BBC Radio 2 to Radio 1 FM Handover - January 1989

Pre 1988, BBC Radio 1 didn't have it's own FM frequencies, but was allowed use of the BBC Radio 2 FM frequencies at certain times, usually
Monday - Friday 10pm - Midnight
Saturday 1pm - 7.30pm
Sunday 5pm - Midnight
Radio 1 usually also got use of FM on UK Bank Holidays
By the time of this example, Radio 1 does have it's own FM frequencies in some parts of the country, but still borrows Radio 2's FM frequencies for the Top 40 on Sunday evenings
This is from Sunday January 15th 1989

[@MrClingclong]

I remember listening to Sing Something Simple once and the Cliff Adams singers did their version of Queen's Bohemian rhapsody. It was,....er, startling.

[@stephenguppy7882]

Hearing the closing strains of Sing Something Simple, it reminds me of being forced to listen to lots of already-outdated rubbish on a Sunday afternoon. It was Hell.

[@scottpeacock5492]

BBC Radio 2 was still stuck in it BBC Light Programme format, i couldn't bear listening to the station back then as i found it depressing, As to what the programming on Radio 1 was then, Radio 2 is now the new Pre 92 Radio 1.

[@manxusa]

My wonderful friend, the late Patrick Lunt on Radio 2. Such a nice man.

[@stephenguppy7882]

@@manxusa Ah yes, Patrick Lunt, a versatile radio broadcaster who not only read the news but presented programmes with his urbane charm and easy command of the medium. A broadcasting gentleman and easy-listening legend. I believe he was one of Jan Leeming's sixteen rather unfortunate husbands. I always used to shudder whenever she remarried, as the signs were never good.

[@steeviebops]

This was the time when Frances Line was the head of music and changed the music policy to an over-40s format. David Hamilton left in 1986, saying the station had gone geriatric!

[@ihallsworth]

@@scottpeacock5492yes indeed, all the people who complain about the changes happening now need to listen to radio 2 of the 1980s and then read the letters the bbc received when they changed the format. God job they didn’t act on those letters.

[@davidhamm7909]

I didn’t realise Sing Something Simple was still going in 1989 but I’ve just Googled it and apparently it ran until 2001. I remember my Dad always had it on in the car when driving home from my Grandparents on a Sunday evening in the 60s and early 70s.

[@rtc9063]

The BBC never wanted Radio 1 and god didn’t they make that clear. I remember when it used to close down at 7pm on a Saturday night FFS. This is supposed to be a legal version of the pirates and then shared its bloody output with dreary old Radio 2.

[@stevenoneill7166]

@rtc9063 absolutely spot on. In the mid-70's, the BBC applied to use 97.6-100 MHz....but not for Radio 1, it was for an education channel !. Even the government of the day couldn't believe it & unsurprisingly turned the application down. From it's launch up to the mid-90's, almost every Radio 1 controller was an ex-RAF officer, an old fart & way out of touch as to what young people wanted. As for rebroadcasting Radio 2 after 7 pm, that was utterly ridiculous. None more so than on Sunday evenings when all the programmes were for a much older audience. And those old farts at the BBC wondered why 20 million youngsters retuned to Radio Luxembourg every evening. You didn't need Albert Einstein to figure out why !

[@TheGiantKillers]

@@stevenoneill7166 How times have changed. Radio ones audience figures were around four times those of radio two in the 80s. Fast forward forty years and radio two has almost treble the listeners of radio one.

[@scottpeacock5492]

In some part of the country, People couldn't pick up Radio 2 on FM let alone Radio 1 on Radio 2 FM frequencies, My once local BBC Station BBC Radio Bedfordshire handed over their 95.5mhz FM Frequencies to Radio 1 for the start of Bruno Brookes Radio 1 Top 40 chart around 1988 until the FM Signal in the area were improve,

[@richardemra971]

Radio 2 and Radio 1 had to share their FM frequency during the 1970's. Indeed, so much of their programming was 'simulcast' so to speak that the network became popularly known as Radio 1 and a half!

[@anthonyperkins7556]

Radio Lancashire in the eighties would also broadcast Radio 1 Top 40 5-7 then handover to Radio 2 at 7pm.

[@stevenoneill7166]

Around 1988, BBC Radio Newcastle carried Radio 1 on it's frequencies after their local had come to an end for the day. This eventually ended in the following spring when all the local radio stations in the North-East carried their own programmes up to midnight

[@julianaylor4351]

Too many jingles. 😁

[@simon9174]

Loved listening to the jingles

[@ntmdisco]

In the midlands you had to retune from 1053mw to 88.3fm.

[@christopherhulse8385]

Before September 1988 yes, after then R1 was on 98.4 initially, then 97.9.

[@stevenoneill7166]

I remember when Radio 1 brought the roadshow up to Newcastle in 1990 to launch the FM signal for the North-East....& they got a very mixed reception. The fact there had been little pre-publicity & also the signal would be on reduced power for another year was bad enough, but most people in the area were pissed off at Radio 1 for switching on FM transmitters in lesser populated areas such as Cardigan Bay & Cumbria before the North-East

[@StevenWillis-w1q]

1053Khz would be 285m 1089Khz would be 275m