BBC Light Programme
|
|
The Light Programme was a BBC radio station broadcasting mainstream light entertainment and music. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the longwave frequency -- which until 1939 had been used by the BBC National Programme -- of the wartime General Forces Programme, and 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 been broadcast in the Midland regional service of the BBC Home Service in 1950.
Some of its announcers
- Roy Williams
- Franklin Engelmann
- Robert Dougall
- Peter Fettes
- Dennis Drower
- John Webster
- Jean Metcalfe
- Michael Brooke
- Marjorie Anderson
- Dave Dunhill
- Phillip Slessor
Some of its most remembered programmes
- The Al Read Show
- The Archers
- Beyond Our Ken
- Billy Cotton Bandshow
- 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
- Housewive?s Choice
- Ignorance is Bliss
- ITMA
- Journey Into Space
- 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 While You Work
- The Navy Lark
- Orbiter X
- PC 49
- Ray's a Laugh
- Riders of the Range
- Take It From Here
- Variety Bandbox
- Waterlogged Spa
- Woman's Hour
- Worker's Playtime