The BBC's Most Bizarre Closedown Ever...

[@davidpanton3192]

That silly song has been lying dormant in my head for 46 years. Now it's right back there, damn you.

[@MrSlipstreem]

I'm old enough to remember the blue and red diamond-shaped stickers that were issued to stick on your radio tuning scale to remind you where the BBC radio stations had moved to.

[@PeteJohnson1471]

I have vague recollections of seeing a tuner with those on.

[@philthycat1408]

👍🏻 so there was .

[@EE12CSVT]

I remember my father sticking them on the tuner on our radiogram

[@rabsmiff]

275/ 285! still remember the radio one spots for this.

[@vwestlife]

BBC Radio 4 on longwave later changed from 200 kHz to 198 kHz in 1988. I doubt the King's Singers were employed again to announce that change in song.

[@5roundsrapid263]

I don’t think anyone would notice a 2 kHz difference. They might just think their receiver drifted off!

[@johnlister]

Sacrilege twice over. First, when did Radio 4 push Radio 2 (the “Light Programme”) off 1500 meters, which you could receive over most of France. That was our entertainment on many holidays! And then why 2kHz shift? I’m an ex-pat now living in the US, so I missed some of these things.

[@vwestlife]

@@johnlister Wikipedia says it "later moved to 198 kHz as a result of international agreements aimed at avoiding interference (all ITU Region 1 MW/LW broadcast frequencies are divisible by 9)."

[@johnlister]

@@vwestlife Makes sense, though I wonder how much difference it makes in the age of internet broadcasting/streaming.

[@johnr6168]

@@vwestlife Most of the MW frequencies had to change as well e.g. 1,214 kHz became 1,215 kHz (formerly known as 247m wavelength).

[@GeoNeilUK]

We really do need the King's Singers to remind us to retune our Freeview boxes and TVs!

[@galactiicrealness]

that would be an awesome throwback, I dont live in the uk, but if someone records it and puts it on youtube, that would be awesome

[@jeffknight904]

Daddy, what's a TV?

[@kbhasi]

This is reminding me of an alternate reality I imagined where Freeview would have just switched from DVB-T to DVB-T2, but kept the DVB-T encoders online for several more months to allow viewers to transition, retune their TVs, and if their TVs were too old to support DVB-T2, buy and connect external tuners. I also seem to remember reading an article that mentioned that a switch from DVB-T to DVB-T2 would've been more expensive than what they decided to do with Freely… I'll stop here before I go too far off topic.

[@trevorbrown6654]

That would be what seemingly is every other week as I seem to constantly keep seeing message saying "This channel is changing on xx/xx/xx. Please

[@2760ade]

I used to love the closedown. It was always announced by a very tired sounding presenter, and gave the cosy impression that everybody was now asleep - and so should you be! It was strangely peaceful at midnight in those days! And don't forget to switch off your set - (that is if you want to wake up again in the morning and not be consumed by fire!)🤣

[@TheGerkuman]

🎵 Brackets, in kilohertz, close brackets 🎵

[@troyhepler4330]

🎵will be on 603 and 909🎵

[@DiseaseShaker]

​@troyhepler4330 That's 5 Live now. I don't remember any musical announcement to that effect back in the day!

[@ladymunch0]

huh! no wonder other stations used those frequencies after they'd moved on, they have pretty good coverage. that bit in brackets was definitely a "huh!" moment for me :)

[@chefexcellence322]

Imagine the King’s Singers doing this, but with the Protect and Survive information.

[@Dead_Metal]

Doo, dododododododooooo, bwaaaappp

[@FrederickCrockett]

​@@Dead_Metal HI I'M COMPOST

[@tech34756]

I want to hear them do Two Tribes. "Ours are the last voices you will ever hear, don't be alarmed"

[@gunier.j.kintgenanimations]

@@FrederickCrockett Nice to know I'm not the only Caddicarus fan who thought of that!

[@ladymunch0]

lol. brilliant!

[@skylightmusicshowree]

"... and as the wavelength will be 247 meters, it will be renamed Wonderful Radio 3" 😆

[@alanr4447a]

Back in the 80s/90s, while most TV stations in the U.S. would have sign-off music of either "The Star-Spangled Banner" or maybe "America the Beautiful", one PBS ("public broadcasting") station in Pittsburgh was always using "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python!

