Editing BBC Radio (section)

==History==
{{further|Timeline of the BBC|British Broadcasting Company|BBC#History}}
The BBC's radio services began in 1922. The British Government licensed the BBC through its [[General Post Office]], which had original control of the airwaves because they had been interpreted under law as an extension of the Post Office services. Today radio broadcasting still makes up a large part of the corporation's output.

===First charter===
{{main|BBC Charter}}
[[File:Royal broadcast, Christmas 1934 (Our Generation, 1938).jpg|thumb|right|[[George V]] giving the 1934 [[Royal Christmas Message]] on BBC Radio]]
On 1 January 1927, the [[British Broadcasting Company]] was succeeded in monopoly control of the airwaves by the [[British Broadcasting Corporation]], under the terms of a [[royal charter]].

[[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|John Reith]], who had been the founding managing director of the commercial company, became the first Director-General. He expounded firm principles of centralised, all-encompassing radio broadcasting, stressing programming standards and moral tone. These he set out in his 1924 autobiography, ''Broadcast Over Britain'', influencing modern ideas of [[public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom]]. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform, educate and entertain".<ref>{{cite news|title=No need to change BBC's mission to 'inform, educate and entertain'|url=https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/communications-committee/news-parliament-2015/bbc-charter-review-report-published/|agency=UK Parliament|date=31 October 2016|access-date=31 October 2016|archive-date=31 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031154543/https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/communications-committee/news-parliament-2015/bbc-charter-review-report-published/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Competition from overseas stations===

Although no other broadcasting organisation was licensed in the UK until 1973, commercial competition soon opened up from overseas. The English language service of [[Radio Luxembourg]] began in 1933 as one of the earliest commercial radio stations broadcasting to Britain and Ireland. With no possibility of domestic commercial broadcasting in the UK, a former British [[Royal Air Force]] captain and entrepreneur (and from 1935 [[Conservative Party UK|Conservative Party]] [[Member of Parliament (UK)|MP]]) named [[Leonard Plugge]] set up his own [[International Broadcasting Company]] in 1931.<ref>AND THE WORLD LISTENED The Biography of Captain Leonard F. Plugge – A Pioneer of Commercial Radio. Kelly Publications 2007. Author: Keith Wallis</ref> The IBC began leasing time on transmitters in continental Europe and then reselling it as sponsored English-language programming aimed at audiences in Britain and Ireland. Because Plugge successfully demonstrated that state monopolies such as that of the BBC could be broken, other parties became attracted to the idea of creating a new commercial radio station specifically for this purpose. It was an important forerunner of [[pirate radio]] and modern commercial radio in the United Kingdom. The onset of World War II silenced all but one of the original IBC stations, with only Radio Luxembourg continuing its nightly transmissions to Britain.

===Empire and the world===

To provide a different service from the domestic audience the Corporation started the BBC Empire Service on short wave in 1932, originally in English but it soon provided programmes in other languages. At the start of the Second World War it was renamed The Overseas Service and is now known as the [[BBC World Service]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522143807/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/ |date=22 May 2020 }} BBC World Service</ref>

===Commercial radio influence===

Beginning in March 1964, [[Radio Caroline]] became the first of what would become ten offshore [[UK pirate radio|pirate radio]] stations that began to ring the British coastline, mostly along the south-east coast. By 1966 millions were tuning into these commercial stations, and the BBC was rapidly losing its radio listening audience.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2939411 | work = H2G2 | title = The Offshore Radio Revolution in Britain 1964–2004 | date = 31 August 2004 | access-date = 22 July 2007 | archive-date = 9 July 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070709131405/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2939411 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/09/27/bvradio127.xml&page=1 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071018203739/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/09/27/bvradio127.xml&page=1 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 18 October 2007 | work = Daily Telegraph | title = The day we woke up to pop music on Radio 1| date = 27 September 2007 | author = Imogen Carter | access-date =30 September 2007}}</ref> This was largely due to the fact that even though they were fully aware of the problem, the BBC still only played a few hours of pop music records a week, as opposed to the pirates which broadcast chart music and new releases every day.

The British government reacted by passing the [[Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967]], which virtually wiped out all of the pirate stations at midnight on 14 August 1967, by banning any British citizen from working for a pirate station. Only [[Radio Caroline]] survived, and continues to broadcast today, though the last original offshore broadcast was in 1989.

One of the stations, [[Wonderful Radio London|Radio London]] (also known as "Big L"), was so successful that the BBC was told to copy it as best they could. This led to a complete overhaul by [[Frank Gillard]], the BBC's director of radio output, creating the four analogue channels that still form the basis of its broadcasting today. The creator of Radio 1 told the press that his family had been fans of Radio London.

