Radio Times

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Radio Times

Radio Times is the BBC's weekly television

Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
and radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
programme listings magazine

Magazine

for quarterly in Heraldry see Quartering Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of Article , generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscription, or all three....
. It also provides on-line listings.

as founded on 28 September 1923, and originally carried details of BBC radio programmes in response to a newspaper boycott

Boycott

A boycott is a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest, usually of politics reasons....
of radio listings. It was at one time the magazine with the largest circulation in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
. Until deregulation of television listings in 1991, the Radio Times carried only listings for BBC channels, while the ITV

ITV

ITV is a public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television network of British television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC....
-published magazine, the TVTimes, carried only ITV and (from 1982) Channel Four

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
listings.

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Encyclopedia

Radio Times is the BBC's weekly television

Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
and radio

Radio

Magazine

History and publication

It was founded on 28 September 1923, and originally carried details of BBC radio programmes in response to a newspaper boycott

Boycott

Europe

ITV

Channel 4

Analog television

Analog television encodes television picture and sound information and transmits it as an analog signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast Signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal....
and digital

Digital terrestrial television

Digital Terrestrial Television is an implementation of digital technology to provide a greater number of channels and/or better quality of picture and sound using aerial broadcasts to a conventional Antenna instead of a satellite dish or cable connection....
), cable and satellite television channels in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. A number of similar magazines, from independent publishers, also exist. However, the Radio Times still lives up to its name by being the most comprehensive source of UK radio listings in print, and also since the 22 May 2007 edition has carried two extra pages of TV listings per day as part of a slight tweak in the publication's format, bringing it up to 10 pages of listings for TV a day in total.

Radio Times is published on Tuesdays (its publication day having gradually over many years moved forward from Fridays) and carries listings for the following Saturday through to Friday (this began in 1960, before which issues ran Sunday to Saturday; the changeover meant that Saturday 8 October 1960 was listed twice). The week including Christmas

Christmas

Christmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts Twelve Days of Christmas....
and the next week are published as one double-sized issue (a tradition since 1969), in common with most other listing magazines. This usually features a generic festive artwork, atypical for the magazine which since the 1970s has almost exclusively used photographic covers.

There are several regional editions, which each contain different listings for regional programming. All editions carry variations

Regional variations (television)

A regional variation generally refers to times when a television or radio station simultaneously broadcasts different Television program, continuity or adverts to different parts of its coverage area....
for adjoining regions and local radio listings. There are now fewer regional editions than there once were because fewer variations in the schedules have led to merging of several editions. The most recent of these is when the Midlands and London/Anglia versions merged into one in August 2007. The exception to this process of merging is Wales

Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
, which used to be part of a larger Wales/West (of England) version, mirroring the HTV

HTV

HTV, now legally known as ITV Wales and West, is the ITV contractor for Wales and the West of England, owned and operated by ITV plc from studios in Cardiff and Bristol....
region.

Nowadays each day's television is on 3 pages: one page for daytime television, and a double-spread for the evening television. In former times a day's television was sometimes spread over up to 3 double-spreads mixed and crowded inconveniently with irrelevant advertisements, until the competition caused by the deregulation forced better formatting.