[@barbarakirk3064]

Well done them! Simon Mayo used it on Radio One as his closing theme, and Iron Maiden used it as playout music on one of their tours.

[@carlkamuti]

Thank you for including I'm A Train at the end, never heard that tune before but it's cool as hell.

[@mgthestrange9098]

This is Pythonesque in its ridiculousness, I love it and miss this kind of british eccentricity. Hearing them sing provoked some kind of memory, they must’ve been on TV in the 80s too as I wasn’t born until 1980.

[@pdlagasse]

“Proust, in his first book, wrote about, wrote about …”

[@blueswingdown]

@@pdlagasse *gong* "Start again."

[@MakerfieldConsort]

The group Is still in existence today, albeit with a lineup which wouldn't have been born when this was recorded.

[@StickDrift-r7v]

“BBC Radio announces important changes” 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@64bakes]

That's quite possibly the most 1970's, most British way to decide to deliver information. Just fantastic 😂 If you listen carefully to the snippet of the song, you can hear pre-echo of the singer's voices, presumably from print through on the tape.

[@DMiddleton-bj5wc]

The BBC sent a strip of little red diamond shaped stickers to every household in the country with 1,2,3 & 4 so that they could be peeled off & stuck onto your radio dial to remind you of where your favourite station had moved to. One of the biggest changes was for Radio 2 from longwave to medium wave & Radio 4 being moved to Long Wave. I don't think VHF was affected, but many household radios didn't necessarily carry this frequency. Incidentally, radios that were 11 or more years old like ours often had Light, Home & Third marked on them.

[@melissanewton7462]

I've still got them on an old hi fi .

[@DMiddleton-bj5wc]

@@melissanewton7462 That's amazing.👍🙂

[@GordonHudson]

We weren't allowed to listen to the Light Service as kids! Too "low brow". A nice man from Radio Rentals also came and disabled the ITV button on the TV. Didn't get ITV until C4 launched. So no Thunderbirds till it was repeated in the 80s.

[@Tim091]

@@GordonHudson We weren't allowed to watch ITV either!

[@GordonHudson]

@@Tim091 I have heard this from a few people. I used to sneak a look at ITV at my Grans.

[@Joshlama]

As an Anglican who fell in love in Psalmody (the style of music that the King Singers where singing) and an acapella singer, this was so fun to find online a few years ago.

[@johnr6168]

The idea of singing modern words to old chants set for singing psalms in the Church of England was first used by The Master Singers about 10 years earlier. They sang an abbreviatedversion of the Highway Code and released it as a 7" single.

[@mathieuleader8601]

the harmonization is impressive

[@johnr6168]

@@mathieuleader8601 The music is all a selection of Anglican chants written 150 years ago to sing psalms to. They are singing the original harmonies here.

[@sixeleven637]

BBC radio announces important changes. From the 23rd of November 1978, A new international frequency agreement comes into effect. And many of the frequency used for the BBC will be changed at that time. Radio 1, radio 2 and radio 3🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@127dot0dot0dot1]

I love the idea that you might invite in a scout to turn your tuning dials...

[@thefrecklepuny]

Mr Herbert had a stack of deliberately out of tune radios for that very purpose!

[@grahamclark4518]

Poor kid absolutely shitting himself

[@j0hnf_uk]

Especially one who looked as nervous as the one shown in the clip on this video! 🤣

[@davidpanton3192]

That scout will now be around 60 years old. I hope he never gets to see this...

[@johnlister]

We can laugh but my mother had one radio (“wireless”) tuned to Radio 4 (“the Home Service”) in each room. When the radio failed for any reason, and (by then adult) child was summoned to fix it. I can well understand the scouts!

[@trevorbrown6654]

This sounds like the kind of thing Kenny Everett would have done tongue firmly in cheek

[@PeteJohnson1471]

Tea is lovely, tea's delicious, tea is such a lovely drink. Polly put the kettle on, we'll all have..... Tea is Lovely..............

[@janinefarnell8570]

I actually remember the radio changes in 78 when i was a kid. My older brother was a radio nut(still is and still does a radio show). My mum was a fan of The Kings Singers and The Cliff Adams Singers. The radio was never off in our house. I watched the information on radio changes again a few years ago. Brilliant and iconic such a reflection of the time.

