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The Light Programme was a BBC radio station
Radio station

This article is about radio broadcasting, for other uses see Radio .Radio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, traditionally broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device....
 which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the longwave
Longwave

The longwave radio band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low frequency part of the radio spectrum ....
 frequency used before 1939 by the BBC National Programme
BBC National Programme

The BBC National Programme was a BBC radio station from the 1920s until the outbreak of World War II....
.

The service was intended as the domestic replacement for the wartime
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 BBC Forces Programme
BBC Forces Programme

The BBC Forces Programme was a BBC radio station which operated from 7 January 1940 until 26 February 1944....
 (later, the General Forces Programme
BBC General Forces Programme

The BBC General Forces Programme was a BBC radio station from 27 February 1944 until 31 December 1946....
) which had proved popular with civilian audiences in Britain as well as members of the forces.

The longwave
Longwave

The longwave radio band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low frequency part of the radio spectrum ....
 signal was transmitted from Droitwich in the English Midlands (as it still is, though nowadays for Radio 4) and gave fairly good coverage of most of the UK, but some medium-wave frequencies were added later, using low-power transmitters to fill in local blank spots.






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Encyclopedia


The Light Programme was a BBC radio station
Radio station

This article is about radio broadcasting, for other uses see Radio .Radio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, traditionally broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device....
 which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the longwave
Longwave

The longwave radio band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low frequency part of the radio spectrum ....
 frequency used before 1939 by the BBC National Programme
BBC National Programme

The BBC National Programme was a BBC radio station from the 1920s until the outbreak of World War II....
.

The service was intended as the domestic replacement for the wartime
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 BBC Forces Programme
BBC Forces Programme

The BBC Forces Programme was a BBC radio station which operated from 7 January 1940 until 26 February 1944....
 (later, the General Forces Programme
BBC General Forces Programme

The BBC General Forces Programme was a BBC radio station from 27 February 1944 until 31 December 1946....
) which had proved popular with civilian audiences in Britain as well as members of the forces.

The longwave
Longwave

The longwave radio band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low frequency part of the radio spectrum ....
 signal was transmitted from Droitwich in the English Midlands (as it still is, though nowadays for Radio 4) and gave fairly good coverage of most of the UK, but some medium-wave frequencies were added later, using low-power transmitters to fill in local blank spots. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Light Programme (along with the BBC's two other national programmes, the Home Service
BBC Home Service

The BBC Home Service was a United Kingdom national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967....
 and the Third Programme
BBC Third Programme

The BBC Third Programme was a national radio network broadcast by the BBC. The network first went on air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts....
) gradually became available also on what was known at the time as VHF, as the BBC developed a network of local FM
Frequency modulation

In telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog signal applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal....
 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
BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a United Kingdom international radio station operated by the BBC, specialising in current popular music throughout the day, with a slight bias to Rock music & Independent music music....
 on its mediumwave
Mediumwave

Medium Wave is a part of the Medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting. Some experiments and trials are planned or under way for a digital modulation such as Digital Radio Mondiale ....
 frequencies, and by Radio 2
BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio radio station and the List of most-listened-to radio programs in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult contemporary music or Album-orientated rock, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres....
 (the renamed Light Programme) on its longwave
Longwave

The longwave radio band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low frequency part of the radio spectrum ....
 frequency. The FM
Frequency modulation

In telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog signal applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal....
 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
Soap opera

A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in Serial format on television or radio. Programs described as soap operas have existed as an entertainment long enough for audiences to recognize them simply by the term soap....
 The Archers
The Archers

The Archers is a British radio soap opera Broadcasting on the BBC's main spoken-word radio channel, BBC Radio 4. Originally billed as an "everyday story of country folk", it is the world's longest running radio soap with more than 15,000 episodes broadcast....
 was first heard nationally on the Light Programme, on 1 January 1951, although it had previously been broadcast in the Midlands Home Service
BBC Home Service

The BBC Home Service was a United Kingdom national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967....
 in 1950.

