BBC Radio

The BBC Light Programme’s daily soap opera

A look behind the scenes of the Light Programme’s major news bulletin

A run-through of the history of the BBC World Service

BBC local radio coverage maps

Your guide to BBC Radio Nottingham in 1970

Richard Dimbleby’s commentary on the Lying-in-State of King George VI in 1952

The wireless is increasingly being used for news broadcasts in the UK, but elsewhere the story is different

BBC Technical Information maps of VHF and MW transmitters

A history of BBC Local Radio music logging

The 50th anniversary of the BBC Empire Service is marked by a look at how it was established

Behind the scenes of a vital but barely known part of the External Services

What do we do when a programme over-runs? Fade it out, or run everything else late?

The BBC’s most popular comedy show, around the world as well as at home, requires a team of writers

Panic on the streets of London… or not

With the outbreak of war, the BBC Empire Service announcers move from anonymity to the impersonation-avoiding limelight

A dryly humorous recollection of starting the BBC’s Manchester radio station in the 1920s

It’s all change for BBC radio as the national networks move frequencies as part of a Europe-wide reorganisation

The BBC’s local radio services in 1980

There’s a thrilling end to a football match, so here’s the Show Band Show instead

Everything changes as the BBC switches from wartime to peacetime service on the radio

A look at what was on BBC radio on Friday 31 July 1964

BBC Local Radio is coming: what’s in it for you?

The 1950 BBC Handbook celebrates the big hit for the Light Programme in 1949: Take It From Here by Denis Norden and Frank Muir

The Guardian mourns the closure of the BBC Albanian Service in 1967

Norman Collins is disappointed with the government’s White Paper on Broadcasting Policy in 1967

The ‘girls’ who keep the BBC’s four northern local radio stations on air in 1968

The Observer notes that training has begun for staff of the new BBC local radio stations in 1967

The Guardian in 1967 on why Manchester won’t be getting a BBC local radio station

Inside the hit BBC National Programme series ‘In Town To-night’, from 1935

Did the BBC’s External Services help, hinder or just inform the revolution in Prague in 1968?

Celebrate 50 years of BBC Radio Merseyside with a trip back to their launch

Remembering Radio 1’s first morning

The BBC reviews the first two years of the Light Programme

An introduction to how time works and why the Greenwich pips are important from 1931

Pay a visit to the newly opened Brookmans Park transmitter in 1931 as the BBC’s “Regional Scheme” begins

Why didn’t the government take over the running of the BBC in 1940?

The 1945 BBC Yearbook looks back at a quiet success of the war: Music While You Work

Frank Gillard in 1964 on the launch of the BBC Music Programme and the realignment of the BBC’s three radio networks

Some gentle broadcasting humour from the 1930 BBC Yearbook

BBC announcer John Snagge tries to define what makes a BBC announcer

What the BBC meant to the people of occupied France

Novelist L.A.G. Strong explains why regional broadcasting is so important in 1945

A new BBC transmitter is being built near Slaithwaite in 1931

Construction is well underway of the BBC’s new Broadcasting House in 1931

Ted Kavanagh explains where wartime hit ‘ITMA’ came from