[@DMiddleton-bj5wc]

Good lord, I remember this! It also ran on BBC radio stations as well.

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

So glad that you finally made a video about this! Tell you what Adam, you have a bright future as a documentary maker!

[@SonikkuKun]

This sounds so informative and beautiful at the same time

[@DiseaseShaker]

It is the most bizarre closedown I have ever seen (and I wasn't even born then!), but I love it. In fairness, BBC2 did sometimes end its broadcasts with pleasant, soft pieces of music, but only an act like the King's Singers could have pulled off something like this. I wonder if anyone watching on that night in 1978 still remembered the new frequencies the following morning? 😂

[@brandonlee7382]

I'm 22 years old. Just thinking that my grandparents lived through these times is crazy to think about. Only just learned today that they had the news then they go off air. I geuss that makes sense actually for the time. I remember growing up and seeing the news come on and I was thinking I better go to bed after this because it's late lol. I'm happy how far we have come. I can watch whatever I want now and even learn skills from the Internet.

[@davidpanton3192]

I lived through these times... Thanks for making me feel like a fossil.

[@fattomandeibu]

I'm 41 and closedown was still a regular thing on some channels(BBC2 was the last, I think) until I was around 20. You'd get the God Save the Queen then a selection of pages from Ceefax(BBC's version of the Teletext service, with ITV and Channel 4's being Oracle) to some light music to fill in the dead air until proper programmes resumed at either 6 or 7am, not in an "I can't remember which" way, but that it varied by day.

[@brandonlee7382]

@fattomandeibu wow that's actually not that long ago. I've always remembered channels showing something all night. Makes sense now. My generation is probably the last to grow up with TV channels. Kids these days probably never watch normal tv. I remember when I turned into a teenager I started to not watch TV anymore and just KZbin instead. I did not have Internet 6 months ago and I had to get the old sky box out and yeah that was interesting, I was very lucky to have a satellite because I would have been bored out my mind lol I think we need a backup system so if Internet goes out then we aren't screwed. These Internet companies sometimes take ages to install Internet.

[@brandonlee7382]

@davidpanton3192 Ever since the invention of smartphones and KZbin things have changed alot. Before I had a smartphone it was a blackberry curve and I just didn't use it much but it looked nice though lol and it had terrible recording capabilities but it was good enough to capture memories. Smartphones have been amazing for a while and it does spoil us. I've learned so much through the Internet and my life would be totally different if i was born 20 years sooner. Because there is so much information on the Internet it can create anxiety and make you learn about certain things that can worry you and make you do things that put your life into the opposite direction. Back in the day you were the product of your surroundings, because of the Internet you can learn so much which is good and bad

[@fattomandeibu]

@@brandonlee7382 It was only BBC2 by the mid '90s, if you don't count low rent satellite channels. ITV had been 24 hours since I can remember.

[@kavinskysmith4094]

Hmm, the Kings Singers, when the Childishness of a child crosses over with the professionalism of an adult, how utterly british, with full commitment to the bit lol

[@Vtarngpb]

As soon as you mentioned “through song” I for some reason got the Tim Traveller’s “Let’s go to San Marino” back in my head 🥲 🇸🇲

[@P0RT3RS1GN4LM4N]

The Kings Singers recorded the opening pages of the Highway Code back in the 1960s. As far as I remember, they only got through the section for pedestrians by the end of the record! I still have a copy somewhere...

[@thedukeofstratosphear]

That was the Master Singers - not the King's. Absolutely identical stylistically, though.

[@richardvoogd705]

Wow, a blast from the past! The clips blew a few cobwebs off some memories of encountering the group on TV and radio in New Zealand!

[@glenfordburrell2133]

Wasn't The King Singers banned from performing in certain parts of the US as recently as 2023?

[@dunebasher1971]

A sheet was distributed with the Radio Times containing small diamond-shaped stickers with each network's logo on it. The idea was that you stuck them onto the appropriate positions on your radio tuning dial (very few digital tuners back then) so that you knew exactly where to tune to on the day of the frequency change. Somewhere, I've still got my nan's old portable radio with the stickers still on it.

