1944 in British radio

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This is a list of events from British radio in 1944.

Events

January

• No events.

February

• 27 February – BBC General Forces Programme replaces the Forces Programme to provide entertainment suitable for American forces in Britain as well as British military and civilian audiences, including a large number of American network and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programmes. It is also broadcast on shortwave frequencies of the BBC Overseas Service.

March

• 6 March – The BBC transmits a ballad opera, The Man Who Went to War, concerning an African American soldier, written by Langston Hughes and D. G. Bridson and featuring Paul Robeson.^[1]
• 10 March? – Lifting of (partial) marriage bar on women working at the BBC.^[2]

April

• April – The American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) is established, transmitting from Britain in English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian to resistance movements in mainland Europe.

May

• No events.

June

• June – Utility radio ("War-time Civilian Receiver"), produced by the radio industry under government direction, available for sale.^[3]
• 5 June – One day before D-Day, the BBC transmits coded messages (including the second line of a poem by Paul Verlaine and Hubert Gregg's "I'm Going to Get Lit Up When the Lights Go Up in London")^[4] from Britain to underground resistance fighters in France warning that the invasion of mainland Europe is about to begin.^[5][6]
• 6 June – D-Day: The 08:00 BBC news bulletin announces that paratroops have landed in France (reporter Guy Byam is among them).^[7] 17 BBC reporters are embedded with the invasion forces.^[7] At 09:32 John Snagge begins reading announcements of the landings "on the northern coast of France", broadcasting over BBC transmitters to home and overseas audiences^[8] and introducing a message from General Eisenhower.^[7] At 13:00, the first eyewitness report, recorded on a bomber, is broadcast.^[8] The King speaks to the nation at 21:00.^[8] Reports of the landings are carried by around 725 of the 914 broadcasting stations in the United States.^[6]

July

• 28 July – Sir Henry Wood, aged 75, conducts his last Promenade Concert, evacuated to the Corn Exchange, Bedford,^[9] three weeks before his death.

August

• 28 August – The BBC begins broadcasting in Dutch to Indonesia and in French to southeast Asia.^[10]

September

• 17–26 September – Battle of Arnhem: BBC correspondents Guy Byam and Stanley Maxted report from the scene.^[11][12]
• 20 September – Yehudi Menuhin gives the first British performance of Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto from Bedford, in the opening concert of a tour with the B.B.C. Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

October

• No events.

November

• No events.

December

• 31 December – A live BBC broadcast of a service from St Paul's Cathedral, London, includes the background sound of a V-2 rocket.^[13]

Debuts

• 4 January – Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh (BBC General Forces Programme) (1944–1954)
• 27 February – Variety Bandbox (BBC General Forces Programme) (1944–1952)
• 6 June – War Report (BBC Home Service)

Continuing radio programmes

1930s

• In Town Tonight (1933–1960)

1940s

• Music While You Work (1940–1967)^[14]
• Sunday Half Hour (1940–2018)
• Desert Island Discs (1942–Present)

Births

• 2 February – Andrew Davis, orchestral conductor (died 2024)
• 9 May – Tony Prince, "The Royal Ruler", born Thomas Whitehead, DJ
• 12 May – Brian Kay, bass singer and radio music presenter
• 5 June – Nigel Rees, radio broadcaster
• 28 October – Gerry Anderson, Northern Irish radio broadcaster (died 2014)
• November – Jim Eldridge, scriptwriter
• 25 December – Kenny Everett, born Maurice Cole, DJ (died 1995)

Deaths

• 22 June – Kent Stevenson, war reporter (shot down while flying on an air raid)
• 19 August – Sir Henry Wood, orchestral conductor (born 1869)

See also

• 1944 in British music
• 1944 in British television
• 1944 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1944

References

1. Seatter, Robert (2022). "1944". Broadcasting Britain: 100 years of the BBC. London: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 9780241567548.
2. Murphy, Kate (1 December 2014). "A Marriage Bar of Convenience? The BBC and Married Women's Work 1923–39" (PDF). Twentieth Century British History. 25 (4): 533–561. doi:10.1093/tcbh/hwu002. PMID 25608371.
3. Ruddy, Austin J. (2019). The Home Front 1939-1945 in 100 Objects. Barnsley: Frontline Books. pp. 172–3. ISBN 9-781-52674-086-1.
4. McDonald, Tim (1 April 2004). "Hubert Gregg". The Guardian. London.
5. Foot, M. R. D. (1999). SOE: An Outline History of the Special Operations Executive 1940–46. London: Pimlico. p. 143. ISBN 0-7126-6585-4.
6. Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.
7. "D-Day Broadcasts". BBC 100. BBC. 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
8. Hendy, David (2022). "D-Day". BBC 100. BBC. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
9. "Jubilee Prom". The Yorkshire Post. Leeds. 28 July 1944. from the rural B.B.C. studio to which the concerts have been transferred.
10. "Chronomedia: 1944". Terra Media. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
11. Bowman, Martin (2013). Shrinking Perimeter. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. pp. 179–. ISBN 978-1-78159-177-2.
12. "Stanley Maxted: Former Singer Covered Plight Of Red Devils". The Globe. Toronto. 11 May 1963. p. 2.
13. Waller, Maureen (2020) [2004]. London 1945: life in the debris of war. [London]: John Murray. pp. 18–49. ISBN 978-1-529-33815-7.
14. "Music While You Work". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 1 November 2024.