In order to provide this diversity the BBC broadcasts three programmes, the Home Service, the Light Programme and the Third Network which includes as a major element the Third Programme. These programmes are described in greater detail in the following pages. Each programme has its own character and is planned within its own framework, but there is also complementary planning between the services to ensure, for example, that programmes of the same type are not broadcast at the same time on different wavelengths.

The form and content of radio programmes are continually changing to keep pace with developments. One of these developments has been the very rapid spread of the small portable transistor set in the last few years; in 1963 alone some 2 million were sold. Another development has been the increasing popularity of the car radio set, about 1½ million of which are estimated to be in use at present. The freedom to listen in any room, or in the car, or in the garden, or away from home is undoubtedly one of the reasons for the increase in the daily average audience. At the same time greater mobility has meant that many listeners cannot or do not want to concentrate for long periods on programmes. For this reason the BBC has increased the number of magazine type programmes, such as ‘Today’ and ‘Roundabout’, which can provide entertainment for those whose listening time is limited.

It is unfortunate that the increase in the number of transistors has not been matched by a comparable development in the use of VHF sets. Reception in the overcrowded medium- and long-wave bands continues to be difficult in many areas, in marked contrast to the interference-free reception which VHF can provide. VHF is particularly valuable for listeners to the Third Network. Medium

wave coverage of this network reaches only 69 per cent of the population while VHF coverage is 98.4 per cent. Yet another advantage is the greatly superior quality of VHF reproduction, a fact of significance to music lovers for whom the new Music Programme is planned. Although more and more listeners are turning to VHF – about 350,000 VHF sets are bought each year – the BBC hopes that this pace will accelerate.

1964 saw the beginning of the sound radio extensions which were recommended by the Committee on Broadcasting and subsequently approved by the Government. These had been held up by contractual difficulties which were resolved during the course of the year. They include an earlier opening at 5.30 a.m. and later closing at 2.00 a.m. for Light Programme and the broadcasting of a serious music programme on Third Network during the daytime. The extensions are being introduced by stages, and further details are given in the following pages. An extra half-hour was added each day from Mondays to Fridays during the winter months to the Third Programme.

Home Service

The Home Service, which serves the broad middle section of the community, necessarily overlaps to a certain extent with the Light Programme on one hand and with the Third Programme on the other. But it has its own distinctive characteristics. It carries out many of the functions of information and education enjoined on the BBC in the preamble to its Royal Charter, being, for example, the main vehicle of news, and for daily reporting on Parliamentary proceedings when the House is sitting. In the field of current affairs it exploits fully the potentialities of radio for rapid world-wide coverage in its provision both of news and of comment and discussion. The Home Service carries sound broadcasting’s programme for schools. Its music programmes concentrate on the great standard works. It broadcasts several dramatic productions each week, including stage plays, serials, works written specially for radio, and adaptations from novels. Its programmes provide a basic national pattern which can be varied by each regional Home Service to suit the particular needs of the region in question.

Light Programme

The main purpose of the Light Programme is to provide a service of entertainment and relaxation for the majority. Its basic ingredients are popular music, light music, comedy, and light drama, which includes the daily serials. Brief news summaries are broadcast at half past the hour every day, with a more restricted service on Saturdays and Sundays. Short weather forecasts are provided as part of a general service, and a special service of shipping forecasts on 1,500 metres is provided for those at sea in coastal areas.

Sporting events of many kinds are covered in the Sports Service transmitted on the Third Network wavelengths on Saturdays, and this frees the Light Programme for the broadcasting of entertainment music specially designed for those who listen on car radios and transistor and portable radio sets. This policy has increasingly been extended to other daytime listening hours, particularly at week-ends.

Full attention is paid to the interests of the home listener who has no television set or may not wish to spend all his time watching television. This is particularly so in the evenings, when the schedules include as wide a variety of programmes as is consistent with the main purpose of the Light Programme.

Third Network

The Third Network consists of the Third Programme, the Music Programme, and other programmes designed to appeal to minorities of one sort or another including ‘Study Session’ and the Sports Service.

The Music Programme, which is being introduced by stages, will, when completed, be broadcast every day of the week, on Monday to Friday from breakfast time to the early evening, on Saturday from breakfast time to the start of the Sports Service, and on Sunday from breakfast time to the start of the Third Programme at 5 p.m. Its programmes will cover the whole field of good music, including orchestral and chamber concerts, opera, recitals, and light music.