The BBC hired many out-of-work broadcasting staff who had come from the former offshore stations. [[Kenny Everett]] was asked for input in how to run the new pop station due to his popularity with both listeners and fellow presenters. [[Tony Blackburn]], who presented the first ''[[Radio 1 Breakfast]]'' show, had previously presented the morning show on Radio Caroline and later on Radio London. He attempted to duplicate the same sound for Radio 1. Among the other DJs hired was [[John Peel]], who had presented the overnight show on Radio London, called ''The Perfumed Garden''. Though it only ran for a few months prior to Radio London's closure, ''The Perfumed Garden'' got more fan mail than the rest of the pop DJs on Radio London combined, so much that staff wondered what to do with it all. The reason it got so much mail was that it played different music and was the beginning of the "album rock" genre. On Everett's suggestion, Radio London's [[PAMS]] [[jingles]] were commissioned to be re-recorded in [[Dallas]], [[Texas]], so that "''Wonderful Radio London''" became "''Wonderful Radio One on BBC''".

The BBC's more popular stations have encountered pressure from the commercial sector.<ref name="tel-nov2010">{{cite news |first=Amanda |last=Andrews |date=28 November 2010 |title=BBC enlists commercial sector help to shake up radio |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8164936/BBC-enlists-commercial-sector-help-to-shake-up-radio.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8164936/BBC-enlists-commercial-sector-help-to-shake-up-radio.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Telegraph |access-date=12 March 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[John Myers (radio executive)|John Myers]], who had developed commercial brands such as [[Century Network|Century Radio]] and [[Real Radio]], was asked in the first quarter of 2011 to conduct a review into the efficiencies of Radios 1, 2, 1Xtra and 6 Music. His role, according to Andrew Harrison, the chief executive of RadioCentre, was "to identify both areas of best practice and possible savings."<ref name="tel-nov2010"/>

===BBC analogue networks===
On 30 September 1967:
*[[BBC Radio 1]] was launched as a pop music station, initially on a part-time basis.
*The [[BBC Light Programme]] (launched 29 July 1945) was renamed [[BBC Radio 2]] and broadcast easy listening music, folk, jazz, light entertainment and sport. 
*The evening [[BBC Third Programme]] (launched 29 September 1946) and daytime BBC Music Programme (launched 22 March 1965) were merged under the heading of [[BBC Radio 3]], although the Third Programme kept its separate title until 3 April 1970.
*The [[BBC Home Service]] (launched 1 September 1939) became [[BBC Radio 4]].
*[[BBC Radio 5 (former)|BBC Radio 5]] was launched on 27 August 1990 as a home for sport and educational and children's programming, but was replaced by [[BBC Radio 5 Live]], a dedicated news and sport network, on 28 March 1994.

===2002 digital radio networks===
With the increased rollout of [[Digital Audio Broadcasting#United Kingdom|Digital Audio Broadcasting]] (DAB) between 1995 and 2002, BBC Radio launched several new digital-only stations [[BBC Radio 1Xtra|BBC 1Xtra]], [[BBC Radio 6 Music|BBC 6 Music]] and [[BBC Radio 4 Extra|BBC 7]] in 2002 on 16 August, 11 March and 15 December respectively – the first for "new black British music", the second as a source of performance-based "alternative" music, the latter specialising in archive classic comedy shows, drama and children's programmes. [[BBC Asian Network]] joined the national DAB network on 28 October 2002. The stations had "Radio" added to their names in 2008. In 2011, BBC Radio 7 was renamed [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]] and the service was more closely aligned with Radio 4.

===2020s spin-off stations===
At the start of the 2020s, two Radio 1 [[Sister station|spin-offs]] were launched on [[BBC Sounds]], [[BBC Radio 1 Dance]] in October 2020, followed by [[BBC Radio 1 Relax]], in April 2021. Radio 1 Relax however closed in July 2024.

In February 2024, the corporation announced plans to launch three new spin-offs, pending public consultation and regulatory approval: one from Radio 1 for "music from the 2000s and 2010s, catering to the appetite from young audiences for recent nostalgia"; one from Radio 2, with "'a distinctive take on pop nostalgia' from the 50s, 60s, and 70s"; and one from Radio 3 for "calming classical music". In addition, Radio 1 Dance would launch on DAB expanded programming.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68226389|title= Radio 2 spin-off among four new stations planned by BBC|first=Steven|last=McIntosh|date=7 February 2024|website=[[BBC News Online]]|publisher=[[BBC News]]}}</ref>