How it all began

War broke out in 1939 and the nature of programmes provided by the BBC was quickly changed to adapt to the situation.  On September 1st the BBC quickly closed its television service from Alexandra Palace for fear of the German air force being able to use the television signals for direction finding. The Regional and National radio programmes were also closed and replaced by a single Home Service

Radio Luxembourg closed the English service on September 21st 1939, followed later the same year by Radio Normandie. Meanwhile, on 10th November 1939 the BBC Home Service began Garrison Theater with Jack Warner.

The new BBC Home Service used two frequencies formerly used by the North Regional and Scottish Regional Programmes. Two groups of transmitters were established - each group synchronized together to impede enemy direction finding capabilities.

On the 19th November 1940 a BBC transmitter at Adderley Park in Birmingham was completely destroyed in a bombing, with some loss of life. At midnight on July 20th 1941 the BBC commenced its "V for Victory" campaign.  The "V for Victory" broadcasts started with a message from Prime Minister Winston Churchill directed towards the European countries then occupied by the Nazis. "The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the people of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting the Nazi tyranny."  From then on the BBC's broadcasts employed a call-sign that used the opening bars of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which has the same rhythm as the Morse code for the letter V (dot dot dot dash).

Together with domestic radio, the BBC broadcast radio programmes to other countries. On July 4th 1943 the American Forces Network (AFN) was established providing an uplifting service of record programmes that was popular with the American forces based around Europe using facilities provided by the BBC. AFN also proved popular with British audiences who could hear records and music, including jazz and country styles, not normally heard on the BBC.

It was the popularity of AFN and the increasing numbers of American forces based in Britain that encouraged the BBC to 'fine tune' their own Forces Programme, renaming it The General Forces Programme, and lightening up the output giving it a wider appeal with material that would be popular with the American troops.  The station adopted a more American style and played more American material.  This new sound was a big hit and certainly helped the listeners endure those troubled times.

During the war years the BBC's programming necessarily changed. "ITMA" continued alongside other light entertainment and morale boosting programmes such as Vera Lynn's "Sincerely Yours" and "Hi Gang". Meanwhile the BBC also established a war reporting unit to bring accurate news to a worried population. The BBC also designed and produced a portable sound recording machine that its radio news reporters, including Frank Gillard, Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, Godfrey Talbot and Richard Dimbleby could use in the field. Half of the British people tuning into the regular evening news broadcasts.

ABSIE and SHAEF - The American Broadcasting Station In Europe

American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) began five weeks before DDay, established by USA's Office of War Information (OWI) with the help of CBS and was operated by the OWI and Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force's (SHAEF) Psychological Warfare Division. The aim of American Broadcasting Station in Europe was to provide "...the truth of this war to our friends in Europe — and to our enemies". Like the BBC, ABSIE provided news, talks, music and propaganda and also broadcast   information for the underground movement. Broadcasts were made in various languages.

World War Two from 1939 to 1945 brought about many more alterations as special transmission arrangements were brought into force.

Lord Haw Haw

Real name William Joyce, a British citizen hanged for treason after defecting to Germany and broadcasting Nazi propaganda to Britain and unoccupied Europe from German transmitters and the captured radio transmitting stations in France and Luxembourg.

UK RADIO A Brief History - Part 2 Post War