‘Study Session’ is broadcast from Monday to Friday between 6.30 and 7.30 p.m. It serves minority audiences who seek to increase their knowledge or extend their awareness in some particular field – for example, by learning languages (Russian, French, German, Italian, Spanish) or studying in some detail a period of history (The Greeks, The Normans, The Renaissance) or deepening understanding of some area of contemporary affairs, whether political, social, literary or scientific. There are regular programmes in science, social studies, current affairs, music, education, and the arts.

On Saturday afternoons a special Sports Service is broadcast which provides a continuous programme of commentaries and reports on sporting events. The Third Network is also used for special programmes including ball-by-ball commentaries of the Test Matches and for experimental broadcasts in stereophony.

The post BBC radio in 1964 appeared first on THIS IS ZENITH 1964 from Transdiffusion.

Ten years ago, when the shadow of the Television age seemed rather ominous for Sound, few people would have believed that radio in Britain in 1964 would be a medium still in universal currency, still developing, progressing, and expanding. Yet that is our state of health at this juncture. Even though almost 90 per cent of the population of Britain now has television, the latest figures show that from twenty-six to twenty-seven million people use sound radio on the average day, and the figure moves steadily upward year by year. Nor is the use merely a nominal one. Those who listen do so, on an average, for something like two and a quarter hours each day. This continuing interest in radio is supported by the statistics of receiver sales. Last year, radio sets outsold television sets by a comfortable margin in the dealers’ shops. Two and a half million radio receivers were sold in Britain during 1962, an average of one every twelve seconds. Broadcasting’s vast audiences have shown that they require radio as well as television, and have plenty of room for both. Sound’s crisis is past. It has emerged as a medium which demonstrably has an important and valuable future.

But it will be a future with a difference. In looking to 1964 and the years ahead, sound must of course take account of the opportunities which technical development is continually offering. Two such developments are clearly revolutionary. The first is the introduction of the transistor receiver, which can be so small in dimensions and so efficient that it can be taken and used almost everywhere. Through the transistor, sound is fast becoming the truly ubiquitous medium. As the advertising slogan in the USA has it, ‘wherever you go, there’s radio’. The transistor is making sound a personal service for every listener, something that can be at his disposal all the time, rather than something to which he can only come during a few limited hours of the day.

The other major development, VHF, is, in a sense, right at the other end of the scale. VHF is high fidelity broadcasting — radio for the connoisseur — able to ofFer something approaching perfection in listening to the individual who is prepared to cultivate the medium and to devote his attention to it in some of his leisure hours. VHF transmission of all three sound services now blankets the country. Nearly 99 per cent of the population is within reach of VHF, and about five million VHF sets are in use.

In a way these technical developments divide the audience, and such broad divisions are going to be important considerations for the future. The demands of the transistor-listener are likely to vary considerably from those of the VHF listener. The millions who look to radio for a pleasant background sound to ease the boredom of the routine daily chores, require a service quite different from the needs of the much smaller audience of ‘foreground’ listeners who turn to sound in a positive way and call for serious programmes to which they are prepared to give concentrated thought and attention. Again, it is often suggested that because television is now so widespread, sound should leave light entertainment, say, or drama, entirely to the visual medium. But this argument ignores the just claims of around five million people who for one reason or another are still entirely dependent on radio. In the television household, sound is inevitably a complementary medium. In the sound-only home, radio must continue to provide the full programme range.

So BBC sound broadcasting in 1964 will be shaped with all these complex considerations in mind. We shall try to serve our big battalions faithfully. Our minorities will still be cherished. Our aim will be to use our three channels even more effectively than before to satisfy the ever-widening range of programme requirements. But these good intentions could truthfully be set down about any year. What makes 1964 special is the hope that, if negotiations in progress at the time of writing succeed, it will see an increase of sound broadcasting time each week by as much as one-third.

During 1964, if our plans mature, we shall extend the Light Programme’s day by three hours, starting earlier and finishing later. Meanwhile, we hope to introduce on the third channel a regular service of serious music, running right through the day until early evening when the Third Network will take over. This filling-in of the sound broadcasting pattern, if it can be achieved, will provide the British listener with a range of programme choice unrivalled anywhere in the world. It will be the most important radio innovation in this country since the introduction of the Home-Light-Third pattern at the end of the war, and it will indeed make 1964 a milestone year.

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