The BBC General Forces Programme was a national radio station operating from 27 February 1944 until 31 December 1946.

History

Development

Upon the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

on 1 September 1939, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

closed both existing National and

Regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

radio programmes, combining the two to form a single channel known as the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

. The former transmitters of the National Programme continued to broadcast the Home Service until 1940, when the lack of choice and lighter programming for people serving in the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

was noted. At that point, some prewar frequencies were given to a new entertainment network, the

BBC Forces Programme The BBC Forces Programme was a national radio station which operated from 7 January 1940 until 26 February 1944, when it was replaced by the BBC General Forces Programme. History Development Upon the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1 ...

. The BBC Forces Programme was replaced when the influx of American soldiers, used to a different style of entertainment programming, had to be catered for in the run up to '

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

'. This replacement service was named the ''General Forces Programme'', and was also broadcast on

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

on the frequencies of the Overseas Service.

Programming

The BBC Forces Programme was launched to appeal directly to those members of the armed services during the

Phoney War The Phoney War (; ; ) was an eight-month period at the outset of World War II during which there were virtually no Allied military land operations on the Western Front from roughly September 1939 to May 1940. World War II began on 3 Septembe ...

who were mainly sat in barracks with little to do. Its mixture of drama, comedy, popular music, features, quiz shows and variety was richer and more varied than the former National Programme, although it continued to supply lengthy news bulletins, informational and talk. However, when the American servicemen arrived ''en masse'' in 1943 and 1944 as preparation for

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The ope ...

, they found even the richer Forces Programme shows to be staid and slow compared with the existing output of the American networks. In response to appeals from General

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

, the BBC abolished the Forces Programme and established the General Forces Programme, designed to provide a mixture of programming suitable for American and British audiences and also to appeal to the "

Home Front Home front is an English language term with analogues in other languages. It is commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system for their military. Civilians are traditionally uninvolved in com ...

", who research had shown wished to listen to the same output as the forces once fighting had broken out. As well as a large number of American network and

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

programmes, the General Forces Programme also offered British programming: * ''Shipmates Ashore'' – for the Merchant Navy, starring Evelyn Laye and

Doris Hare Doris Breamer Hare (1 March 1905 – 30 May 2000) was a Welsh actress, comedian, singer, and dancer best known for portraying Ethel Butler in the British sitcom ''On the Buses'' and its film spin-offs, after replacing the original actress Cicel ...

* ''Navy Mixture'' – with Joy Nichols * ''Forces' Favourites'' – a record request show which later became '' Family Favourites'' * ''War Office Calling the Army'' – information and news for servicemen * ''Strike a Home Note'' – for Scottish servicemen overseas * ''Welsh Half Hour'' * ''SEAC'' – a newsletter for the South-East Asian theatre * ''Hello GIs'' – a newsletter for Americans in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

* '' Mediterranean Merry-Go-Round'' – made up of ''Stand Easy'' for the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

* ''

Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh ''Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh'' was a comedy show broadcast from 1944 to 1950 and 1951 to 1954 by BBC Radio and in 1950–1951 by Radio Luxembourg. It was written by and starred Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne as officers in a fictional RAF sta ...

'' – for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

* ''HMS Waterlogged'' – for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

The General Forces Programme maintained the previous broadcasting hours of the Forces Programme on air each day from 6.30am until 11.00pm.

Closure

After

Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

, the British

longwave In radio, longwave (also spelled long wave or long-wave and commonly abbreviated LW) is the part of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave (MW) broadcasting band. The term is historic, dati ...

frequencies of the General Forces Programme became the BBC Light Programme on 29 July 1945. The service continued broadcasting by

to areas that were still seeing fighting, and after

Victory over Japan Day Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Surrender of Japan, Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war End of World War II in Asia, to an end. The ...

to occupying forces in each former occupied and enemy country. As

began to disengage from each fighting area and civilian rule was finally restored and the soldiers demobbed, the reason for the existence of the General Forces Programme faded. In each area, it was slowly replaced by the Overseas Service until its complete closure on 31 December 1946.

External links

Radiomusications from Transdiffusion
{{Portal bar, United Kingdom, BBC, Radio General Forces Programme Defunct BBC national radio stations Radio stations established in 1944 Radio stations disestablished in 1946 1944 establishments in the United Kingdom 1946 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 1940s in the United Kingdom United Kingdom in World War II Radio during World War II Military broadcasting

History

Development

Programming

Closure

Further reading

External links