Radio 1 Set Up

Radio 1 launches because of the huge popularity of pirate stations broadcast from offshore where they could evade British broadcasting regulations. Auntie just couldn't stand for it.

The Marine Offences Act 1967 had just outlawed pirate stations such as Radio London, Caroline, Swinging Radio England, Scotland, 270, 390, 355, BBMS, and land-based Radio Jackie, which had been on the air since 1964. So what does The Beeb do? They employed some of the pirate DJs to head the new R1. Big names included Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett, and John Peel.

On September 4th 1967, the DJs and their shows were announced. Contracts were for 8 weeks. The first live group were the The Bee Gees, appearing on Saturday Club at 10am

The BBC were only allowed to play 'commercial gramophone records' for seven hours per day over both networks. But now the BBC has seven entire networks.