when analog TV signals end

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:27:35 -0500, "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com> said:

> The BBC's first network was the "Home Service."  Next they came up 
> with the "Light Programme," which apparently was somewhat less 
> "Auntie Beeb" than the Home Service.  Finally, they established a 
> third network and called it the "Third Programme."  At some point, I 
> think in the 1960s or 70s, the three netorks became "Radio One," 
> "Radio Two", and "Radio Three," and a fourth network, "Radio Four," 
> was added.

Almost but not quite.  The "Home Service" is what became Radio Four.
The "Light Programme" became Radio Two, and the "Third Programme" kept
its number.  The new service was "Radio One", which was the Beeb's
first foray into popular music; it was started to compete with the
pirate radio ships, like Radio Caroline, and with Radio Luxembourg
("The World's Largest Commercial Broadcaster... Radio Luxembourg,
14-40 Medium Wave, from Marnach.  The Great 2-0-8!")  Remember that
this was at a time when Britain had no commercial radio ("independent
local radio" was not started until the mid-1970s, and national
commercial stations were not licensed until the BBC abandoned most of
its mediumwave network).

In the late 1980s, the BBC added a fifth national service, called
"Radio Five", now "Five Live", which is primarily devoted to talk and
sport.  (Confusingly, Five Live's principal commercial competition --
operating on former BBCR2 mediumwave transmitters IIRC -- is called
"talkSPORT".)  Today, the BBC operates more than fifty radio services:

- Radio 1 is still the CHR service.
- 1Xtra is a rhythmic/urban digital-only service.
- Radio 2 is still the AC service.
- Radio 3 is still the "serious music" service.

- Radio 4 is still the flagship spoken-word service, but is split into
  two networks:
  - Radio 4 FM is the primary service, with a regular daily schedule
    including programming "strands" like suppertime comedy, and daily
    serialized dramas.
  - Radio 4 LW is the secondary service, which adds test match cricket,
    and two additional shipping forecasts, on 198 kHz longwave.
  Both carry World Service programming overnight.

- Five Live is the national news, telephone talk, and sport service
- Five Live Sports Extra is a national digital-only service with
  additional sports programming.
- BBC 6 Music is a national digital-only service dedicated to new and
  independent music.
- BBC 7 is a national digital-only service with two sometimes
  contradictory programming requirements: six hours a day of
  children's programming, and the remainder of the schedule is filled
  with repeats of BBC spoken-word programs (mostly from Radio 4),
  including comedy and drama, which must be at least two years old or
  must already have been aired twice on another service.

- BBC Asian Network provides specialty programming for Britons of
  South Asian descent and recent immigrants from the subcontinent.
- BBC World Service for Europe broadcasts in English to Central
  Europe on 648 kHz from Orfordness (a town on the North Sea not far
  from London)

- BBC Local Radio is a network of forty services, providing a mix of
  local, regional, and national programming for England and the
  Channel Islands.  These stations relay Five Live overnight.

- BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Wales, and BBC Radio Ulster provide
  English-language programming for the other "national regions".
  Radio nan Gaidheal, Radio Cymru are the Scottish Gaelic and
  Welsh-language services, respectively.

-GAWollman