BBC Radio 2 frequency changes - Nov 1978

[@kargaroc386]

That is one of the most amazing jingles I've ever heard

[@jaycee330]

Good ol' JAMS...

[@Knightyknight72]

An excellent historical listen. Even though I was only a kid (I was born in 1966) I remember it well although more so from a Radio 1 perspective. Certainly our Radio 1 reception was improved on 275m. Keep this stuff coming :) Regards, Tas

[@RetroRadioUK]

Will do! ...and thanks!

[@christopherhulse8385]

This was a fairly big deal in 1978 as FM/MW/LW was the only way to listen to radio.

[@hairynews1973]

These are classics! Thankyou for posting

[@RetroRadioUK]

Thanks for listening :)

[@davidmyers5545]

I've still got an old Roberts radio with the little stickers on it that you got to help with the frequency changes. I reckon the stickers came with the radio times

[@RetroRadioUK]

I remember those! Sounds like a real collector's item :)

[@christopherhulse8385]

I think they came through the post.

[@user-John666]

Yeah pretty sure they came through the post as we had them and no way could we afford luxuries like buying the Radio Times! 😆

[@organisten]

I remember this well. Although I was a little weird as a kid in liking Radio 3. I hated the changes, but they probably (looking back on it) helped me abandon the medium for FM. By my final school year, I thought of medium wave as a second class service. Now I live in Norway - and FM itself has all but gone, replaced by DAB and DAB+. The only exceptions are a few local radio stations that have, for the time being, permission to continue on FM. However many of them have now invested in DAB.

[@johnking5174]

The Lyrics of the frequency changes song - "Things are changing, things are moving, and we hope that, they are improving. In this letter, think we better, get across the message that we will soon be moving. On a weekday, in November, and the 23rd is what you must remember. It's a Thursday, that's the first day, that our frequency and wave lengths change their numbers. Yeah. Radio 2 is moving, and so we hope will you and you'll be listening when we move to Medium Wave of 433 and 330. We need you and so assume you like us too, and you'll be there to meet us when we move to Medium Wave on 433 and 330. Don't be worried, don't feel nervous, the kilohertz are on your dial in hundreds. You can find us, take your time, just remember 693 and 909"

[@ianhand5006]

I remember this well. I was 11 years old and I recall we received a card with some numbered stickers on it. I still have it, minus some of the stickers, somewhere.

[@alanmorr3635]

+Ian Hand Yes indeed, I was a postman at that time, I remember delivering all those coloured stickers with all the new frequencies on it.

[@quantumellon]

Damn... I had a Panasonic RQ512FLSD radiocassette for Christmas in 1976 when I was nearly 15 ! Those stickers came later in the post and my sister rubbed them off later when I was away at Manchester Polytechnic studying my degree... :(

[@Thomas828]

Well, I remember seeing all the publicity about the changes to BBC radio frequencies on the TV in the morning before programmes started up. I was 7 years old and this was the television and radio event of my childhood I remember best. I notice that no mention is made of Radio 4 that was taking over the frequency 1500 metres long wave, or Radio 3 on 247 metres medium wave.

[@JoannaGoodyear1978]

6:07 what’s this song called please?❤

[@RetroRadioUK]

Well I had to do a bit of Googling but the date of the transmission got me there: Frankie Valli, Save Me Save Me: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5KWYomin7CjpM0si=Gqp4EhgzJ7a8Y-uP

[@JoannaGoodyear1978]

@@RetroRadioUK Well thank you for the information & I understand. I like this video. Thanks for posting😊

[@theweathercat2002]

The late 1970's news theme was good

[@peterdockrill9653]

I know 25 Nov 78 was the first time I heard Mary's boy child by boney M. Love these downloads , the quality is really good.