Announcers

  • Roy Williams
  • Franklin Engelmann
    Franklin Engelmann

    Franklin Engelmann was a radio personality popular in UK in the 1950s and 1960s, nicknamed "Jingle". He was best known for hosting Down Your Way , Gardeners' Question Time and the quiz show What Do You Know?, which later became Brain of Britain....
  • Robert Dougall
    Robert Dougall

    Robert Dougall MBE was a United Kingdom broadcaster and ornithology, mainly known as a newsreader and announcer....
  • Peter Fettes
  • Dennis Drower
  • John Webster
  • Jean Metcalfe
    Jean Metcalfe

    Jean Metcalfe was an England radio Presenter....
  • Michael Brooke
  • Marjorie Anderson
    Marjorie Anderson

    Marjorie Anderson was a leading BBC radio Presenter for over thirty years. From 1940 to 1945 she presented Forces Favourites on the World War II BBC Forces Programme and BBC General Forces Programmes and then its peacetime successor Family Favourites on the BBC Light Programme....
  • David Dunhill
  • Phillip Slessor
  • Colin Hamilton
  • John Dunn
  • Roger Moffat
  • Bruce Wyndham
  • Paul Hollingdale
    Paul Hollingdale

    Paul Hollingdale is a United Kingdom radio presenter who presented the first ever programme broadcast on BBC Radio 2, Breakfast Special. Hollingdale had presented a show on Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company in 1962, and can claim to be Britain's first ever pirate radio disc jockey....
  • Bill Crozier
  • Douglas Smith
  • Barry Alldis
    Barry Alldis

    Barry Alldis was a presenter on British radio, most notably on the English service of Radio Luxembourg , otherwise known as "208, Your Station of the Stars"....
  • Sam Costa
    Sam Costa

    Samuel Gabriel 'Sam' Costa was a singer and a voice actor on the show Much Binding In The Marsh. He was also a Radio Luxembourg and BBC disc jockey....
  • Pete Murray
    Pete Murray (disc jockey)

    Peter Murray Order of the British Empire, is a United Kingdom radio and television presenter and a stage and screen actor. His broadcasting career spanned over 50 years....


Notable programmes

  • The Al Read Show
  • The Archers
    The Archers

    The Archers is a British radio soap opera Broadcasting on the BBC's main spoken-word radio channel, BBC Radio 4. Originally billed as an "everyday story of country folk", it is the world's longest running radio soap with more than 15,000 episodes broadcast....
  • Beyond Our Ken
    Beyond Our Ken

    Beyond Our Ken was a radio programme, the predecessor to Round the Horne . Both programmes starred Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee, with announcer Douglas Smith....
  • Billy Cotton Bandshow
  • Breakfast Special
  • Children's Favourites
    Children's Favourites

    Children's Favourites was a BBC Radio programme from 1954 broadcast on the Light Programme on Saturday mornings from 9:00. A precursor had been called Children's Choice after the style of Housewives' Choice....
  • The Clitheroe Kid
    The Clitheroe Kid

    The Clitheroe Kid was a long-running BBC radio comedy show featuring diminutive Northern comedian Jimmy Clitheroe in the role of a cheeky schoolboy, who lived with his family at 33 Lilac Avenue in an un-named town in the north of England....
  • Dick Barton
    Dick Barton

    Dick Barton - Special Agent was a popular radio programme on the BBC Light Programme from 1946 to 1951.Dick Barton was the BBC?s first daily serial, airing at 6.45 each weekday evening....
  • Does The Team Think?
  • Educating Archie
    Educating Archie

    Educating Archie was a BBC Light Programme comedy show broadcast during the 1950s on Sunday lunchtimes featuring ventriloquist Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews....
  • Family Favourites
    Family Favourites

    Successor to the wartime show Forces Favourites, Family Favourites was broadcast at Sunday lunchtimes on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2 and the British Forces Broadcasting Service until 1980....
  • Friday Night is Music Night
    Friday Night is Music Night

    Friday Night is Music Night is a long running live BBC radio programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast most Fridays on BBC Radio 2 at 7.30pm....
  • The Goon Show
    The Goon Show

    The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme....
     (repeats from BBC Home Service
    BBC Home Service

    The BBC Home Service was a United Kingdom national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967....
    )
  • Hancock's Half Hour
    Hancock's Half Hour

    Hancock's Half Hour was a ground-breaking and influential BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series of the 1950s. It starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James; with the radio version also co-starring Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams....
  • Have a Go
  • Housewives' Choice
    Housewives' Choice