[@09weenic]

Yes I remember that - the stickers may also have been given out separately

[@MrDuncl]

If you searched through the radios on eBay U.K. I am sure you would find one or two radios with those stickers till on them. Of course radios with 1500m marked as BBC2 or even "Light" are common place.

[@anothercomment]

RTE, the state broadcaster in Ireland, used to closedown with the national anthem up until 1998. Then it went 24 hours. It always was a novelty to stay up and watch the tv closedown for the night during the school holidays or even at weekends. I may be a bit old-fashioned here, but I really wish television stations would close down for the night in 2024. Anyway, thanks once again for an interesting video.

[@jonarthritiskwanhc]

NHK, the state broadcaster in Japan, still has regular closedowns.

[@jclay205]

​​@@jonarthritiskwanhc Not just NHK, but most Japanese broadcasters also do closedowns (if I remember correctly).

[@KoichiFirst8092]

Japanese closedowns are on an irregular basis, whenever transmitters need some maintenance. Swedish SVT1 and SVT2, meanwhile, close down at night, but the procedure is boring: just some show promos, an ident, and a loop of the broadcast schedule.

[@Mchannnel]

@@jclay205 Japanese here! The only broadcaster that closes down regularly is NHK Education, and the rest closes down when maintenance is necessary. The closing sequence are not that interesting here, most of the tv channels have been using footages from the 90s~2000s…and the graphics are meh at best

[@AidanMacgregor-Personal]

The closest I remember is STV has a nightscreen where it showed helicopter footage of Scotland and you could send in SMS messages

[@markiangooley]

I appreciate enunciation from singers, so this is beautiful to listen to.

[@bganonimouse2754]

Superb reportage Adam!

[@daleksec12]

I bought that single! We also got stickers to put on the dial to help find them. You always find the most bizarre things. Thank you.

[@carlnewtonos9304]

Originally when you mentioned bizarre closedown I thought you was going to show a BBC closedown from 1983, when after switching to the national anthem the announcer must’ve flicked the wrong button and instead of hearing the anthem we heard the announcer having a party with friends. Glasses clinking and party poppers popping, it was quite a moment before somebody said “what’s that light on for?”. Christmas 1983 or perhaps 82.

[@bryanfalasco7235]

"Sorry about that, I hit the wrong switch. Didn't mean to show you my high school prom from 1974, now where is the transmitter off button.......... Ah, here it is."

[@frankmarker4414]

Thanks Adam for that.I never saw the broadcast ,which was Dr Whos 15th Birthday,nor new about the bizzare single,but i do remember the diamond stickers that licence payers were sent in the post to put on position for your radio.However if you had more than one radio ,tough! you got one set!

[@thefrecklepuny]

I remember the TV close downs. A signal that as a kid you either were on holiday or you stayed up far too late!

[@adz693]

My mum worked nights nursing and our dad was a pushover - always let me stay up late and watch inappropriate telly. Thing is... as a kid the closedown would always freak me out. It was the test tone. I used to call it "The boo noise" and when the anthem came on I knew the test tone was coming after and I would start screaming and crying: "Arrgh! Dad! The boo noise! The boo noise!". And he'd have to turn the telly off quickly. otherwise I'd have nightmares.

[@DiseaseShaker]

@@adz693 The BBC2 tone was okay (a perfect A, useful if you needed to tune your guitar!) - the high C tone on BBC1 was horrible.

[@stephenguppy7882]

I remember the wavelength changeovers well. We were sent packs of tiny stickers to put on the radio dial in case we 'forgot' where the stations had moved to and a handy reference card to reinforce the new info. Listeners in Europe were furious to lose Radio 2 from 1500 metres LW. I feel that with the decline in quality in the last few years, these days nobody would be either bothered about R2 or even miss it.

[@Nostalgic80s-nd3qb]

This video makes me miss the channel closedown thing honestly. They were very special to those who stayed up to witness it. 24/7 broadcasting is great, don’t get me wrong, but there’s something about watching a channel closedown that just fills me with memories. Excellent video Adam. 👍👍👍

[@dVb9]

The BBC closedown lives on on Radio 4, complete with the National Anthem. Just close your eyes and pretend you've been watching the box...

[@mgthestrange9098]

@@dVb9I thought it was a bit creepy, can’t think why though. It’s an odd thing.

