Radio 1 MW night time closedown. Early 90s.

In the early 1990s BBC Radio 1 was simulcast on FM and 1053/1089 kHz medium wave. MW was closed down at night to save power. This message was played before the transmitters were switched off.

[@Dave-ko2pr]

Wow the jazzy sign off music sounds very 90s !

[@astonishingpatch]

“This is BBC Radio 1. We no longer broadcast on Mediumwave through the night, but you can catch up with the latest music and the fastest news by tuning to 1 FM between 97 and 99. Radio 1 on Mediumwave will reopen at 6am. Retune to FM now”

[@GruIsBaldandBlueySucks69]

"IRELAND! SCOTLAND! ENGLAND! WALES! BBC Radio 1 FM!"

[@astonishingpatch]

Radio 1 didn’t broadcast in most of the Republic of Ireland, apart from cities and towns close to the border with Northern Ireland. Nowadays, it can be accessed online.

[@MirkoMazzoni2000]

"We no longer broadcast on Mediumwave through the night" When did they do so? As far as I know 24/7 wasn't a thing for radios at first (like television did as well, notably BBC1 until News 24 was launched in 1997).

[@astonishingpatch]

@@MirkoMazzoni2000 Radio 1 went 24 hours on FM only in 1991. The station was only on air from 6am-midnight to save power.

[@MirkoMazzoni2000]

@@astonishingpatch on FM only but when did they do 24/7 in MW? Please help me because I've heard the "no longer" and when "no longer" is in the sentence it means it has done it in the past. We in Italy had only one radio (at least when I had my portable radio until it decided to break) in AM (is AM the medium wave?) that continued to be hearable in AM from 6am to midnight until late 2022 (no joke) and as far as I have seen some parts of Italy did carry that radio in AM for the full 24 hours (but I don't know when did they start doing the nightly closedowns that included the national anthem). Did the BBC refuse to get that they might have lost listeners when they discontinued MW whilst their Italian counterpart did let the MW continue for almost 30 more years?

[@christopherhulse8385]

I think the BBC didn't realise that not all areas could hear R1 on FM till further transmitters were switched on, so turning MW off overnight was losing listeners.

[@kellymarieangeljohnson114]

Such a shame they left mediumwave it always had a nice warm sound. Im glad i got to enjoy a few years of really good reception in weymouth before the loss of AM. Befire that in deepest darkest berkshire reception was not all that

[@75eszhgclk]

I was desperate for radio one to gets its own independent fm frequency. Then it did. Then Matthew Bannister came along and 4ucked it all up. Great.

[@europa2000man]

That marked the beginning of the end of BBC Radio 1 on medium wave. I think in 1994, they started to close down at 6pm each day and eventually, they closed down completely in July of the same year.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

Started off at midnight, then went to 6pm then mid-day.

[@christopherhulse8385]

There was a voice over that used to cut into shows telling listeners MW was closing down, it was annoying.

[@adambirchenall]

This version replaced the SImon Bates voiceover that began in May 1991 until March 1992 and then this version from the 9th March 1992 due to the revamp Jingles package, and lasted until 1994 when MW was switched off on 1st July 94

[@markgaughran4374]

There was also the “31 days in May” competition which from 1993 I think was also broadcast on FM only with messages on AM/MW advising listeners to retune. In addition towards the end of AM/MW broadcasts there would be messages interrupting the broadcasts during the day, which again would advise listeners to listeners to retune to FM

[@kieranmurray]

I don;t think the reason for the AM switch off was becauee of power costs. In actual fact, FM would cost a lot more due the thousands and thousands of FM tramsmitters need to cover the UK. In actial fact, when BBC Radio One left AM - the service was replaced by another BBC station - so cost savings did not factor in this decision.

[@DoctorLemon]

Excellent recording! Curiosities like these amaze me. I assume your city already had a FM transmitter for Radio 1, right? Did they expand the closing hours during the months/weeks before the complete closedown in 1994?

[@ZudoBug2]

I think the nationwide rollout of FM transmitters was completed before MW started to close down at night. But the feed to the FM transmitters uses NICAM - a lossy audio codec designed in 1978. So although it's broadcast on FM, it's not true FM quality...

[@christopherhulse8385]

@@ZudoBug2 R2 FM sounded better than R1 FM at the very beginning in 1988, quality seemed to improve later on.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

After that last jingle they disconnect the MW transmitters to off air state.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

I can hear a little bit of deep AM fading

[@christopherhulse8385]

Nice

[@Dave-ko2pr]

So this was from around 1992/1993 ?

[@Dave-ko2pr]

Anyone know the date of this ?

[@Dave-ko2pr]

Anyone know the actual date of this ?

[@Lighthazzles]

I worked the nightshift in late 1992 and this came over the radio before closedown.