[@RandomRadioJottings]

Ray Moore doing the V/O on the car sticker promo

[@anthonyperkins7556]

Some listeners on the continent in Western Europe closest to the UK could indeed carry on listening to Radio 2 MW via 433 and 330 metres. If you trimmed the aerial trimmer screw on your car radio, you could often pick up MW stations much much further than intended i.e. I did this to my bosses car radio and we got Manx Radio in much of North West England quite clearly even though they used directional antennas with 10kW transmitted to the North and West of the Isle Of Man and 10kW transmitted to the South and East of the Isle Of Man from a 20kW transmitter at Foxdale.

[@RetroRadioUK]

You're so right... my world opened up around 1979 when I connected up my AM/FM receiver's aerial terminal to the corrugated iron shed roof in the garden and could pick up stations like Devonair in Oxfordshire :-)

[@chrispearson3333]

Yes Norfolk Fire Service used 99FM; today Radio 1 is on 99.3FM from Tacnoleston Transmitter south east of Norwich.

[@davidmyers5545]

Crazy that Radio 1 didn't get their own FM frequency till 1988!

[@RetroRadioUK]

Bonkers!

[@MPsNewswatch]

Not helped by the fact that Radio 1 was shoehorned into service after the success of the UK offshore pop pirates. For many of the early years, it shared airtime with Radio 2 and had some shared shows due to cutbacks in the mid 70s. It really wasn't until the late 80s when UK commercial radio split frequencies and most went CHR and R1 finally went FM in most of the country that pop music was finally part of the mainstream and not as a tick box outfit as R1 was for years, but 78 was an important year for many to tune into R1 without the dire reception 247 had.

[@chrispearson3333]

Autumn 1989 in Norfolk

[@radiodarkhorse]

Haven't heard that John Dunn theme since I was a kid!

[@RetroRadioUK]

Ah, the memories! When I recently heard John Dunn's closing theme again (Syd Dale's Central Park Parade), I was straight back in the kitchen as a teenager with mum doing the cooking!

[@radiodarkhorse]

RetroRadioUK For me, my dad used to drive lorries for Celcon and he had Radio 2 on the radio in the cab. I used to accompany him sometimes and was listening to all shows being around 7/8 years old. My dad still listenens to Radio 2 although it's changed a bit

[@stephenhall6595]

Radio 1 was improved but Radio 2 was worst in some areas on Medium Wave compared to Long Wave. However Radio 2 always had FM.

[@christopherhulse8385]

Radio 2 generally had comparable coverage on MW with Radio 1, people did tolerate crackles and interference on their radio's back then more than today.

[@jayrogers8255]

39 years ago today on the very same day of the week as well!

[@jessicamarshall5936]

what are the lyrics to the song at 4:00?

[@johnking5174]

"Things are changing, things are moving, and we hope that, they are improving. In this letter, think we better, get across the message that we will soon be moving. On a weekday, in November, and the 23rd is what you must remember. It's a Thursday, that's the first day, that our frequency and wave lengths change their numbers. Yeah. Radio 2 is moving, and so we hope will you and you'll be listening when we move to Medium Wave of 433 and 330. We need you and so assume you like us too, and you'll be there to meet us when we move to Medium Wave on 433 and 330. Don't be worried, don't feel nervous, the kilohertz are on your dial in hundreds. You can find us, take your time, just remember 693 and 909". - I hope you appreciate it was hard for me to listen bit by bit to get the lyrics, I think I am 99.9% right. Hope this helps you.

[@jaycee330]

Things are changing,things are moving. And we hope that they're improving. In this letter, think we'd better get across the message that we're moving. On a weekday in November, And the 23rd is what you must remember. It's a Thursday, that's the first day That our frequency and wavelengths change their numbers. Radio 2 is moving house, And so we hope will you and yours be Listening when we move to medium wave On 433 and 330. We need you and sort of hope You like us too. And you'll be there to Meet us when we move to medium wave On 433 and 330. Don't we worried, don't feel nervous. The kilohertz are on your dial in hundreds. You can find us. Take your time. Just remember: 693 and 909.

[@michaelturner4457]

That sounds very much like PAMS Dallas jingles.