    Housewives' Choice was a BBC radio record request programme broadcast every morning from 1946 to 1967 on the BBC Light Programme. It played a wide range of music designed to appeal to housewife at home during the day....
  • Ignorance is Bliss
  • ITMA
    It's That Man Again

    It's That Man Again was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran from 1939 to 1949. The title was a contemporary phrase referring to ever more frequent news-stories about Adolf Hitler in the lead-up to World War II, and specifically a headline in the Daily Express written by Bert Gunn....
  • Journey Into Space
    Journey Into Space

    Journey Into Space was a BBC Radio science fiction programme, written by British Broadcasting Corporation producer Charles Chilton. In the United Kingdom it was the last radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television....
  • Junior Choice
  • Life With The Lyons
    Life With The Lyons

    Life With The Lyons was a United Kingdom radio and television domestic sitcom dating from the 1950s.This programme was unusual in that it featured a real-life American family....
  • Listen with Mother
    Listen with Mother

    Listen with Mother was a BBC radio programme for children produced by Freda Lingstrom. It was presented between 1950 and 1982 by Daphne Oxenford, Julia Lang, Eileen Browne, Dorothy Smith and others....
  • The Man in Black
  • Meet the Huggetts
  • Merry-Go-Round
    Merry-Go-Round (radio programme)

    Merry-Go-Round, also known as Mediterranean Merry-Go-Round and Middle East Merry-Go-Round, was a BBC comedy-variety radio show introduced as entertainment for British troops during World War II....
  • Mrs Dale's Diary
    Mrs Dale's Diary

    Mrs Dale's Diary was the first significant BBC radio serial drama. It was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 5 January 1948, and subsequently transferred to the newly-formed BBC Radio 2 in 1967, where it ran until 25 April 1969....
  • Much Binding in the Marsh
    Much Binding in the Marsh

    Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh was the title of a comical BBC radio and Radio Luxembourg #Programmes_2 show broadcast from 1944 to 1954, starring Kenneth Horne and Richard Murdoch as senior staff in a fictional RAF station battling red tape and wartime inconvenience....
  • Music on the Move
  • Music While You Work
    Music While You Work

    Music While You Work was a daytime music programme broadcast twice daily in the United Kingdom on the BBC General Forces Programme. It began broadcasting in June 1940 during World War II, with the intention of helping the war effort....
  • The Navy Lark
    The Navy Lark

    The Navy Lark was a radio sit-com about life aboard a United Kingdom Royal Navy frigate named HMS Troutbridge, based in HMNB Portsmouth , transmitted on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently BBC Radio 2....
  • Orbiter X
  • PC 49
  • Pick of the Pops
    Pick of the Pops

    Pick of the Pops was a BBC radio programme based on the Top 20 UK singles chart first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1955, transferring to BBC Radio 1 from 1967....
  • Ray's a Laugh
  • Riders of the Range
  • Round the Horne
    Round the Horne

    Round the Horne was one of the most influential BBC Radio comedy programmes, comparable to The Goon Show in its influence on other comedy programmes....
  • Roundabout
    Roundabout

    A roundabout is a type of road junction at which traffic enters a one-way stream around a central island. In the United States it is commonly known as a "rotary" or a "traffic circle", but sometimes is technically called a modern roundabout, in order to emphasize the distinction from the older, very much larger type of traffic circl...
  • Sing Something Simple
    Sing Something Simple

    Sing Something Simple was a programme which featured The Cliff Adams Singers, with Jack Emblow on accordion and was initially on the Light Programme, only later broadcast on BBC Radio 2...
  • Sports Report
    Sports Report

    Sports Report is one of the longest-running programmes on radio in the United Kingdom. It started in the first week of 1948, and has always been aired from 5.00 to 6.00 p.m....
  • Take It From Here
    Take It From Here

    Take It From Here was a Great Britain radio comedy programme Broadcasting by the BBC between 1948 and 1960. It was written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and starred Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and Joy Nichols....
  • Variety Bandbox
  • Waterlogged Spa
  • Woman's Hour
    Woman's Hour

    Woman's Hour is a magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's The Light Programme ....
  • Workers' Playtime


External links