Edition	BBC regions	ITV ITV ITV is a public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television network of British television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC.... regions	Other channels
London London London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire.... /Anglia East Anglia East Anglia is a region of eastern England. It was named after one of the ancient Heptarchy, the Kingdom of the East Angles, which was in turn named after the homeland of the Angles, Angeln, in northern Germany.... /Midlands English Midlands The Midlands is an area of England which broadly corresponds to the early-mediaeval Mercia. The area lies between Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales, and its largest city is Birmingham....	BBC London BBC London BBC London is the BBC English Regions producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London and parts of the surrounding area.... , BBC East BBC East BBC East is the BBC English Regions serving Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and southern Lincolnshire.... , BBC Midlands, BBC East Midlands BBC East Midlands BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Regions covering Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire....	ITV London ITV London ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the two Channel 3 broadcast franchises, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television in the London ITV region.... , ITV Anglia Anglia Television Anglia Television is the ITV station for parts of Eastern England. It takes its name from East Anglia, but its territory extends beyond the generally accepted boundaries of that region.... , ITV Central Central Independent Television Central Independent Television, more commonly known as just Central and now ITV Central, is the United Kingdom ITV contractor for English Midlands, created following the restructuring of Associated TeleVision and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982....
South/West West of England The West of England is a loose term given to the area surrounding the City and County of Bristol, England.It is increasingly used - e.g. by the West of England Partnership - as a synonym for the former Avon area.... /South West South West England South West England is one of the regions of England. It is the largest such region in terms of area, and extends from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly....	BBC South BBC South BBC South is the BBC English Regions serving West Sussex, Hampshire, eastern Dorset, western Berkshire, Oxfordshire, south east Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight.... , BBC South East BBC South East BBC South East is the BBC English Regions serving Kent and East Sussex.The BBC region was created in September 2001 by the joining of the Heathfield transmitter , with the Bluebell Hill and Dover transmitters from the former BBC London and South East region.... , BBC West BBC West BBC West is the BBC English Regions serving Bristol, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.... , BBC South West BBC South West BBC South West is the BBC English Regions serving Devon, Cornwall and the Channel Islands....	ITV Meridian Meridian Broadcasting Meridian Broadcasting is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South East England. The station owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited.... , ITV West HTV HTV, now legally known as ITV Wales and West, is the ITV contractor for Wales and the West of England, owned and operated by ITV plc from studios in Cardiff and Bristol.... , ITV Westcountry Westcountry Television Westcountry Television, is the ITV franchise holder in the South West of England, replacing its predecessor, Television South West, from the 1 January 1993.... , ITV Channel Television Channel Television Channel Television is a United Kingdom television station which has served as an ITV contractor to the Channel Islands since 1962. It has a main studio centre in Jersey, a smaller studio complex in Guernsey and offices in London on the South Bank, near to The London Studios....
Yorkshire Yorkshire Yorkshire is a Historic counties of England of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Because of its great size, over time functions were increasingly undertaken by its subdivisions, which have been subject to History of local government in Yorkshire.... /North East North East England North-East England is one of the nine official regions of England and comprises the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, part of North Yorkshire and Tees Valley.... /North West North West England North West England is one of the nine official regions of England. It has a population of 6,853,200 and comprises five counties of England ? Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and Cheshire....	BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire is one of the BBC English Regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Kingston upon Hull.... , BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is the name for the BBC's twelfth BBC English Regions, based in Hull and created from the division of the former BBC North region, based in Leeds .... , BBC North East and Cumbria BBC North East and Cumbria BBC North East and Cumbria is the BBC English Regions covering Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, North Yorkshire, Teesside and all but the southern part of Cumbria.... , BBC North West BBC North West BBC North West is the BBC English Regions serving Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Todmorden, the Ribble Valley in North Yorkshire, the Isle of Man , north-west Derbyshire and southern Cumbria....	ITV Yorkshire Yorkshire Television Yorkshire Television is the ITV contractor for the Yorkshire franchise. Up until 1974 this was primarily the three Riding of Yorkshire and associated areas served by the Emley Moor transmitting station television transmitter.... , ITV Tyne Tees Tyne Tees Television Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and North Yorkshire. The structure of the company has altered across its history, notably in various mergers with Yorkshire Television, and then the larger regional companies that would eventually control the entire ITV network.... , ITV Granada Granada Television Granada Television is the United Kingdom ITV contractor for North West England. It previously held the "North of England" weekday franchise, which also covered most of Yorkshire, from 1954 until 1968 when its broadcast area was divided into two franchises....
Scotland Scotland conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba\|common_name= Scotland\|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg\|flag_width = 130px... /Border Border country The border country is the area either side of the Anglo-Scottish border including parts of the modern council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders, and parts of the Counties of England of Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland....	BBC Scotland BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the BBC, the Public broadcasting of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who are advised in Scotland, by the Audience Council Scotland.... , BBC North East and Cumbria BBC North East and Cumbria BBC North East and Cumbria is the BBC English Regions covering Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, North Yorkshire, Teesside and all but the southern part of Cumbria....	STV STV STV is the brand used by both ITV licensees in Northern and Central Scotland, formerly known as Grampian Television and Scottish Television respectively.... (North Grampian Television Grampian Television is the ITV franchisee for the North and North East of Scotland. Its coverage area includes the Scottish Highlands , Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee and parts of north Fife.... and Central Scottish Television Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. The studios were located in Glasgow's Theatre Royal on Hope Street for two decades, and later in custom built premises on an adjacent site on Renfield Street in Cowcaddens, Glasgow, but moving to new studios in Pacific Qua... ), ITV Border Border Television Border Television is the ITV franchise holder for the Border region, spanning the England/Scotland border and covering Dumfries & Galloway region, a small part of the south-west area of Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders, parts of north and west Northumberland, the majority of Cumbria, and the Isle of Man....
Wales Wales native_name = Cymru\|conventional_long_name = Wales\|common_name = Wales\|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg\|national_motto = ...	BBC Wales BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages....	ITV Wales HTV HTV, now legally known as ITV Wales and West, is the ITV contractor for Wales and the West of England, owned and operated by ITV plc from studios in Cardiff and Bristol....	S4C S4C S4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Wales television channel. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh language audience, it is the fourth oldest United Kingdom terrestrial television channel ....
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland conventional_long_name = Northern Ireland\|native_name= Tuaisceart ?ireannNorlin Airlann\|motto =\|image_map = Europe location N-IRL2.png...	BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland is the main public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland.The organisation is one of the three national regions of the BBC, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales....	UTV UTV UTV is a television channel based in Northern Ireland. The channel is the Channel 3 licensee for the Northern Ireland region and it is operated by UTV plc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UTV Media....	RTÉ Radio Telefís Éireann Radio Telef?s ?ireann is the Public broadcasting of Republic of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts on television, radio and the Internet.... , TV3 TV3 Ireland TV3 Ireland is a television channel in Republic of Ireland, and was the country's first commercial broadcaster. TV3, along with other properties are a part of the TV3 Group - which also owns TV3's sister channel 3e....

