Wikipedia

1946 in British radio

This is a list of events from British radio in 1946.

List of years in British radio (table)
In British television
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
In British music
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
+...

Events

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January

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  • 3 January – American-born Nazi propagandist William Joyce is hanged, unrepenting, at HM Prison Wandsworth in London for high treason for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio.
  • 20 January – Composer Granville Bantock writes to fellow composer Rutland Boughton criticising the BBC Music Department's attitude towards some newer composers.[1]

February

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  • No events.

March

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  • 5 March – Have A Go with Wilfred Pickles and his wife, Mabel, is introduced; it is the first British quiz show to offer prizes (although these are limited to a few pounds and some home-made produce).[2] Initially broadcast as Have a Go, Joe! on BBC Home Service North until August, from 16 September it is produced by BBC Manchester for national transmission on the Light Programme.[2]
  • 24 March – BBC Home Service radio in the UK broadcasts Alistair Cooke's first American Letter. As Letter from America, this programme will continue until a few weeks before Cooke's death in 2004.

April

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  • No events.

May

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  • No events.

June

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  • The BBC's regional director for Wales tells Welsh MPs that there is "not enough talent... to sustain a full continuous programme".[3]

July

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  • No events.

August

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  • No events.

September

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  • 29 September – The BBC Third Programme launches at 6pm. The evenings-only service is devoted to broadcasting cultural and intellectual content, serious classical music and programming about the arts.[4] Its first controller is George Barnes and its chief announcer is Alvar Lidell.[5]

October

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  • 7 October – The BBC Light Programme transmits the first episodes of the two daily programmes:
    • The magazine Woman's Hour (initially presented by Alan Ivimey), which will still be running 75 years later.
    • The early-evening 15-minute serial thriller Dick Barton, which will achieve a peak audience of 20 million, predominantly schooboys.[6]
  • The BBC begins broadcasting a 2-month comedy series Heigh-Ho, its first script by Frank Muir, featuring Peter Waring, Kenneth Horne and Charmian Innes, and produced by Charles Maxwell; no further series is commissioned after Waring's criminal convictions come to light.[7]

November

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  • No events.

December

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  • December – BBC correspondent Edward Ward with a sound engineer is landed on Bishop Rock lighthouse to give a report on life there but is trapped there for a month by the weather.[8]
  • 31 December – BBC General Forces Programme closes down.

Unknown

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  • The BBC adopts the Paris Theatre, a former cinema in London's Regent Street, as a studio for recording comedy and other shows before a live audience.[9]
  • Bush DAC90 bakelite radio introduced in the UK: it becomes the best-selling model for some years.[10]

Station debuts

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Closing this year

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Debuts

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Continuing radio programmes

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1930s

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1940s

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Births

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Deaths

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Schaarwächter, Jürgen (2015). Two Centuries of British Symphonism: From the beginnings to 1945. A preliminary survey. Vol. 2. Georg Olms Verlag. pp. 779–. ISBN 978-3-487-15228-8.
  2. ^ a b "Have A Go". UK Game Shows. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  3. ^ Briggs, Asa (1995). The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom. Vol. IV. Oxford University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-19-212967-3.
  4. ^ Hewison, Robert (1995). Culture and Consensus: England, Art and Politics Since 1940. London: Methuen Publishing. ISBN 0-413-69060-1 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "...Alvar Lidell Reading It". Torquay Herald Express. 21 February 1957. p. 7. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023 – via Newspapers.com .
  6. ^ Chapman, James (2006). "'Honest British Violence': Critical Responses to Dick Barton – Special Agent (1946–1951)". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 26: 537–559.
  7. ^ Brunning, Peter (2019). "Peter Waring – magic, comedy and crime, 1916–1949" (PDF). Davenport Collection. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  8. ^ Nicholson, Christopher P. (1995). Rock Lighthouses of Britain: the end of an era? (2nd ed.). Latheronwheel: Whittles. ISBN 1870325419.
  9. ^ "Paris Studios". History of the BBC. BBC. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  10. ^ Evans, Paul; Doyle, Peter (2009). The 1940s Home. Oxford: Shire Publications. ISBN 978-0-7478-0736-0.
  11. ^ "Music While You Work". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
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