On 30 September Radio 1 will be 40 years old.

It was first brought about by the old pirate radio stations of the 60's. Until then there was very little pop music played on BBC apart from Saturday Club & Pick Of The Pops.

Before Radio 1 started it was preceded by the Light Programme. At 7.00am on 30 September 1967, the Light Programme split in two. It became Radio 1 & Radio 2.

Radio 2 continued the same way as the old Light Programme but Radio 1 was supposed to be all pop music. At first there was only so much time allowed for playing recorded music. This was called Needle Time. At other times there was Live Music and music news programmes.

 

The rest is history.

The first show was presented by Tony Blackburn who came from pirate radio station Radio London (Big L) and before that was on the Caroline South ship.

This was the order of music played on that very first programme:

 

1 Beefeaters; John Dankworth (Programme's theme)

 

2 Flowers In The Rain; The Move

 

3 Massachusetts; The Bee Gees

 

4 Even The Bad Times Are Good; The Tremeloes

 

5 Fakin' It; Simon & Garfunkel

 

6 The Day I Met Marie; Cliff Richard

 

7 You Can't Hurry Love; The Supremes

 

8 The Last Waltz; Engelbert Humperdink

 

9 Baby Now That I've Found You; The Foundations

 

10 Good Times; Eric Burdon and the Animals

 

11 A Banda; Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass

 

12 I Feel Love Comin' On; Felice Taylor

 

13 How Can I Be Sure; Young Rascals

 

14 Major To Minor; The Settlers

 

15 Homburg; Procol Harum

 

16 You Keep Running Away; The Four Tops

 

17 Let's Go To San Francisco; The Flower Pot Men

 

18 Handy Man; Jimmy James

 

19 You Know What I Mean; The Turtles

 

20 The House That Jack Built; The Alan Price Set

 

21 Excerpt From A Teenage Opera; Keith West

 

22 Reflections; Diana Ross and the Supremes

 

23 King Midas In Reverse; The Hollies

 

24 Ode To Billy Joe; Bobby Gentry

 

25 Then He Kissed Me; The Crystals

 

26 Anything Goes; Harpers Bizarre

 

27 The Letter; The Box Tops

 

28 Beefeaters; John Dankworth

 

You can listen to the very start of Radio 1 with the switching over from the Light Programme HERE It then followed the first introduction from Tony Blackburn.

Wonder what Radio 1 will be doing to celebrate 40 years on air. John Peel would have served 40 years this year as well :(