[@joannedj1]

@@dVb9Yep, and tune in for Sailing By and the Shipping Forecast before the national anthem! After that, it hands over to the BBC World Service.

[@reddwarfer999]

@@dVb9 That is true although it isn't really a proper closedown as Radio 4 switches to the World Service at that time.

[@swanvictor887]

I'm old enough to remember one late-night continuity presenter for ITV, he used to sign off for the evening with "It's now three-Tom-cats past midnight and time for us to hit the hay...!" How much freer and loose we all were back then. He would be fired today because some arsehole would complain....and be listened to.

[@DMiddleton-bj5wc]

@@swanvictor887 Ours used to say "time to kick out the cat & gag the budgie"

[@atimelord852]

Love your choice of song to play over the credits. One of my favourite KS songs!

[@LoveAudioProduction]

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing with us, Adam.

[@anthonybradley1555]

amazing... there are somethings that are so uniquely british, like the shipping forecast as well, people may criticize the bbc sometimes but in the world of audio they are amongst the best and most distinctive providers.

[@areasquirrel]

Channel 4 were the masters of the weird closedown. From the "Important Announcement" telling us to move our calendars 10 days forward to April 11th... 😏 To marking the airing of the end of The Prisoner with that image of the Penny Farthing. My late uncle told of a time they'd ended the day with a horror movie and jump scared him as he went to turn the TV off. Musical closedowns were normal for BBC2 at the time, but this is still unusual. It being released was a shock to learn. Fourscore has some competition!

[@marnanel]

I have a happy memory of being allowed to stay up late (alone) to watch the end of Time Bandits, and the announcer signing off with "Good night, and don't forget to watch out for dwarves in the bedroom cupboard."

[@DoctorVision]

I watched the closedown on Channel 4's fifth birthday online with a creepy graphic of a hand and some eerie music and it's certainly one of the strangest things I have ever seen.

[@CricketEngland]

Who remember the episode of the Young ones when Vivian and Rick are watching the tv closedown. Rick - right are you come to bed Vivian Vivian - No I’m gonna stay up and watch this little white dot for a while Rick - Shame we don’t have a video record,then I could record it and watch it in the morning

[@marnanel]

@@CricketEngland "Because it will explode, you silly boy."

[@oliviajayward]

Idk why but your videos make me so nostalgic even when you’re talking about the bbc

[@TwoThousandStu]

I was born in 2000, the very backside of the 20th century (2001 was the new century/millennium per the calendar) but I still think old time radio and TV has a certain charm and vibrancy that we just don't have today. The name of my channel is even a refference to it.

[@hotelmario510]

I am obsessed with the enunciation of "many of the frequencies used for the BBC will be changèd at that time".

[@ArachmadiPutra]

brackets, close brackets they're truly Microsoft Sam with autotune

[@kevinjohnlancaster8333]

I remember my then one-handed magazine of choice, Hustler or something like that running an editorial about the changes. "The way the Beeb is going on about the frequency changes they must think the British public are thick, maybe they are".

[@purpleprose1967]

So many nostalgia feels! I was 11 and remember this well. So well, in fact, that to this day any mention of the 23rd of November reminds me of it. lol

[@jkmac625]

I was 5 and just started school. I do remember those little stickers they sent out to mark the new positions of the BBC radio stations. My grandparents had a King Singers Christmas record, but other than that I’ve not heard anything else they’d sung.

[@acesigma06]

4:11 The start of the song reminds me of the Kenny `Everett Jingles…so brilliant

[@markc5111]

Now that was awesome, thanks Adam 😍👍

[@DrBovdin]

A little piece of broadcast history, insignificant in the grand scheme of things, that could easily have been forgotten. I love the idea and execution of the announcement and it is great that it was preserved.

[@loureviews]

Where DO you find this stuff?! Brilliant. A completely different world.

[@Jayenkai]

Could you imagine a monthly "Freeview channel list update" like this...? I don't think I'd listen after the third or fourth one!

[@CricketEngland]

@@Jayenkai sky has Channel 998

[@tomgreen663]

The clever thing about this is that it was daft enough to sound ok at the time on Radio 1 and 2, smart enough to sound ok on Radio 4 and fit in perfectly on Radio 3. Quite an achievement!

