The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music

On July 29, 1945, the BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.

The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the long wave frequency which had earlier been used – prior to the outbreak of the Second World War on 1 September 1939 – by the BBC National Programme.

The long wave signal on 200 kHz / 1500 metres was transmitted from the Droitwich Transmitting Station in the English Midlands (as it still was until 2026 for BBC Radio 4, although adjusted slightly to 198 kHz / 1515 metres from 1 February 1988) and gave fairly good coverage of most of the United Kingdom, although a number of low-power medium wave transmitters (using 1215 kHz / 247 metres) were added later to fill in local blank spots. Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, the Light Programme (along with the BBC's two other national stations – the BBC Home Service and the BBC Third Programme ) gradually became available on what was known at the time as VHF, as the BBC developed a network of local FM transmitters.