The voice of Tony Blackburn and the strains of The Move's Flowers in the Rain
welcomed listeners to a new station born out of the pirate radio
movement.
With
Tony Blackburn’s words, “Good morning everyone, welcome to the exciting new
sound of Radio 1”, and the strains of The Move’s Top 10 hit Flowers in the Rain,
the BBC’s first dedicated pop station began broadcasting on this day in
1967.
Radio 1 had come into being after the Marine Offences Act outlawed
unregulated ‘pirate’ radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London, to
meet the need for a legal pop music station; its predecessor, the Light
Programme, had combined pop with easy listening and comedy.
The less
contemporary elements of the Light Programme would be hived off to another new
station, Radio 2, while the BBC’s other stations would also be renamed in the
shake-up - the Third Programme becoming Radio 3, and the Home Service Radio
4.
Radio 1 would broadcast pop from 7am to 7.30pm, followed by lighter
music and entertainment until 2am. Several disc jockeys were hired for the new
station on eight-week contracts, with the intention to retain the most popular
thereafter.
The new presenting roster (pictured above) included many
popular former pirate radio DJs, including Blackburn, Simon Dee, Emperor Rosko,
Kenny Everett and John Peel, alongside established BBC names such as Pete
Murray, Jimmy Young and Alan Freeman.
With the studios at Broadcasting
House in London packed with press and well-wishers, the station began
broadcasting at 7am with Blackburn’s new show, 'Daily Disc Delivery' - the DJ
following up The Move’s opener with songs by the Bee Gees, The Tremeloes and
Simon and Garfunkel.
With Radio 1 the only station of the four BBC
channels not to be allocated at stereo FM frequency, reception was initially
poor in several areas of the county; despite this, it proved a huge success,
doubling the Light Programme's audience within a month of its launch.
Do
you remember Radio 1’s first day? Was it an improvement on the pirate stations?
Let us know in the Comments section below.
BBC Radio 1 – Did you
know?
Radio 1 could be found at 247 metres medium wave; at first, the
fledgling station was going to be named Radio 247.
The original plan for
Radio 1 was that would not only play pop music, but also broadcast news
headlines and 'occasional classical music'.
Radio 2 was launched at exactly
the same time as Radio 1; Paul Hollingdale opened the Light Programme for the
final time that morning at 5.30am, and his Breakfast Special show continued on
the new station from 7am.
Hollingdale actually announced the precise time of
the switchover to the new stations with the words: "Ten seconds to go before
Radio 1....stand by for switching......five, four, three, Radio 2, Radio 1,
GO!”
Radio 1 had its own signature tune, Theme One by the George Martin
Orchestra. Tony Blackburn’s show had its own jazzy theme, a track called
Beefeaters by Johnny Dankworth.
Radio 1 and Radio 2 shared programmes such as
the Sunday Top Twenty show, the Jimmy Young Show, and Late Night Extra –
presenters of the latter programme that were heard on Radio 1 included Terry
Wogan and Michael Parkinson.
From its inception and throughout the 1970s and
1980s, Radio 1 was hugely successful, commanding weekly audiences of up to 24
million listeners.
The station only became totally separate from Radio 2 in
1979 when it began broadcasting from 6am until midnight. It finally began
broadcasting 24 hours a day in May 1991.
