1939 in British radio

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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 18.55 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 of the BBC. At 20.15 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 5 pm.[1] 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.[2]
3 September
- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, introduced by Alvar Lidell and speaking from 10 Downing Street, announces on the BBC at 11.15 local time that "this country is at war with Germany".[3]
- Yorkshire-born novelist and playwright J. B. Priestley reads the first installment of his novel Let the People Sing, a celebration of local democracy specially written for radio, on the Home Service.[4]
19 September – Popular British 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.[5][6] Known as "ITMA", and also featuring Jack Train and many others, it runs until Handley’s death in 1949;[7] the performers have initially been evacuated to Bristol.

October

No events.

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".[8]

Station debut

1 September – BBC Home Service (1939–1967)

Debuts

12 July – It's That Man Again (1939–1949)
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
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
1 October – Geoffrey Whitehead, comic actor
27 October – John Cleese, comic actor

Deaths

20 July – Sir Dan Godfrey, orchestral conductor, 71[9]
19 December – Eric Fogg, composer and conductor, 36 (killed by Underground train)[10]

References

"Literature Wales: Encyclopedia – Broadcasting". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
Baade, Christina (26 March 2020). "During the Second World War, BBC listeners kept calm and listened to an unlikely star". The Conversation. UK. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
McDonough, Frank (1998). Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War. Manchester University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7190-4832-6.
Chignell, Hugh (2011). Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century. Springer. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-230-34645-1.
Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 385–386. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
"The BBC Story – 1930s" (PDF). Retrieved 31 May 2010.
Wilmut, Roger (1985). Kindly Leave the Stage!: Story of Variety, 1919–1960. Methuen. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-413-48960-9.
The Eternal Vision: The Ultimate Collection of Spiritual Quotations. Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd. 2002. p. 516. ISBN 978-1-85311-495-3.
Sterling, Christopher H. (2003). Encyclopedia of Radio. Routledge. p. 344. ISBN 978-1-135-45649-8.
The Listener, British Broadcasting Corporation, July 1939, p. 1270.

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[1] "Literature Wales: Encyclopedia – Broadcasting". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2013.

[2] Baade, Christina (26 March 2020). "During the Second World War, BBC listeners kept calm and listened to an unlikely star". The Conversation. UK. Retrieved 10 July 2021.

[3] McDonough, Frank (1998). Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War. Manchester University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7190-4832-6.

[4] Chignell, Hugh (2011). Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century. Springer. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-230-34645-1.

[5] Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 385–386. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.

[6] "The BBC Story – 1930s" (PDF). Retrieved 31 May 2010.

[Wilmut-7] Wilmut, Roger (1985). Kindly Leave the Stage!: Story of Variety, 1919–1960. Methuen. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-413-48960-9.

[8] The Eternal Vision: The Ultimate Collection of Spiritual Quotations. Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd. 2002. p. 516. ISBN 978-1-85311-495-3.

[9] Sterling, Christopher H. (2003). Encyclopedia of Radio. Routledge. p. 344. ISBN 978-1-135-45649-8.

[10] The Listener, British Broadcasting Corporation, July 1939, p. 1270.