This is a list of events in British radio during 1969.
Quick Facts List of years in British radio (table) ...
Close
February
- 14 February – Radio comedian Kenneth Horne collapses and dies of a heart attack while hosting the annual Guild of Television Producers' and Directors' Awards at The Dorchester hotel in London,[2] having just presented an award to Barry Took, co-scriptwriter of Round the Horne, and invited viewers to tune in to its fifth series, due to start on 16 March.[3] By 24 February the BBC has decided that Round the Horne cannot continue without its star and the scripts for series five are hastily reworked by writers Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke with Myles Rudge into a new vehicle for former co-star Kenneth Williams called Stop Messing About[4] which opens on BBC Radio 2 on 6 April and runs for two seasons.[5]
- February – Mary Raine becomes the first woman to report on sport for the BBC.[6]
April
- 25 April – The last edition of daily soap opera The Dales is broadcast on BBC Radio 2 after 5,531 episodes.
- 28 April – The first edition of daily soap opera Waggoners' Walk is broadcast on BBC Radio 2, replacing The Dales.[7]
July
- 10 July – The BBC publishes a report called "Broadcasting in the Seventies" proposing the reorganisation of programmes on the national networks and replacing regional broadcasting on BBC Radio 4 with BBC Local Radio. The report begins to be implemented the following year and the former BBC Home Service regions gradually disappear although regional programming on Radio 4 does not end fully until the end of 1982.
- 20–21 July – BBC Radios 1 and 2 stay on air all night to provide live coverage of the landing on the Moon and of Neil Armstrong's first steps onto the Moon's surface.[8]
| This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (August 2017) |
- February – Fi Glover, radio presenter
- 20 February – Robin Ince, comedian
- 11 April – Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer and broadcaster
- 7 June – Adam Buxton, actor and comedian
- 14 June – Shaun Ley, news presenter
- 13 August – Toby Foster, comedian, promoter and radio presenter
- 22 August – Kathy Clugston, Northern Ireland-born newsreader
- 22 September – Sue Perkins, comedy performer and broadcast presenter
- 2 December – Matthew Sweet, cultural historian and broadcaster
- 12 December – Rodney P (Panton), MC, "godfather of British hip hop" and broadcaster
"Mr Kenneth Horne: Witty Radio and TV Entertainer". The Times. London. 15 February 1969.
Took, Barry (1998). Round the Horne: The Complete and Utter History. London: Boxtree. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-7522-2119-9.
Medhurst, Andy (2007). A National Joke: Popular comedy and English cultural identities. London: Routledge. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-0-415-16877-9.