BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company, Ltd.

Stations

National

The BBC today runs ten national domestic radio stations, five of which are only available in a digital format: via DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting – i.e. Digital Radio), the Internet or the different forms of Digital Television in the UK.

The five "main" stations, available via both analogue and digital, are

BBC Radio 1 - youth oriented, mostly contemporary pop music (including Top 40)
BBC Radio 2 - adult oriented entertainment, wide range of music - especially adult contemporary and middle of the road, also talk, comedy, plus specialist programming
BBC Radio 3 - arts and high culture, special-interest music (classical, jazz, world music)
BBC Radio 4 - current affairs, drama, comedy
BBC Radio Five Live - news, sports, talk
BBC Asian Network - aimed at the large South Asian community in the UK (Available Locally on various AM Frequencies)

The new digital-only stations are

BBC 6 Music - rock, funk, punk and reggae
BBC 7 - comedy, drama, books, science fiction, fantasy and children's programmes
BBC 1Xtra - urban and black music
BBC Five Live Sports Extra - a companion to 5 Live for additional events coverage

Regional

The BBC also runs regional radio stations throughout the UK, for example BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Devon. These stations focus on regional issues to a greater extent than their national counterparts, organising live phone-in debates about these issues, as well as lighter talk shows with music from different decades of the 20th Century. Compared to many advertising-funded Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations, which often broadcast contemporary popular music, BBC Local Radio stations offer a more "serious" alternative.

Broadcast

BBC Radio services are broadcast on various FM and AM frequencies, and also now on digital radio.

They are also available on Digital Television sets in the UK, and for 7 days after broadcast on the bbc.co.uk website; a number of trials are also underway of MP3 downloads and podcasting for selected shows - see bbc.co.uk#Streaming media.

Programming

Among the most famous BBC Radio programmes is the serial The Archers, its comedy series The Goon Show and many original radio dramas.

History of BBC Radio

The BBC radio services began in 1922 with the British Broadcasting Company, Ltd., which was licensed under pressure to provide a radio service for the British public. It was licensed by the British Government through its General Post Office which had original control of the airwaves because they had been interpreted under law as an extension of the Post Office services. Today radio broadcasting still makes up a large part of the corporation's output and this is still reflected in the title of the BBC's listings magazine called Radio Times.

First charter

In 1927 the British Broadcasting Company became the British Broadcasting Corporation and gained control of the airwaves under the terms of a Royal Charter. John Reith, who had been the founding Managing Director of the commercial company, became the first director. He expounded firm principles of centralised, all-encompassing radio broadcasting, stressing programming standards and moral tone. These are set out in his autobiography, Broadcast Over Britain (1924). Reith's ideas were highly influential on modern ideas of public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. To this day, the BBC claims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform, educate and entertain". Critics of his approach claim that he was dictatorial and that he imposed a theocratic viewpoint on the broadcasting service. Reith's ideals were utterly at odds with the model of light entertainment based commercial radio adopted in some other countries (e.g. the USA).

Competition from overseas stations

Although no other broadcasting organisation was licensed in the UK until 1973, commercial competition soon opened up from overseas. The commercial competitors were for the most part represented by the International Broadcasting Company that bought blocks of airtime on transmitters based in Europe outside of the British Isles. In the period from 1927 to 1939, light entertainment on the British airwaves was for the most part the domain of the 10 part-time English language IBC stations. By 1938 on Sundays upwards of 80% of the British audience turned their dials away from the BBC to these IBC stations which followed an American format of commercial broadcasting. They were eventually silenced by the advent of the German military taking control of their transmitters in France, Luxembourg and other countries during World War II.

American Armed Forces influence

The respite from American influence on British broadcasting was short lived. When the US military flooded Europe with troops during World War II, American-style programming followed and the BBC was forced to transmit these shows, first on the BBC Forces Programme and later on the BBC General Forces Programme, both on the former frequencies of the BBC National Programme. After the war the BBC Forces transmitters that had carried these shows were transformed into a network called the BBC Light Programme.

The original BBC stations which had been linked together to form the BBC Regional Programme were transfomed into the BBC Home Service. A third part-time service was created under the name of the BBC Third Programme. For the history of these stations see Timeline of the BBC.

Another operation had originally been called the BBC Empire Service and later the BBC General Overseas Service, but it served a different purpose from the domestic stations. It later became known as the BBC World Service and it was formed at the behest of the British Foreign Office.

Commercial radio influence

WWII silenced all but one of the original IBC stations and Radio Luxembourg continued its nightly tranmsissions to Britain as a commercial radio station featuring American-style entertainment and religion. Beginning in 1964 the first in what became a fleet of 10 offshore pirate radio stations began to ring the British coastline. By 1967 millions were tuning into these commercial operations and the BBC was rapidly losing its radio listening audience.

The British Government reacted by imposing a draconian censorship law which all but wiped out all of the stations by midnight on August 14, 1967. One of the stations called Wonderful Radio London ("Big L") was so successful that the BBC was told to copy it as best they could. The creator of BBC Radio One told the press that his family had been fans of that station. The BBC hired many out-of-work broadcasting staff who had come from the former offshore stations, including Tony Blackburn who presented the very first BBC Radio One morning show. He had previously presented the same morning show on Radio Caroline and Tony Blackburn attempted to duplicate the same sound for BBC Radio One. Among the other djs hired was the late John Peel who had presented the overnight show on "Big L". That station's PAMS jingles were commissioned to be resung in Dallas, Texas so that "Wonderful Radio London" became "Wonderful Radio One on BBC".

New BBC networks

BBC Radio 1 was launched as a part-time pop music station September 30, 1967. The BBC Light Programme was renamed Radio 2 and broadcast easy listening, folk, jazz and light entertainment. The BBC Third Programme was renamed Radio 3 and the BBC Home Service became Radio 4.

BBC Radio 5 was launched on 27 August 1990 as a home for sport and children's programming, and was it later renamed BBC Radio Five Live when it became a dedicated news and sport network.

External links

BBC Radio online streams (All services including DAB)
BBC National and Local Radio history, jingles and DJ's

BBC radio

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