[@jacobhemingway213]

This might be possibly the greatest closedown ever in the history of British TV

[@owenmcgheeandbdawg]

This was available as a 7 inch single, we had it along with stickers to put on the front of the radio.

[@footynutguy]

Thanks for confirming that. I know I’d heard it before but it wasn’t on the closedown as I was too young g to be up that late. I’m not sure if I’m remembering this wrong but I think this may have been used on other bbc shows, possibly nationwide? I don’t suppose you can confirm?

[@GROMIT9]

They should bring the King Singers back for the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day closedowns.

[@JennetteMcEntire]

Oh yes 😎 New Adam Martyn video ❤ Much love Adam, thank you for the work you do xx

[@AdamMartyn]

My pleasure! Thank YOU for watching 🥳✨️

[@cerysfrost3215]

I remember the jingle and the little stickers for the radio. I also saw the singer of the Poohsticks wearing a Radio One 247m T-shirt at the 1994 Reading Festival

[@lukasrussell5905]

It's called some enchanted wavelengths because they are 'chanting' the words in the style of an anglican chant

[@psprog]

I was only 8 back then, but this was absolutely everywhere and I heard it loads of times... They also sent out books of little diamond shaped stickers with the station logos on, presumably to stick on your hifi...

[@peterking2794]

My parents bought the record of the King's Singers doing 'The Highway Code'. I still have it. I think I may still have the leaflet that came with the little diamond stickers.

[@PaddyWV]

I have an old family clock radio with some of the stickers on that they gave out at the time.

[@Wenlocktvdx]

I remember hearing the jingle “BBC Announces Frequency Change” on the World Service on 11750 at the time. I was listening in Lalor in the north of Melbourne and reception was poor so I couldn’t hear the details

[@lcmortensen]

It wasn't just the UK -23 November 1978 was also when the entire MW band in Europe, Asia and Oceania was changed from 10kHz spacing (530, 540, 550, 560, 570...) to 9kHz spacing (531, 540, 549, 558, 567...).

[@robmclean4352]

2:30 I *love* the fact that *Boy Scouts* were entrusted with the job of tuning people's radios, all over the UK! (He looks like he's about 13 in 1978...as was I!)

[@richiehoyt8487]

Yeah, I don't think householders (especially elderly householders), let alone the boyscouts themselves would feel too comfortable with such arrangements nowadays!

[@CricketEngland]

BBC Radio 4 still closes down at midnight and plays “Sailing by” before it moves to the BBC Radio World Service overnight and all local BBC Radio stations go to BBC Radio 5 live at 1am

[@cookric555]

It's 0100 not midnight since shipping forecast is at 0048

[@CricketEngland]

@@cookric555yes it is now since we lost radio 4 LW

[@cookric555]

@@CricketEngland radio 4 lw is still broadcasting it's mw that's not

[@CricketEngland]

@@cookric555 no it doesn’t it closed this year

[@CricketEngland]

@@cookric555 Radio 4 never had a MW frequently

[@andygozzo72]

i can vaguely remember the change, they supplied little triangular stickers to stick on your radio dials, they did similar when radio 5 started

[@AlisonBryen]

I remember being allowed to stay up for the closedown when I was a kid as a treat 😂

[@halobegsnog8321]

Ah, the midnight voice of calm. Or its song, thanks. Plus, 94th mention of the flared-trouser mispelling on EMI's sleeve.

[@CricketEngland]

You forgot when channels went to pages from Ceefax overnight

[@timecapsule.]

Imagine hearing this in a dark, abandoned house at 3AM.

[@andrewbrunton8664]

I remember the stickers you got to stick on your dial to mark the new frequencies.

[@nickcooper1260]

The Kings's Singers are still gonig strong (many personel changes since 1968!). They were on Radio Three yesterday (12 October, 2024, as ever, superb and great fun).

[@TanyaBurns-x1u]

Did anyone else see the howling spelling mistake on the cover of the single?

[@StringedGuitar17]

yep

[@JennyAnnTea]

I remember all these changes and my dad using some choice language as he made little labels for the dial on the stereo!

