Light Programme Start-up

[Amrad]

I'm looking for information about the BBC's Light Programme start-up sequence circa the 1950s. From memory, I believe it went something like this:

1. Pulsed 440Hz(?) tone at 30 second intervals for an unknown length of time.
1. Bow Bells, for an unknown length of time
3. Oranges and Lemons
4. Big Ben
5. News.

If anyone has any information about this, I would be grateful if they could let me have it. I'm particularly interested in the format of the pulsed tone, its duration, 'envelope' shape and level. Thanks.

Dave.

[Terry]

Funny, I thought I replied to this about 3 hours ago ...

Ah well, once more with feeling ...

I thought Bow Bells was only broadcast on the Home Service?

[Amrad]

Hello Terry,

Thanks for your reply.

You may be right that it was only used for the Home Service, I was going by memory and it was a long time ago!

I have, though, found one reference to it being used for the Light Programme, assuming that by 'bells' they do mean Bow Bells!:

http://www.methods.org.uk/archive/ccmr1964.htm

If you search for Light Programme, you will find this:

"The change of time of the opening of the Light Programme brought a number of letters regretting the omission of the bells on Sunday mornings and we were able to put a notice in "The Ringing World" pointing out that the bells had never been omitted but merely put on at an earlier time, in fact (as always) to open the programme. One or two suggestions were made by correspondents regarding this broadcast and the committee are considering them."

It may appear that Bow Bells were only used on Sundays but I'm not sure about that!

Regards,

Dave.

[Old Sparky]

All I can recall is that, in the 1950s, the Light Programme didn't start broadcasting until 9.00AM, but at some time the daily start time was brought forward to, I think, 6.00AM, but I'm not sure whether the sound of Bow Bells was used or not.

[Terry]

The reports in the "Ringing World" obviously refer to live bell ringing which would have been a little problematic for Bow Bells as the Luftwaffe destroyed the church during WWII and all broadcasts, of necessity, were from gramophone records!

Apart from a report on a one off special programme, my interpretation is that the bells referred to were only broadcast on Sundays.

I think that random bell ringing from churches all over the country on various days of the week would not have been well received by the public, particularly shift workers!

[Terry]

Funny, I thought I replied to this about 3 hours ago ...

Ah! I've now found the duplicated thread on the VRAT forum which is where I posted the reply originally!

Nice to know I'm not losing my marbles, after all ...

[Amrad]

All I can recall is that, in the 1950s, the Light Programme didn't start broadcasting until 9.00AM, but at some time the daily start time was brought forward to, I think, 6.00AM, but I'm not sure whether the sound of Bow Bells was used or not.

Yes, that was generally the case, though there  were occasional earlier programmes, according to the BBC's Genome Project.

From Monday, 27th September, 1958, there was a news summary at 6:30am followed by Morning Music at 6:33. That was the pattern from then on, Monday to Saturday, with Sunday programmes continuing to start at 9:00am. I checked all days in September, November and December in 1958, and a few in each month of 1959, where the same pattern was continued.

In the film This Is The BBC (by Richard Cawston, 1959), there is a passage showing the Light Programme starting up, with Oranges and Lemons, the chimes of Big Ben and the News Summary.

Regards,

Dave.