On This Day In Broadcasting

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January

DATE YEAR COUNTRY EVENT
1 1927 UK A Royal Charter established the British Broadcasting Corporation, replacing the previous British Broadcasting Company. Sir John Reith was appointed director.
1941 UK "The Brains' Trust" was first broadcast on the BBC Home Service.
USA FM radio broadcasting was authorised as a regular service in the 42-50 MHz band.
1948 UK The BBC introduced a new television test card, "C". Although a great improvement on the previous broadcast test card "A", the card did not have a specification, and therefore a number of variants appeared.
1951 UK The world's longest running drama serial, "The Archers", began on the BBC Home Service.
1954 USA The first coast-to-coast colour television broadcast, of the "Tournament of the Roses" Parade in Pasadena, California, was transmitted by NBC. Twenty-one cities were able to see the broadcast in colour, with a few thousand people watching two hundred RCA receivers and a few experimental sets from other manufacturers. NBC had previously used colour in 1953, and CBS in 1951, but only a few cities, mainly on the east coast, could receive these "colorcasts".
1967 Canada Following a four-month launch period, a full colour television service began.
1968 UK A supplementary colour television licence was introduced, costing £5.
1969 UK The colour television and radio licence fee was increased to £11.
1970 UK "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" began on BBC1.
1974 UK Following discussions with the IBA, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees Television merged to become Trident Television, and the two regions and Anglia were reshaped by the reallocation of the Belmont and Bilsdale transmitters to Yorkshire and Tyne Tees respectively.
1982 UK New ITV franchises came into operation. Television South West, operating as Westward since the previous August, became the franchise holder for the South West. The South and South East were declared a dual region, with Television South taking over the franchise from Southern. The region was also reshaped by the reallocation of the Bluebell Hill transmitter to TVS. In the Midlands, the region became a dual region of East and West Midlands, with ATV undergoing restructure and becoming Central. No other franchises changed hands, but Yorkshire and Tyne Tees became independent and the London handover was moved to 1710 on Friday.
1990 UK BBC Subscription Television Service was formed as a subsidiary of BBC Enterprises Ltd.
1993 UK New ITV franchises came into operation. The London weekday franchise was transferred to Carlton Communications, the South and South East to Meridian Broadcasting, the South West to Westcountry, the breakfast franchise to GMTV and the teletext service to Teletext Ltd. All other franchises remained unchanged, but Yorkshire Television completed a take-over of Tyne Tees.
2 1928 UK Regular weekday religious services began on BBC radio.
1947 UK "Much Binding In The Marsh" began on the BBC Home Service.
1964 UK The SMPTE 625-line test card made its debut as test transmission for the forthcoming BBC2 began.
1969 UK BBC1 broadcast the first ever edition of "Holiday".
1971 UK BBC Radio Newcastle opened.
3 1938 Middle East The first BBC Foreign language service, the Arabic service, began.
1970 UK BBC1 began transmission from the 625-line colour transmitter at Dover.
1985 UK The IBA completed the closure of its 405-line transmitters, with Emley Moor being the last to close at 1441. Only a few BBC 405-line transmitters remained after this.
1988 UK The BBC launched the film "See For Yourself", to replace the BBC Handbook.
1991 UK The final issue of "The Listener" was published.
4 1927 UK The BBC board of governors met for the first time.
1964 UK A special film, "The Way To Wimbledon", began at 0915, as part of the test transmissions for BBC2.
6 1985 UK In the early hours, the world's last remaining 405-line transmitter, Sutton Coldfield, closed, after just over 35 years in service.
7 1940 UK The BBC Forces Programme began.
1967 UK BBC2 broadcast the first episode of "The Forsyte Saga".
8 1923 UK The BBC made its first outside radio broadcast, from Covent Garden.
10 1971 UK Open University television programmes began on the BBC's 625-line services.
11 1954 UK First on-screen appearance by a weatherman.
14 1941 Belgium The BBC's Belgian Service began the "V for Victory" campaign broadcasts.
1958 UK After some delay, the ITA transmitter at St Hilary entered programme service on channel 10. Television Wales and West (TWW) served South East Wales and the West of England.
15 1927 UK The BBC transmitted its first running commentary news broadcast, under a new agreement with the press.
1929 UK The first edition of "The Listener" was published.
1966 UK Two new BBC2 transmitters, at Rowridge and Emley Moor, the latter using a temporary aerial, came into service.
16 1950 UK "Listen With Mother" began on the BBC Home Service.
17 1959 UK Tyne Tees Television began broadcasting on the ITA's Burnhope transmitter, on channel 8.
1983 UK The BBC broadcast the first edition of Breakfast Time, beating ITV by 15 days.
18 1923 UK The Postmaster General granted the BBC a licence to broadcast.
1933 UK The BBC opened Broadcasting House, Leeds.
1971 UK Sandy Heath 625-line transmitter began transmitting BBC1 and Anglia Television.
19 1972 UK The Post Office ceased to control broadcasting hours.
20 1936 UK Stuart Hibberd broadcast a report every fifteen minutes on BBC radio that "The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close."
1967 Albania The BBC Albanian radio service closed.
21 1936 UK Sir John Reith announced the death of King George V.
23 1923 UK The first military band concert was broadcast on BBC radio.
1985 UK A six-month experiment in televising the House of Lords began.
24 1972 UK The BBC broadcast an electronically generated colour test card, "G", a modified version of the Philips PM5544 pattern, for the first time.
25 1964 UK WWN made its last broadcast.
1990 UK The BBC report, "Funding the Future", was presented.
26 1964 UK TWW became the first ITV company to take over another, WWN, amalgamating their existing South East Wales and West of England franchise with WWN's North and West Wales franchise. TWW began broadcasting on the Presely, Arfon and Moel-y-Parc transmitters.
1971 UK BBC Radio Blackburn opened.
27 1926 UK John Logie-Baird demonstrated his new invention, television.
28 1936 UK BBC radio broadcast coverage of the King's funeral.
1963 UK The ITA transmitter at Moel-y-Parc entered service, carrying WWN on channel 11.
29 1962 UK The BBC 405-line television transmitter at Oxford entered service on channel 2.
30 1923 UK The first Variety programme was broadcast on BBC radio.
1957 UK The BBC demonstrated colour television to Parliament, transmitting a form of NTSC from the Crystal Palace transmitter.
1968 UK The ITA relay at Whitehaven opened, carrying Border Television on channel 7.
1980 UK BBC2's late night news programme, "Newsnight", began.
31 1924 UK The first broadcast story was aired on BBC radio.
1949 UK "A Book at Bedtime" began on the BBC Home Service.
1960 UK The ITA transmitter at Dover began programme service, carrying Southern Television on channel 10.
1968 UK BBC Radio Nottingham began broadcasting.
1969 UK The ITA relay at Lethanhill opened, carrying Scottish Television on channel 12.