30 September – Radio 4 launches at 06:35, replacing theBBC Home Service. The first programme to be broadcast isFarming Today.[1]
22 December – Panel gameJust a Minute is first aired withNicholas Parsons as chairman (initially as a temporary stand-in). He would go on to present the programme until 2019.
10 July – The BBC publishes a report called "Broadcasting in the Seventies" proposing the reorganisation of programmes on the national networks and replacing regional broadcasting onBBC Radio 4 withBBC Local Radio.
1 April –Choral Evensong is broadcast on Radio 4 for the final time – it transfers toBBC Radio 3 from the following week.
3 April – For the first time, both airings ofAny Questions are broadcast on Radio 4. Previously, the station had only broadcast the Saturday repeat as the Friday night debut broadcast had been onBBC Radio 2.
10 April – The first broadcast of a new news and current affairs programmeAnalysis.
6 September –Sunday, which looks at topicalreligious and ethical issues, launches.[3]
5 October – The consumer affairs programmeYou and Yours debuts.
1971
4 November – Radio 4 (and Radio 2) begin broadcasting in stereo in South East England. Stereo was rolled out to the rest of the country over subsequent years.[4]
9 June – Proceedings in theParliament of the United Kingdom are broadcast on radio for the first time[7] and BBC Radio 4 broadcasts the first two hours of that day's proceedings.[8]
22 August – The BBC Radio comedyThe Men from the Ministry airs its final episode after fifteen years on air.
2 October – The first edition ofMoney Box is broadcast.
1978
3 April – Permanent radio broadcasts of proceedings in theHouse of Commons begin.[10] Radio 4 marks the first day with an afternoon of live coverage.[11] The station goes on to broadcastPrime Minister's Questions for the next year.
3 July – Changes are made to the station's weekday breakfast schedule. After just over a year on air,Up to the Hour is cancelled. Consequently,Today once again becomes a continuous two-hour programme. Also, a new weekday 6amNews Briefing is introduced.
23 November
Radio 4's AM service moves from medium wave to 1500m (200 kHz) long wave as part of a plan to improve national AM reception, and to conform with theGeneva Frequency Plan of 1975.[12] However long wave reception is not universal so in some parts of the UK where long wave reception is poor, filler transmitters on MW are used.
TheRadio 4 UK Theme is used for the first time to coincide with the network becoming a fully national service for the first time and to mark this the station is officially known asRadio 4 UK.
22 December – Industrial action at the BBC by the ABS union, which started the previous day, extends to radio when the radio unions join their television counterparts by going on strike, forcing the BBC to merge its four national radio networks into one national radio station from 4pm and called it the BBC All Network Radio Service. The strike is settled shortly before 10pm on Friday 22 December 1978, with the unions and BBC management reaching an agreement at the British government's industrial disputes arbitration service ACAS.[13][14][15][16]
1979
1 April – The first edition ofFeedback is broadcast.[17]
Summer – Due to the continued expansion ofBBC Local Radio, regional opt-out programming ends, apart from in the south west as this is now the only part of England still without any BBC local station.
1981
No events.
1982
10 September – After 32 years on air,Listen with Mother is broadcast for the final time. It is replaced three days later by a shorter five minute lunchtime programme calledListening Corner which is transmitted on FM only whilst long wave listeners receive the lunchtimeshipping forecast.
1 February –In Business is broadcast for the first time.
1984
5 April – Radio 4 begins what is described inRadio Times as "a new three-hour sequence – a six-month broadcast experiment in which you are invited to participate." The programme is calledRollercoaster and is presented byRichard Baker.[18] The "Grand Finale of Radio 4's rollicking rolling experiment" takes place on 27 September[19] and was not repeated.
The post-midnightShipping Forecast starts being broadcast 18 minutes later than before, moving to a start-time of 00:33.
Radio 4 starts broadcasting 30 minutes earlier at the weekend when it launches a 20-minutePrelude, described as “a musical start to your weekend listening”.[20] Consequently, the station is now on air every day from just before 06:00 until 00:30.