[@RetroRadioUK]

And indeed it is! Check out the full 1976 package: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIDbe6WbgZKentU

[@Nightingale1000]

​@@RetroRadioUK I think that was the last one they got from PAMS before switching over to Jam, right?

[@peterdockrill9653]

Would've liked to actually hear the whole of the news bulletins

[@RetroRadioUK]

Me too... but I could never have known that my interests would change and I'd be sharing this stuff more than 40 years later :-)

[@cabbage1673]

just heard the late ray moore is there any clips from his show's please

[@RetroRadioUK]

Hi Kevin - sorry I've no more Ray Moore clips. I was always out on my paper-round when he was on!

[@cabbage1673]

thanks matey his theme tune was here there and everywhere by mike leander

[@djkeithcostello5200]

Best radio station

[@markgaughran4374]

39 years ago today

[@jayrogers8255]

Was this recorded on longwave or FM? I'm guessing FM. Very interesting as I've never heard longwave radio (we don't have it here in ITU Region 2).

[@RetroRadioUK]

Hi Jay - yes, this was all taped off Radio 2's FM (VHF) frequency. Long wave lives on for UK listeners with BBC Radio 4 on 198kHz/1500 metres.

[@jayrogers8255]

RetroRadioUK We don't have that over here. I'm glad to hear that RTE Radio 1 is getting a 3-month reprieve. Do you happen to have the 1st day of the change in frequencies (Thursday the 23rd)?

[@RetroRadioUK]

Jay Rogers Hi Jay - I'm afraid not. I think I must have been skiving off school to get all the clips from November 22nd and would have been back in the classroom by Thursday! I do remember a school-mate coming in that first morning of the new frequencies and playing some of the new Radio 1 "275 and 285" jingles on his radio-cassette: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3O2fKGVi8-rh5Y

[@jayrogers8255]

RetroRadioUK Very nice! I can tell that's a Jam package!

[@arthurvasey]

It's in stereo, so it's recorded from FM - even today, you still can't get stereo sound on long wave or medium wave!

[@davejenkins744]

why was these changes made?? and what was wrong with LW... genuine question

[@RetroRadioUK]

Dave - there's probably a much longer answer for you via Wikipedia, but I think it was down to two issues: a need to improve AM reception across the UK - especially for Radio 1 which didn't have its own dedicated FM network at that time, unlike Radio's 2, 3 & 4 - and also to meet the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 which tweaked the allocation of European frequencies very slightly to cram more stations on the dial at increments of 9kHz (as opposed to 10kHz in North America). BTW - nothing wrong with Long Wave - the BBC's single Long Wave frequency (200kHz which was tweaked to 198kHz) was handed from Radio 2 to Radio 4 and the shipping forecast bulletins switched stations with that change - probably better suited to Radio 4's all-speech format.

[@davejenkins744]

@@RetroRadioUK thanks for that... this might sound boring yeah.. but about 1982 is started too listen too sport on 2 as akid for the football commentries mid week nights ... buts as the night would go on the reception used to like fade in and out.. id tune too the other MW station but it would still be bad... the day time its was fine... i live in west wales so would that be a reason it was bad at night... thanks again retroradio

[@RetroRadioUK]

Great memories Dave! There's some science here - AM signals travel further at night so your day-time favourites get squeezed out by stations that are based further away: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYenhnqff81-bZo That's partly why Radio Luxembourg aimed it's programmes at the UK after dark :-) Your memories also explain the evolution of broadcasting in the UK with the launch of Radio 5 in 1994, finally allowing Radio 2 to ditch its sports output, the expansion of the FM dial (removing emergency service transmissions from the upper end) to give Radio 1 its own dedicated network along with Classic FM and - in more recent times - the growth of DAB, allowing many more channels at far higher quality than AM - although many purists would say that too many of the commercial DAB stations are not as high quality as a conventional FM signal.

[@davejenkins744]

@@RetroRadioUK thankyou,,..... hope u find some sport on 2 soon.. evening shows

[@eugeneoneal3034]

Lots more retro Radio 1, 2 and ILR can be found here, www.normanb.net/index.htm