1943 in British radio

This is a list of events from British radio in 1943.

Events

January

• 6 January – BBC reporter Richard Dimbleby makes a live recording from a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid over Berlin piloted by Guy Gibson.

February

• 12 February – The BBC Ottringham transmitting station in east Yorkshire goes live for broadcast of propaganda to Europe. ^[1]

March

• March – A BBC radio adaptation of E. Nesbit's The Railway Children is broadcast. ^[2]

April to May

• Spring – The BBC Monitoring service moves from Wood Norton Hall, Worcestershire, to Caversham Park and Crowsley Park, near Reading, Berkshire.

June

• 24 June – Ralph Vaughan Williams conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the premiere of his Fifth Symphony at a BBC Proms Concert in the Royal Albert Hall. ^[3]

September

• 4 September – BBC reporter Wynford Vaughan-Thomas reports from an RAF nighttime bombing raid over Berlin. ^[4]

October

• 17 October – The BBC Woofferton transmitting station in Shropshire begins shortwave broadcasts. ^[5]
• Late October – Gustav Siegfried Eins, a British black propaganda station, ceases broadcasting to German troops in Western Europe on the short wave, ostensibly because of a Gestapo raid. ^[6]

November

• 14 November – Soldatensender Calais, a British black propaganda station, begins broadcasting to German troops in Western Europe from a studio at Milton Bryan in Bedfordshire through the powerful medium wave Aspidistra transmitter in Sussex, purporting to be an official German military station. ^[6]
• 23 November – British Forces Broadcasting Service begins operation serving forces overseas. ^[7]

December

• 3 December – London-based American war reporter Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS describing an RAF nighttime bombing raid over Berlin.

Debuts

• 2 August – This Week's Composer on the BBC Home Service (1943–Present) (continuing as Composer of the Week on BBC Radio 3) ^[8]
• Caribbean Voices on the BBC World Service (1943–1958) ^[9]

Continuing radio programmes

1930s

• In Town Tonight (1933–1960)

1940s

• Music While You Work (1940–1967) ^[10]
• Sunday Half Hour (1940–2018)
• Desert Island Discs (1942–Present)

Births

• 29 January – Tony Blackburn, DJ
• 18 February – Graeme Garden, Scottish-born comedy performer
• 6 April – Roger Cook, Australasian-born investigative reporter
• 14 May – John Cushnie, Northern Ireland landscape designer and gardening broadcaster (died 2009)
• 30 May – Charles Collingwood, Canadian-born actor
• 17 August – John Humphrys, Welsh-born news broadcaster
• 11 September – Brian Perkins, New Zealand-born newsreader
• 28 September – Mike Dickin, DJ and presenter (died 2006)
• 18 October – Dai Jones, Welsh broadcaster (died 2022)
• 23 October – Roger Scott, DJ (died 1989)
• 26 November – Paul Burnett, DJ

Deaths

• 20 November – Rev. George Bramwell Evens ('Romany'), broadcaster and writer on countryside matters (born 1884)

See also

• 1943 in British music
• 1943 in British television
• 1943 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1943

References

1. Baxter, Dale (10 September 2008). "Hidden history in Holderness". BBC Humberside. BBC. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
2. Harrisson, Tom (21 March 1943). "Radio". The Observer . London. p. 2.
3. Richards, Denby (March 2009). "Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major". Musical Opinion: 50.
4. "Raid on Berlin: Actuality recording of a Royal Air Force (RAF) bombing raid over Berlin, Germany". Australian War Memorial. 4 September 1943. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
5. Cant, Jeff (2006). "Fifty years of transmitting at BBC Woofferton 1943–1993: A social and technical history of a Short Wave Station" (PDF). Retrieved 10 March 2021.
6. Taylor, John A. (2005). Bletchley Park's Secret Sisters: Psychological Warfare in World War II. Dunstable: The Book Castle. ISBN   1-903747-35-X.
7. "Historical Events in 1943". www.historyorb.com.
8. Macleod, Donald (2 August 2013). "Happy 70th birthday Composer of the Week". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
9. Swanzy, H. L. V. (1949). "Caribbean Voices: Prolegomena to a West Indian Culture". Caribbean Quarterly . 1 (2): 21–28.
10. "Music While You Work". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 1 November 2024.