TheRadio 4 UK branding is dropped and the station is now officially simply known as Radio 4.
1985
28 June – The final weeknightStudy on 4 broadcast takes place.
29 June –Study on 4 is renamedOptions and from this date all of BBC Radio's adult educational programming is now broadcast on weekend afternoons.[21] The programmes continue to be broadcast only on VHF/FM. This means that Radio 4's output on weeknights between 11pm and 11:30pm – ie all ofThe World Tonight andThe Financial World Tonight – are now also broadcast on VHF/FM.
25 July–8 August – During the 1985 school summer holidays, Radio 4 broadcasts an all-morning children's programme calledPirate Radio 4 on Thursday mornings. Three editions of the programme are aired. It is broadcast on VHF/FM only with the usual Radio 4 schedule continuing on long wave. The programme returns the following summer for three more editions.
28 December –Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye (Make Yourself at Home) is broadcast for the final time. The programme, aimed at the Asian community, had been broadcast on Radio 4 and theBBC Home Service every Sunday morning since 1965.
1987
3 January –The Today programme is extended to six days a week when it launches a Saturday edition andJohn Humphrys joins the programme's presenting team as John Timpson's replacement.
23 June – Ahead of the transfer of all of BBC radio's educational programmes to the forthcomingBBC Radio 5, the last edition ofOptions, the BBC's weekend afternoon strand of adult educational programmes which had been transmitted as a weekend afternoon opt-out from the main schedule on FM, is broadcast.[27]
20 August –The Moral Maze is broadcast for the first time.
24 August –Listening Corner, the weekday lunchtime programme for small children, is broadcast for the final time.
26 August –Open University programmes are broadcast on Radio 4 for the final time until they return to Radio 4 1994 when Radio 5 is replaced byBBC Radio 5 Live.
27 August – The launch of Radio 5 sees the full Radio 4 schedule broadcast on FM for the first time.
1991
17 January–2 March –Radio 4 News FM, the first rollingBBC Radionews service is on air during the firstGulf War. It broadcasts on the station'sFM frequencies, with the regular scheduled service continuing onlong wave.[28][29]
25 July – The final episode of soap operaCitizens is broadcast.
13 September –The Daily Service is broadcast on FM for the final time.
16 September
The mainBBC Radio 4 service moves from long wave to FM as FM coverage has now been extended to cover almost all of the UK. Radio 4 didn't become available on FM in much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland until the start of the 1990s. Opt-outs are transferred to long wave.[30]
A new 30-minute religious slot at 10:00 on weekdays is launched, but is broadcast as an opt-out and therefore is only available on long wave. The first fifteen minutes is used to broadcastThe Daily Service and this is followed by the launch of a 12-month series featuring readings fromThe Bible.[31]
Late March–7 April – For the first time, Radio 4 long wave opts out of the main Radio 4 schedule to provide additional news coverage. It does so to provide live coverage of the latest developments in thegeneral election campaign. Previously, additional news coverage had been broadcast on FM.
15 October – The BBC announces plans to launch a continuous news service onBBC Radio 4’slong wave frequency. The date of 5 April 1994 is set as the launch date.[34] The plan would result in Radio 4 broadcasting exclusively on FM.
1993
There is widespread opposition to the BBC's plans to launch a rolling news service on Radio 4’s long wave frequency and the proposals are dropped. A new news and sport serviceBBC Radio 5 Live launches the following year.
18 December – BBC 2 broadcasts the Arena special "Radio Night", an ambitious simulcast with BBC Radio 4.[35]
1994
21 February – A new weekday afternoon magazine show starts, calledAnderson Country. The programme proves divisive amongst the station’s listenership over the different tone of the programme when compared with the rest of Radio 4. It is replaced after a year byThe Afternoon Shift.
25 March –The Financial World Tonight is broadcast on Radio 4 for the final time, ahead of its move to the new news and sport stationBBC Radio 5 Live.