[@KiwiCatherineJemma]

New Zealand, for many decades, had "The Goodnight Kiwi" a low tech, even by the day, animation of a Kiwi-bird and their cat, leaving the TV station and going to bed, accompanied by soft music. Note there were also several different still picture "Kiwi" pictures used during times of transmitter and network feed breakdowns that needed no audio or printed words and were clear in meaning. In one, the Kiwi had clearly tripped over a wire cable connecting a TV camera in a studio, into a wall outlet. Another picture card used during breakdowns had the Kiwi sweeping/mopping the floor of a TV studio and has clearly stuck the protruding handle behind him through breaking a TV screen. (Obviously meaning "the breakdown is at the tv station, please do not adjust your set!")

[@TheHeadCell]

I still have the set of stickers the BBC provided to stick on the radio dial. Little diamond shaped plastic stickers with the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 printed on them.

[@djsmeguk]

Two seven five and two eight five, B B C radio ONE! Permanently etched from my youth in the 80s. Woke up to it every morning. Simon Mayo IIRC.

[@Gunnercv]

I miss the King’s Singers. Interesting video

[@teriofshalott]

Was “In the Mood” always used to fill empty space on recordings? My dad was in a band in the 80s/90s and recorded a demo cassette that had In the Mood at the end of side 2, presumably to fill the rest of the space.

[@matelot95]

And the jingle went "275 and 285, and stereo VHF!"

[@andyg1957]

I remember hearing this so many times on radio, but never saw the TV closedown.

[@williamcallaghan2023]

excellent little documentary keep up the good work

[@Feakre]

I remember we had a load of stickers to put on radio dials to show where the stations had moved to.

[@ianbishop247]

I remember those also ! I think they were diamond shaped....And on a visit to a Radio 1 Roadshow we bought a Sunstrip for the car with 275 & 285 emblazoned across it:-)

[@WSmogpule]

What about a piece on the 1978 jingles to help people understand what station they were tuned in to? I only remember the R4 ones, but loved them!

[@hughofIreland]

Superb!!

[@LeeCorne]

I remember most radios had the stations printed onto the frequency indicator background (I'm not sure of the exact term) so the BBC produced little diamond-shaped stickers to put on the clear pastic to show the new positions on the dial. It's interesting that 5Live took over the 693/909 frequencies the Radio 2 were assigned here and Virgin Radio took over the 1215 frequency that Radio 3 occupied. When I was a kid, Radio 1 only had MW during the day and then took over the Radio 2 FM/VHF signal in the evening. The charts were always on a Sunday evening at IIRC 7pm right after changeover from R2, so we always used to listen to the last 5 mins of a Radio 2 easy listening show called "Sing Something Simple". That tune is ingrained in my head. :D

[@WhattheFools001]

This is not just strange, it's a masterpiece

[@NickFieldMedia]

Well that was quite something. Agreed it was quite soothing to listen to (not to sing though I'm sure), kind of like how some people find Gregorian chants to be, although I've never been a fan of those personally. I remember when BBC Radio 5 (now fivelive) launched in the early 90s and it was on that old Radio 2 wavelength 693/909 MW! No, I'm not sure how/why I remember that either...

[@ryangriffin18]

This is brilliant.

[@gatiakbarwibisono9387]

8:49 I was spontaneously saying "omg , that's a viral song from tiktok"

[@lja8857]

The King's singers should sing the christmas tv schedules this year

[@ronaldoakes7139]

As a USAmerican, I’m only used to seeing radio stations listed by frequency, not wavelength. Since I was 12 in 1978, I know that was as true then as now (and from older newspapers and other sources, goes back to the beginning of commercial radio in the U.S.). So seeing/hearing the stations listed with both frequency and wavelength was interesting. I’ve been well aware of their relationship since college or high school physics, however.

[@scottjackson-n4z]

Please will you do a few videos on how BBC radio came to move from medium and longwave to FM

[@johnr6168]

In some ways it wasn't really a move, or if it was, a very very slow one. VHF/FM started in the late 1950s with duplication of the then three BBC radio networks (later to become Radios 2, 3 & 4). However, Radio 4 is still also on LW and Radio 5 is still also on MW. Radio 4 LW will sadly see a well publicised switch off next year. Radios 1, 2 & 3 came off MW back in the 1990s. The Radio 2 frequencies were handed over to the new Radio 5. The Radio 1 and 3 frequencies were then used by new commercial national networks Absolute Radio (now off MW) and Talksport (still going on MW to this day).