BBC Light Programme

BBC Broadcasting House in London.

The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the longwave frequency which had earlier been used – prior to the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 – by the BBC National Programme.

The service was intended as a domestic replacement for the wartime BBC Forces Programme (later, the General Forces Programme) which had proved popular with civilian audiences in Britain as well as members of the armed forces.

The longwave signal on 1500 metres was transmitted from Droitwich in the Midlands (as it still is; now for Radio 4) and gave fairly good coverage of most of the United Kingdom, although some medium-wave frequencies were added later, using low-power transmitters to fill in local blank spots. Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, the Light Programme (along with the BBC's two other national programmes, the Home Service and the Third Programme) gradually became available on what was known at the time as VHF, as the BBC developed a network of local FM transmitters.

The Light Programme closed at 02:02 on 30 September 1967. At 05:30 on the same day it was replaced by Radio 1 on its mediumwave frequencies, and by Radio 2 (the renamed Light Programme) on its longwave frequency. The FM frequencies were mainly used by Radio 2 but sometimes leased to Radio 1 until that station acquired its own FM frequencies in the late 1980s.

The long-running soap opera The Archers was first heard nationally on the Light Programme, on 1 January 1951, although it had previously been broadcast in the Midlands Home Service in 1950.

Announcers

• Roy Williams
• Franklin Engelmann
• Robert Dougall
• Peter Fettes
• Dennis Drower
• John Webster
• Jean Metcalfe
• Michael Brooke
• Marjorie Anderson
• David Dunhill
• Phillip Slessor
• Colin Hamilton
• John Dunn
• Roger Moffat
• Bruce Wyndham
• Paul Hollingdale
• Bill Crozier
• Douglas Smith
• Barry Alldis
• Sam Costa
• Pete Murray
• Don Durbridge

Notable programmes

• The Adventures of PC 49
• The Al Read Show
• The Archers
• Beyond Our Ken
• Billy Cotton Bandshow
• Breakfast Special
• Children's Favourites
• The Clitheroe Kid
• Dick Barton
• Does The Team Think?
• Educating Archie
• Family Favourites
• Friday Night is Music Night
• The Goon Show (repeats from BBC Home Service)
• Hancock's Half Hour
• Have a Go
• Housewives' Choice
• Ignorance is Bliss
• ITMA
• Journey Into Space
• Junior Choice
• Life With The Lyons
• Listen with Mother
• The Man in Black
• Meet the Huggetts
• Merry-Go-Round
• Mrs Dale's Diary
• Much Binding in the Marsh
• Music on the Move
• Music While You Work
• The Navy Lark
• Orbiter X
• Pick of the Pops
• Ray's a Laugh
• Riders of the Range
• Round the Horne
• Roundabout
• Shadow of Sumuru
• Sing Something Simple
• The Showband Show
• Sports Report
• Take It From Here
• Variety Bandbox
• Waggoner's Walk
• Waterlogged Spa
• Welsh Rarebit
• Woman's Hour
• Workers' Playtime

External links

• Radio Rewind – The 1500m Light Programme