The Radio Times was once edited

Editing

Editing is the process of preparing language, s, sound, video, or film through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media....
by the British

United Kingdom

Lyricist

A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist....
and entertainer Eric Maschwitz

Eric Maschwitz

Albert Eric Maschwitz Order of the British Empire , known as Eric Maschwitz and sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an England entertainer, writer, broadcaster and broadcasting executive....
, and is currently edited by Gill Hudson.

Between 1929 and 1991 it had a highbrow sister publication, The Listener
The Listener

and Listener and The Listener The Listener was a weekly magazine established by the BBC under John Reith, 1st Baron Reith in January 1929....
.

For the first half of 2008, ABC assessed its total average net circulation at 1,009,028 copies per week. Although exact figures are not available from the publisher (BBC Worldwide

BBC Worldwide

Ariel (newspaper)

Ariel is the in-house magazine/newspaper of the British Broadcasting Corporation, published weekly on Tuesdays, and named after the statue of Shakespeare's Prospero and Ariel by Eric Gill on the facade of the BBC's Broadcasting House, London....
, the BBC in-house newspaper).

In the years after deregulation of television listings in 1991, there was outcry from other listings magazines that Radio Times was advertised on the BBC (as well as on commercial channels), saying it gave unfair advantage to the publication. The case went to court, but the outcome was that as the Radio Times had close connections with the BBC it would be allowed to be advertised by the corporation; however, it must be a static picture of the cover, and that the clear disclaimer "Other television listings magazines are available" be given (leading to the phrase entering common public usage for a time). By the early 2000s, advertisements for the publication had become sparse on the BBC, and since 2005 BBC magazines, including the Radio Times, are no longer advertised or promoted on BBC television and radio channels following a commercial review by the BBC.

Covers

Since the magazine is a BBC publication, covers have a BBC bias (in 2005, 31 of the 51 issues had BBC-related covers). Doctor Who
Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British Science fiction on television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien Time travel known as "Doctor " who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box....
is the most represented programme on the cover, appearing on 29 issues (with 35 separate covers due to multiples) in the 45 years since the programme began

An Unearthly Child

An Unearthly Child is a list of Doctor Who serials in the United Kingdom science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 23 November to 14 December 1963....
.

