1940 in British radio

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List of years in British radio (table)
In British television
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
In British music
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
+...

This is a list of events from British radio in 1940.

Events

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January

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  • 7 January – The BBC Forces Programme begins broadcasting in the United Kingdom; it becomes the most popular channel among civilians at home as well as its primary target audience.

February

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  • 25 February – The Proud Valley is the first known film to have its première on radio when the BBC broadcasts a 60-minute version.[1]
  • 29 February – Welsh Rarebit first broadcast by the BBC from its Cardiff studio;[2] the resident 25-strong male voice choir, the Lyrian Singers, premieres the song "We'll Keep a Welcome" with music by the programme's producer Mai Jones.

March

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  • 20 March – Antisemitic MP Archibald Maule Ramsay uses a Parliamentary question to set out the times and frequency of nightly broadcasts by the 'New British Broadcasting Service', a Nazi propaganda radio station broadcasting from Germany.[3]

April

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  • No events.

May

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  • May – The evacuated BBC Radio Variety Department relocates to Bangor in north Wales from where it will broadcast until August 1943.[4]
  • 10 May (9.00 pm) – Neville Chamberlain makes the first public announcement of his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and his replacement by Winston Churchill, on the BBC Home Service.
  • 14 May – BBC reporter Charles Gardner working in Reims incorporates the live sounds of a German air raid in a broadcast report.[5]

June

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July

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  • 13 July – BBC newsreaders first identify themselves by name on air, beginning with Frank Phillips on todays lunchtime bulletin.[12]
  • 14 July – The BBC Home Service 9.00 pm news bulletin includes a vivid account of an air battle over the English Channel recorded live the previous day by reporter Charles Gardner.[13] The bulletin is preceded by a speech by Churchill, "The War of the Unknown Warriorsˮ,[14] and followed by J. B. Priestley's Postscript describing the seaside resort of Margate in wartime.[15]
  • 19 July – Adolf Hitler makes a peace appeal ("appeal to reason") to Britain in an address to the Reichstag, broadcast simultaneously in English translation by Paul Schmidt.[16] BBC German-language broadcaster Sefton Delmer unofficially rejects it at once[17] and Lord Halifax, British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on 22 July.

August

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  • August – This year's National Eisteddfod of Wales becomes a purely radio event, with broadcasts on the BBC Home Service.[18]
  • 10 August – This and the following year's abbreviated seasons of The Proms are without sponsorship by the BBC.[19]

September

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  • No events.

October

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  • 15 October – Seven staff are killed when an attempt to eject a delayed-action German bomb from Broadcasting House in London fails. Listeners to the nine o'clock evening news bulletin hear a dull thud as it explodes but newsreader Bruce Belfrage continues unperturbed though covered in debris.[12]

November

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  • No events.

December

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  • 8 December – Explosion of a land mine outside Broadcasting House in central London causes the BBC's European service to be evacuated to its Maida Vale Studios.[12]

Station debuts

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Debuts

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  • 13 January – Garrison Theatre, BBC Home Service, later Forces Programme (1940–1941)[20]
  • 29 February – Welsh Rarebit, BBC Forces Programme (1940–1944, 1948–1952)
  • 23 June – Music While You Work, BBC Home Service and BBC Forces Programme (1940–1967)
  • 14 July – Sunday Half Hour, BBC Home Service (1940–2018)
  • Summer – The Kitchen Front, BBC Home Service

Programme endings

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Continuing radio programmes

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1930s

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Births

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Deaths

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bourne, Stephen (2001). Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television Second Edition. A&C Black. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8264-5539-0.
  2. ^ Davies, John (1994). Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7083-1273-5.
  3. ^ Hansard, Oral Questions, HC Deb 20 March 1940 vol 358 cc1970-1. Griffiths, Richard (1998). Patriotism Perverted: Captain Ramsay, the Right Club and British Anti-semitism, 1939-1940. London: Constable. ISBN 9780094679207.
  4. ^ British Broadcasting Corporation (1944). BBC Handbook. p. 50.
  5. ^ a b Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.
  6. ^ "The Battle of the Ports". ibiblio. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  7. ^ Cerutti, Joseph (3 June 1940). "Four-Fifths of British Saved, Eden Asserts". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
  8. ^ Baade, Christina L. (2012). "5: 'Radio Rhythm Club': race, authenticity, and the British swing boom". Victory through Harmony: the BBC and popular music in World War II. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537201-4.
  9. ^ "Music While You Work". whirligig-tv. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
  10. ^ Library of Congress (1982). Radio Broadcasts in the Library of Congress, 1924-1941: A Catalog of Recordings. Library of Congress. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-8444-0385-4.
  11. ^ Gottlieb, Julie V. (28 March 2003). Feminine Fascism. London: Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-918-1.
  12. ^ a b c "1940s". About BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  13. ^ "News Report - Air Battle off Dover". BBC. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  14. ^ Cohen, Ronald I. (18 November 2016). "Churchill Recordings: Speeches and Memoirs". Hillsdale College: The Churchill Project. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  15. ^ Cullingford, Alison (14 July 2010). "Postscript 14 July 1940". Special Collections – University of Bradford. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  16. ^ Schmidt, Paul (1951). Hitler's Interpreter. London: Heinemann.
  17. ^ Delmer, Sefton. Black Boomerang.
  18. ^ "Literature Wales: Encyclopedia - Broadcasting". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  19. ^ "History Of The Proms". Proms. BBC. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Garrison Theatre". Genome. BBC. 13 January 1940. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  21. ^ "Mrs. Campbell, 75, Famous Actress". The New York Times. 11 April 1940. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  22. ^ Hunter, Fred (May 2012). "Matheson, Hilda (1888–1940)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49198. Retrieved 27 June 2016. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

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