1939 in British radio

none October 2023 1939 British radio British television British music This is a list of events from British radio in 1939. Events January to May No events. June 14 June – Clevedon and Start Point transmitting stations begin broadcasting the BBC Regional Programme for the West of England, partly replacing Washford. July No events. August August – The BBC Monitoring service is established at Wood Norton Hall in Worcestershire, acquired earlier in the year as a standby location in case of the need to evacuate facilities from London. September 1 September – At 6:55pm local time, BBC engineers receive the order to begin closing down all transmitters in preparation for wartime broadcasting: this marks the end of the National and Regional Programmes. At 8:15pm, the BBC's Home Service begins transmission: this will be the corporation's only domestic radio channel for the first four months of World War II (BBC Television has been shut down until 1946). There will be a daily Welsh language bulletin of world news at 5pm.http://www.literaturewales.org/encyclopaedia/i/130659/ Literature Wales: Encyclopedia – Broadcasting 2013-01-05 https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031019/http://www.literaturewales.org/encyclopaedia/i/130659/ 2016-03-04 dead Programming is initially limited to news, announcements, gramophone records and live music played by a limited pool of staff musicians, with extensive use of cinema organist Sandy MacPherson.Christina Baade During the Second World War, BBC listeners kept calm and listened to an unlikely star 2020-03-26 2021-07-10 The Conversation UK https://theconversation.com/during-the-second-world-war-bbc-listeners-kept-calm-and-listened-to-an-unlikely-star-133754 3 September Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, introduced by Alvar Lidell and speaking from 10 Downing Street, announces on the BBC at 11:15am local time that "this country is at war with Germany".Frank McDonough Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War https://books.google.com/books?id=3tQoAEo9Y6oC&pg=PA89 1998 Manchester University Press 978-0-7190-4832-6 89 Yorkshire-born novelist and playwright J. B. Priestley reads the first installment of his novel Let the People Sing, a celebration of local democracy (published on 4 January), on the Home Service.Hugh Chignell Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century https://books.google.com/books?id=QVjwmj2evkIC&pg=PT50 2011 Springer 978-0-230-34645-1 50 6 September – William Joyce makes his first broadcast for German radio, reading the news in English.Mary Kenny Mary Kenny Germany Calling Dublin New Island 2003 18 September – English-language propaganda radio programme Germany Calling is first broadcast to the United Kingdom on medium wave nominally from Reichssender Hamburg station Bremen (via the coastal Norddeich radio station). In that day's Daily Express, pseudonymous radio critic Jonah Barrington nicknames the station's English-speaking broadcaster "Lord Haw-Haw". He is probably referring to German playboy journalist Wolf Mittler, who makes a few such broadcasts, but the name transfers to cashiered British Army officer Norman Baillie-Stewart (dismissed from the station in December) and then to American-born Irish-raised William Joyce, with whom it is most associated. Baillie-Stewart and Joyce hold U.K. passports at this time, rendering themselves liable to prosecution for treason. 19 September – Popular radio comedy show It's That Man Again with Tommy Handley is first broadcast on the BBC Home service, following trial broadcasts from 12 July.Palmer Alan Palmer Veronica 1992 The Chronology of British History Century Ltd London 385–386 0-7126-5616-2https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/factsheets/1930s.pdf The BBC Story – 1930s 2010-05-31 Known as "ITMA", and also featuring Jack Train and many others, it runs until Handley's death in 1949.Wilmut Roger Roger Wilmut Kindly Leave the Stage!: Story of Variety, 1919–1960 132 https://books.google.com/books?id=niNaAAAAMAAJ 1985 Methuen 978-0-413-48960-9 The performers have initially been evacuated to Bristol. October 17 October – A live broadcast from RAF Hendon airbase in north London, in front of a specially invited audience of RAF personnel, is relayed worldwide by the BBC. The bill stars black American jazz singer Adelaide Hall, Mantovani and His Orchestra, comic singers The Western Brothers, and Harry Roy and his big band.Band Wagon 1 1 1939-10-14 3 Harry Roy's World Broadcast https://nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/explore/journals/band-wagon/vol1-no1-14-october-1939/1259789?q=adelaide%20hall National Jazz Archive 2021-08-09 November No events. December 25 December – In his Christmas broadcast on BBC Radio, King George VI quotes Minnie Louise Haskins' poem "The Gate of the Year".The Eternal Vision: The Ultimate Collection of Spiritual Quotations https://books.google.com/books?id=x3u6Qx2rH0kC&pg=PA516 2002 Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd 978-1-85311-495-3 516 Station debut 1 September – BBC Home Service (1939–1967) Debuts 12 July – It's That Man Again (1939–1949) 23 July – The Thirty-Nine Steps on BBC Regional Programme London (1939)https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/282b2d777b5c40488dbff96ffd235d20 BBC Genome The Thirty-Nine Steps 1939-07-23 2023-12-04 25 September – Singing Together on BBC Radio schools service (1939–2001) Continuing radio programmes 1930s In Town Tonight (1933–1960) Births 23 January – Vincent Duggleby, personal finance radio presenter (died 2024) 3 March – Bill Frindall, cricket scorer (died 2009) 4 March – Keith Skues, radio presenter 23 April – Tom Vernon, broadcaster (died 2013) 5 May – Ray Gosling, broadcast documentary maker (died 2013) 7 May – David Hatch, radio executive and performer (died 2007) 11 July – John Walters, radio music producer and jazz trumpeter (died 2001) 30 August – John Peel, born John Ravenscroft, DJ (died 2004) 19 September – Louise Botting, radio presenter and businesswoman (died 2026) 23 September – Henry Blofeld, cricket commentator 1 October – Geoffrey Whitehead, comic actor 27 October – John Cleese, comic actor 3 November – Judith Bumpus, radio arts producer (died 2010) Deaths 20 July – Sir Dan Godfrey, orchestral conductor, 71Christopher H. Sterling Encyclopedia of Radio https://books.google.com/books?id=-UeveLMilioC&pg=PA344 2003 Routledge 978-1-135-45649-8 344 19 December – Eric Fogg, composer and conductor, 36 (killed by Underground train)The Listener https://books.google.com/books?id=m15BAQAAIAAJ July 1939 British Broadcasting Corporation 1270. See also 1939 in British music 1939 in British television 1939 in the United Kingdom List of British films of 1939 References Category:Years in British radio Radio