programme’s daily soap opera

Radio Newsreel

12 December 2022

A look behind the scenes of the Light Programme’s major news bulletin

An unrivalled reputation for speaking the truth

14 November 2022

A run-through of the history of the BBC World Service

BBC local radio maps

24 October 2022

BBC local radio coverage maps

BBC Radio Nottingham

26 September 2022

Your guide to BBC Radio Nottingham in 1970

Westminster Hall, 12 February 1952

8 September 2022

Richard Dimbleby’s commentary on the Lying-in-State of King George VI in 1952

“Here is the News”

7 September 2022

The wireless is increasingly being used for news broadcasts in the UK, but elsewhere the story is different

BBC transmitters in 1965/6

15 August 2022

BBC Technical Information maps of VHF and MW transmitters

Recording the records

5 July 2022

A history of BBC Local Radio music logging

How the world was circled by a band of steel

16 June 2022

The 50th anniversary of the BBC Empire Service is marked by a look at how it was established

BBC Transcription Service

10 June 2022

Behind the scenes of a vital but barely known part of the External Services

This ‘fading out’!

2 June 2022

What do we do when a programme over-runs? Fade it out, or run everything else late?

Who invents the jokes for ‘BAND WAGGON’?

19 May 2022

The BBC’s most popular comedy show, around the world as well as at home, requires a team of writers

Wireless joke scares many listeners

13 May 2022

Panic on the streets of London… or not

Meet the Empire Announcers

21 April 2022

With the outbreak of war, the BBC Empire Service announcers move from anonymity to the impersonation-avoiding limelight

‘2 ZY Manchester Calling’!

24 January 2022

A dryly humorous recollection of starting the BBC’s Manchester radio station in the 1920s

Radio on the move

22 November 2021

It’s all change for BBC radio as the national networks move frequencies as part of a Europe-wide reorganisation

BBC Local Radio

8 November 2021

The BBC’s local radio services in 1980

BBC apology for Honved fade-out

14 December 2020

There’s a thrilling end to a football match, so here’s the Show Band Show instead

B.B.C. sheds battledress

11 November 2020

Everything changes as the BBC switches from wartime to peacetime service on the radio

Tonight’s BBC radio… in 1964

31 July 2019

A look at what was on BBC radio on Friday 31 July 1964

Your own radio station

15 November 2018

BBC Local Radio is coming: what’s in it for you?

The rise of ‘Take It From Here’

24 September 2018

The 1950 BBC Handbook celebrates the big hit for the Light Programme in 1949: Take It From Here by Denis Norden and Frank Muir

Albania on the blink

12 July 2018

The Guardian mourns the closure of the BBC Albanian Service in 1967

How Britannia Rules Her Wavelengths

9 July 2018

Norman Collins is disappointed with the government’s White Paper on Broadcasting Policy in 1967

The girls in the VHF set

24 May 2018

The ‘girls’ who keep the BBC’s four northern local radio stations on air in 1968

BBC sets up ‘Radio Langham’

17 May 2018

The Observer notes that training has begun for staff of the new BBC local radio stations in 1967

Manchester stalls

8 May 2018

The Guardian in 1967 on why Manchester won’t be getting a BBC local radio station

How “In Town To-night” is Put on the Air

7 May 2018

Inside the hit BBC National Programme series ‘In Town To-night’, from 1935

Czechoslovakia – a distraction?

9 April 2018

Did the BBC’s External Services help, hinder or just inform the revolution in Prague in 1968?

BBC Radio Merseyside

22 November 2017

Celebrate 50 years of BBC Radio Merseyside with a trip back to their launch

Radio 1 is Won-der-ful

29 September 2017

Remembering Radio 1’s first morning

Years of Light

26 September 2017

The BBC reviews the first two years of the Light Programme

The BBC Time Signals

18 September 2017

An introduction to how time works and why the Greenwich pips are important from 1931

The beginning of a new service

4 September 2017

Pay a visit to the newly opened Brookmans Park transmitter in 1931 as the BBC’s “Regional Scheme” begins

Propaganda

5 June 2017

Why didn’t the government take over the running of the BBC in 1940?

A note on ‘Music While You Work’

13 April 2017

The 1945 BBC Yearbook looks back at a quiet success of the war: Music While You Work

The new look in radio

13 March 2017

Frank Gillard in 1964 on the launch of the BBC Music Programme and the realignment of the BBC’s three radio networks

Cartoon time

5 January 2017

Some gentle broadcasting humour from the 1930 BBC Yearbook

Announcing from the inside

12 December 2016

BBC announcer John Snagge tries to define what makes a BBC announcer

The Voice of Liberty

28 November 2016

What the BBC meant to the people of occupied France

A member of the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
Liverpool, Monday 18 March 2024