3 April – The closure ofBBC Radio 5 sees children’s programmes return to Radio 4. However, instead of daily programmes, just one weekly 30-minute programme is broadcast, aired on Sunday evenings.[36]
10 April – Radio 5's closure sees adult education andOpen University programmes return to Radio 4. They are broadcast on long wave only as a two-hour block on Sunday evenings. Open University programmes are broadcast between February and September with language courses aired from October until January.
September – In the aftermath of Princess Diana's death, thePM programme drops its theme tune which had been in use since 1993. This had been the third time that the programme had used theme music and has not subsequently had a theme tune.
1998
6 April – Extensive schedule changes take place. Many long-standing programmes are axed as part of the shake-up, includingBreakaway,Week Ending andSport on Four and arts programmeKaleidoscope is replaced by a new programmeFront Row withMark Lawson as presenter. The changes co-inside with an earlier start to the station's day - 05:30 instead of 06:00 - and a 30-minute extension to the weekday editions ofThe Today programme.[39]
12 April – A Sunday episode ofThe Archers is introduced.
19 April – A new Sunday morning current affairs programmeBroadcasting House launches.[40]
1999
April –Roger Bolton, formally of Channel 4's viewer feedback programmeRight to Reply, replaces Chris Dunkley as the presenter ofFeedback.[41][42] with his last episode being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 26 August 2022.
Radio 4, along with other BBC Radio stations, stop broadcasting via Sky's analogue satellite service.
2002
15 December – Radio 4 gets a digital spin-off station,BBC7. The station broadcasts content from BBC Radio’s spoken word archive, repeating programmes previously broadcast on Radio 4, as well as airing daily programmes for children.
2003
No events.
2004
20 February –BBC Radio 4 airs the finalLetter from America. The weekly 15-minute programme ran for 2,869 shows from 24 March 1946, making it the longest-running speech radio programme in history.
23 April – TheRadio 4 UK Theme is used for the last time, amid controversy over its axing by Radio 4 controllerMark Damazer.[44][45] The decision to axe the theme, which had been used since 1978, to make way for a 'pacy news briefing' led to widespread coverage in the media and even debate in Parliament.[46]
24 June – The final edition ofHome Truths is broadcast.
4 October – BBC7 is renamed BBC Radio 7 in an effort to bring it in line with other BBC Radio brands.[48]
14 October –You and Yours undergoes a significant change of format, with two presenters being replaced by one. The breadth of topics covered is extended to global problems as well as those closer to home.
2009
24 May – Children's magazine showGo4It is broadcast for the final time.[49] The reason given is that it does not attract enough young listeners and that less than 1 in 20 of the show's audience is aged between 4 and 14, with the average age of the listeners being between 52 and 55. Consequently, there are now no children's programmes on BBC analogue radio.
April – The newspaper review showWhat the Papers Say, which was on television for 52 years, is revived onBBC Radio 4, airing for 12 episodes in the run-up to the2010 general election. It will subsequently return on a permanent basis until March 2016.[50]
31 May – Radio 4 announces a five-and-a-half-hour celebration ofJames Joyce'sUlysses on this comingBloomsday (16 June), claiming it as the novel's first full-length dramatisation in Britain.[53]
5 September – It is announced that continuity announcersCharlotte Green andHarriet Cass are to take voluntary redundancy as the BBC cuts the announcing team for the station from twelve to ten.[54][55] Both had been with Radio 4 since the 1970s. Charlotte leaves in January 2013,[56] with Harriet departing two months later.[57]
21 May – Figures released by RAJAR indicate thatBBC Radio 4 Extra has overtakenBBC 6 Music as the most listened digital–only radio station, with 2.17 million tuning in weekly to BBC Radio 4 Extra compared to 2.06 million for BBC 6 Music.[62]
29 March –BBC Radio 4 broadcasts the magazine programmeMidweek, presented byLibby Purves, for the last time after 30 years.