Most covers consist of a single side of glossy paper. However, the magazine often uses double or triple-width covers that open out for large group photographs, while events such as Crufts

Crufts

Crufts is an annual international Championship conformation show for dogs organised and hosted by the Kennel Club , currently held every March at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England....
or new series of popular programmes are marked by producing several different covers for collectors. Sporting events with more than one of the Home Nations

Home Nations

Home Nations is a collective term often used in sports to refer to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which together form the United Kingdom....
taking part are often marked with different covers for each nation, showing their own team. The second series of Life on Mars
Life on Mars (TV series)

Life on Mars is a British Academy Television Award and Emmy-winning British science fiction and police drama British television series. It was first broadcast on BBC One between January 2006 and April 2007....
, meanwhile, was marked by the Radio Times producing a mock-up of a 1973-style cover promoting the series, placed on page 3 of the magazine.

In April 2005, a double-width cover was used to commemorate the return of the Dalek

Dalek

The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial life in culture race of mutants from the United Kingdom science fiction on television series Doctor Who....
s to Doctor Who and the forthcoming general election

United Kingdom general election, 2005

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, with a reduced Majority government of 66....
. This cover recreated a scene from the 1964 Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a list of Doctor Who serials in the United Kingdom science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from November 21 to December 26, 1964....
in which the Daleks were seen crossing Westminster Bridge

Westminster Bridge

Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames between Westminster, Middlesex bank, and Lambeth, Surrey bank in what is now Greater London, England....
, with the Houses of Parliament

Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, in London, is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom meet....
in the background. The cover text read "VOTE DALEK!" In a 2008 contest sponsored by the Periodical Publishers Association

Periodical Publishers Association

The Periodical Publishers Association is a publishing Industry trade group which promotes the interests of companies involved in the production of consumer, customer and business media in the United Kingdom....
, this cover was voted the best British magazine cover of all time.

Price

When it first launched, a regular copy of the Radio Times cost 2d (2 old pence) and the Christmas issue cost 6d. The outbreak of war in 1939 saw the price of the Christmas issue being reduced to 2d (the same as regular issues). The very first Christmas issue in 1923 cost 6d. This parity in price throughout the year remained until the merging of last 2 issues of the year form the double issue in 1969. This new double issue meant that the price was double that of the regular issues (1s 6d). In January 2009, the current price once again rose to £1.10.

Radio Times Guide to Films

Since 2000, BBC Worldwide

BBC Worldwide

BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commerce subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995....
has published the Radio Times Guide to Films, featuring more than 21,000 films in a 1,707-page book. The 2006 edition was edited by Kilmeny Fane-Saunders and featured an introduction by Barry Norman

Barry Norman

Barry Leslie Norman, Order of the British Empire is an England film critic and television presenter. He has also written several novels....
, former presenter of the BBC's Film Programme
The Film programme

Film 2009 is a weekly film review show on BBC television, currently presented by Jonathan Ross. The first series was broadcast in 1972 in television under the title Film '72, and the title has been updated annually to match the year of broadcast....
.

The Radio Times Guide to Films 2007 is introduced by Andrew Collins

Andrew Collins (broadcaster)

Andrew Collins is an England journalism, scriptwriter, and broadcaster....
.

There are also similar publications, the Radio Times Guide to Comedy and the Radio Times Guide to Science-Fiction.

Website

The Radio Times website uses hCalendar microformats

HCalendar

hCalendar is a Microformats standard for displaying a semantic HTML representation of iCalendar-format calendar information about an event, on World Wide Web....
, so that individual listing entries can be downloaded directly into calendar applications.

Bibliography

Tony Currie (2001) The "Radio Times" Story, Kelly Publications, ISBN 1-903053-09-9

External links

Has over 400 TV and radio channels listed that can be personalised. The site also contains a free film database of over 22,000 film reviews, programme guides, downloads, blogs and competitions.