Radio One and Me
For over 50 years the BBC had a monopoly on radio broadcasting in the United Kingdom, but by the mid 1960s young people had begun to listen to new 'pirate radio stations' like Radio Caroline as well as Radio Luxembourg. The BBC was slow to respond . . . . . .
The BBC Light Programme, even in 1966, was heavily biassed towards popular orchestral and dance music, operettas and music that had really been out of date for 10 years or so. The Home Service was mostly concerned with the spoken word, though this did include comedy series, quizzes and plays, as well as more serious news and current affairs programmes. Music was largely incidental to programme content - such as in Desert Island Discs.
In contrast, the Third Programme was a rather stuffy, 'high-brow' business, packed with classical music and much arty and often impenetrable 'guff', and with a 'cultural' mission. It regularly featured cricket commentaries during the daytime, but in the evenings stuck mostly to classical - or 'serious' music.
So, by 1966 there was increasing customer dissatisfaction and new people in the BBC: things were about to change ~ Radios One, Two, Three and Four were going to be an 'event horizon' ~ some would be big events, some would turn out to be just face-lifts.
The 'internet' of the 1960s ~ the world at your fingertips!
One night in late September 1966 I listened to the Light Programme in 1224kHz closing down - National Anthem . . silence . . . . then just off frequency, something strange. There was a tune I'd never heard before wafting across the airwaves, fading and distorted. An organ, orchestra and a rock band hammered out a some sort of anthem or station ident. Then silence.
For two more nights the same thing happened. No announcements, always seemingly fading and coming from a distance, maybe elsewhere in Europe. It was a puzzle.
I was familiar with the sorts of broadcasts from Europe and their station idents, and this was nothing like them. So, at work, I found the phone number for the BBC Monitoring Service at Caversham in Berkshire and called them. Speaking to someone in the European Unit I explained what I heard and how it appeared to be coming for somewhere at a long distance across the ether. The enquiry was logged. The 'phantom' transmissions continued.
A few days later I received a phone call from Caversham: the transmission was confirmed and a team was looking into it, but because it was brief they couldn't get a fix, but it was apparently a 'pirate' transmission on or very near a BBC frequency allocation. This seemed quite strange.
Two days afterwards, a second phone call. The monitoring unit had traced the transmission to a couple of the BBC's own transmitters operating on low power around the home counties. After making internal enquiries it was realised that it was a test transmission for the new BBC Radio One Network and the music was called 'Theme One'. On 30 September 1966 Radio One went 'live' - "the rest is history".
'Theme One' has become a classic signature ident of modern broadcast radio history. Produced by George Martin, playing the organ, and with simulated 'airwaves' fading and distortion it remains a monumental piece of music . . .