10 April – ControllerGwyneth Williams announces that the arts programmeSaturday Review will be axed in the Autumn as part of cost-cutting measures, instead,Front Row will get a Saturday highlights edition.[67]
30 April – TheBritish Library is to archive hundreds of essays submitted to BBC Radio 4'sPM programme by listeners detailing their coronavirus experiences.The Covid Chronicles, launched in March, has seen listeners submit their accounts of their lives during the lockdown restrictions, some of which have been broadcast.[80]
1 June – An episode of Radio 4'sThe Infinite Monkey Cage becomes the first BBC programme to be recorded with a live audience at home.[81]
4 January –Emma Barnett takes over as presenter ofWoman's Hour, presenting the programme on Monday to Thursday.[84]
15 January
Anita Rani joins BBC Radio 4'sWoman's Hour to present the programme's Friday and Saturday editions.[85]
BBC Radio 4 confirms Elizabeth Day and Johny Pitts as new presenters of theOpen Book programme, with Day making her debut on 17 January and Pitts making his debut on 31 January.[86] They replaceMariella Frostrup who had presented the programme since 2003.
9–11 April – Following the death ofPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,BBC Radio 4 abandons half its regular Friday, Saturday, and Sunday weekend programming in favour of simulcasting the BBC Radio News special programme and from 4pm the station broadcasts a revised schedule for the rest of the day and over the weekend.
17 May – BBC Radio 4'sWoman's Hour is extended from 45 minutes to a full hour.[87]
26 May –BBC Director-GeneralTim Davie announces plans for an annual £500m of savings that will see the closure ofBBC Radio 5 Live's medium wave service,BBC Radio 4's long wave service andBBC Radio 4 Extra. There are also changes to local radio, with plans for shared content and the cancellation of some programmes that are not drawing a large enough audience.[88]
8–19 September – Following the death of QueenElizabeth II, BBC Radio 4 abandons some of its regular scheduled programming in favour of simulcasting a BBC Radio News special programme on the day of her death. The station broadcasts a revised schedule from 9 to 11 September and on 19 September the day of the funeral.
30 May – The BBC announces its plans to switch off the station's long wave frequency sometime in 2024[90] and a campaign to migrate remaining long wave listeners to other outlets begins.
31 July –Test Match Special is broadcast for the final time on Radio 4 long wave after 30 summer seasons of cricket commentary on that frequency.
1 April –The Daily Service is broadcast onBBC Radio 4 Extra for the first time and Shipping Forecasts are reduced from four bulletins each day to two on weekdays and three at the weekend.[92]
15 April –BBC Radio 4 switches off itsmedium wave frequencies. They had been used to provide reception on AM where the long wave signal was weak, such as inLondon,Northern Ireland and in south west England.[93] It broadcast a retune loop informing listeners to retune to other ways of reception.[94]
24 July –BBC Radio 4 LW now no longer shows up on BBC Sounds due to the schedule being the same as the output on FM.[96]
15 October - It was announced that the early-morningNews Briefing would be scrapped.[97]
2025
24 March - BBC Radio 4 opens at 05:00 with a News Bulletin replacing News Briefing. Yesterday In Parliament airs at 05:04 with the Shipping Forecast moved to 05:34.
30 June – The cessation of the usage of Radio 4's long wave frequencies for the radio teleswitching service is due to happen, and it is expected thatBBC Radio 4 will switch off itslong wave transmitters on, or shortly after, this date.[98][99][100]
^"Dictionary definition of 'stunt up'". 7 May 2004. Retrieved30 December 2009. refers Sheena McDonald, "Scud-FM goes critical—BBC gears up for round-the-clock news service", page 25,The Guardian 17 August 1992
^Franklin, Bob (31 March 2005).Key Concepts in Journalism Studies. Sage.ISBN0-7619-4482-6.
^Henry, Georgina (18 January 1991). "Mediafile".The Guardian. p. 27.
^Williams, Rhys (28 September 1995)."BBC switches on CD-quality radio".The Independent. Independent Print Limited.Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved3 May 2019.
