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1946 in British radio
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October 2023
1946 British radio British television British music
This is a list of events from British radio in 1946.
Events
January
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.Jürgen Schaarwächter Two Centuries of British Symphonism: From the beginnings to 1945. A preliminary survey 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=3KroCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA779 2015 Georg Olms Verlag 978-3-487-15228-8 779–
February
No events.
March
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).http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Have_a_Go Have A Go UK Game Shows 2020-10-30 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.
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
No events.
May
No events.
June
The BBC's regional director for Wales tells Welsh MPs that there is "not enough talent... to sustain a full continuous programme".Asa Briggs Asa Briggs The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom IV https://books.google.com/books?id=ndvkTwjfP9kC&pg=PA92 1995 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-212967-3 92
July
No events.
August
No events.
September
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.Hewison Robert Robert Hewison 1995 Culture and Consensus: England, Art and Politics Since 1940 Methuen Publishing London 0-413-69060-1 https://books.google.com/books?id=NHDbCQAAQBAJ Google Books Its first controller is George Barnes and its chief announcer is Alvar Lidell.1957-02-21 ...Alvar Lidell Reading It 7 Torquay Herald Express https://www.newspapers.com/article/herald-express-alvar-lidell-reading-it/124306792/ 2023-05-09 Newspapers.com 2023-05-09 https://web.archive.org/web/20230509181036/https://www.newspapers.com/article/herald-express-alvar-lidell-reading-it/124306792/ live
October
7 October – The BBC Light Programme transmits the first episodes of two daily programmes:
The magazine Woman's Hour (initially presented by Alan Ivimey), which will still be running nearly 80 years later.
The early-evening 15-minute serial thriller Dick Barton, which will achieve a peak audience of 20 million, predominantly schooboys.James Chapman 2006 Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 26 537–559 ‘Honest British Violence’: Critical Responses to Dick Barton – Special Agent (1946–1951)
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.http://www.davenportcollection.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Peter-Waring-magic-comedy-crime.pdf Peter Brunning Peter Waring – magic, comedy and crime, 1916–1949 Davenport Collection 2019 2021-06-19
November
No events.
December
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.Christopher P. Nicholson Rock Lighthouses of Britain: the end of an era? Latheronwheel Whittles 1995 2nd 1870325419
31 December – BBC General Forces Programme closes down.
Unknown
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.https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/buildings/paris-studios Paris Studios History of the BBC BBC 2020-12-11
Bush DAC90 bakelite radio introduced in the UK: it becomes the best-selling model for some years.Paul Evans Doyle Peter The 1940s Home Oxford Shire Publications 2009 978-0-7478-0736-0
Station debuts
29 September – The BBC Third Programme
Closing this year
31 December – BBC General Forces Programme
Debuts
4 January – Housewives' Choice (1946–1967)
5 March – Have A Go (1946–1967)
24 March – Letter from America (1946–2004)
7 October
Dick Barton – Special Agent (1946–1951)
Woman's Hour (1946–Present)
29 December – Down Your Way (1946–1992)
Continuing radio programmes
1930s
In Town Tonight (1933–1960)
1940s
Music While You Work (1940–1967)Music While You Work https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/june/music-while-you-work/ www.bbc.com 1 November 2024
Sunday Half Hour (1940–2018)
Desert Island Discs (1942–Present)
Family Favourites (1945–1980)
Births
25 January – Pete Price, Merseyside media personality and radio presenter
4 February – Peter Allen, radio broadcaster
18 February – Michael Buerk, journalist and broadcast presenter
22 March – Jonathan James-Moore, radio comedy producer (died 2005)
5 April – Russell Davies, journalist, jazz musician and broadcast presenter
11 April – Bob Harris, broadcast music presenter
17 April – Henry Kelly, Irish-born broadcast presenter
7 May – Michael Rosen, children's poet and radio presenter
26 May – Simon Hoggart, journalist and broadcaster (died 2014)
2 June – Sean Street, radio broadcaster and poet
26 August – Alison Steadman, comedy actress
7 October – Jenny Abramsky, BBC Director of Audio and Music
13 October – Edwina Currie, Conservative politician, author and radio personality
31 December – Eric Robson, broadcast presenter
Sue Limb, scriptwriter
Deaths
3 January – William Joyce, 39, American-born propagandist
16 October – Sir Granville Bantock, 78, composer
See also
1946 in British music
1946 in British television
1946 in the United Kingdom
List of British films of 1946
References
Category:Years in British radio
Radio