BBC Light Programme - Definition and Overview

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
• 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