BBC Third Programme: Difference between revisions

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The '''BBC Third Programme''' was the third national radio network broadcast by the [[BBC]], and has since become '''[[BBC Radio 3|Radio 3]]''', but was originally known (at least within the BBC) as '''C'''. The other two were the [[Home Service]] (mainly speech based) and the [[BBC Light Programme|Light Programme]], dedicated to light music, usually cover versions of popular music of the day played by the "in-house" BBC orchestras. The Home Service is now known as [[BBC Radio 4|Radio 4]] and the [[Light Programme]] is [[BBC Radio 2|Radio 2]]. The Third Programme continued as a separate evening service on the same frequency after the inception of Radio 3 in 1967, but was absorbed into Radio 3 in April 1970.

The Third Programme was dedicated to the discerning or "high-brow" listener providing serious classical music, concerts and plays as well as room for modern composers, and jazz. It was the first station to multifrequency on 909 KHz ([[Medium frequency|MF]]) and 90.0 to 92.5 MHz ([[FM radio|FM]]). It was the first channel to broadcast in [[stereo]] and in [[quadraphonic]] (matrix HJ) which enjoyed only short term success. A number of broadcasts were experimental for the engineering department and the listener, for instance one play consisted mainly of sound effects to be listened to wearing headphones only.