1944 in British radio

This is a list of events from British radio in 1944.

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Events

• 27 February – BBC General Forces Programme replaces the Forces Programme to provide entertainment suitable for American forces in Britain as well as British military and civilian audiences, including a large number of American network and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programmes. It is also broadcast on shortwave frequencies of the BBC Overseas Service.
• April – The American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) is established, transmitting from Britain in English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian to resistance movements in mainland Europe.
• 5 June – One day before D-Day, the BBC transmits coded messages (including the second line of a poem by Paul Verlaine) from Britain to underground resistance fighters in France warning that the invasion of mainland Europe is about to begin.[1][2]
• 6 June – D-Day: BBC reports of today’s Normandy landings are carried by around 725 of the 914 broadcasting stations in the United States.[2]
• 28 July – Sir Henry Wood, aged 75, conducts his last Promenade Concert, evacuated to the Corn Exchange, Bedford.[3]

Debuts

• 27 February – Variety Bandbox (BBC General Forces Programme) (1944–1952)
• June – War Report

Continuing radio programmes

1930s

• In Town Tonight (1933–1960)

1940s

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

Births

• 12 May – Brian Kay, bass singer and radio music presenter
• 5 June – Nigel Rees, radio broadcaster
• 28 October – Gerry Anderson, Northern Irish radio broadcaster (died 2014)
• November – Jim Eldridge, scriptwriter
• 25 December – Kenny Everett, born Maurice Cole, DJ (died 1995)

See also

• 1944 in British music
• 1944 in British television
• 1944 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1944

References

1. Foot, M. R. D. (1999). SOE: An Outline History of the Special Operations Executive 1940–46. London: Pimlico. p. 143. ISBN 0-7126-6585-4.
2. Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.
3. "Jubilee Prom". The Yorkshire Post. Leeds. 1944-07-28. from the rural B.B.C. studio to which the concerts have been transferred.