Radio programming
Radio broadcasts have been a popular entertainment since the
1920s, though popularity has declined a little in some countries since
television became widespread.
In the early radio age, content typically included a balance of comedy, drama, news, music and sports reporting. U.S. radio programs included the most famous
Hollywood talent of the day. Radio
soap operas began in the U.S. in 1930 with
Painted Dreams.
In the late
1940s and early
1950s,
television eroded the popularity of radio comedy, drama and variety shows. By the late 1950s, radio broadcasting took on much the form it has today — strongly focused on music, news and sports, though drama can still be heard, especially on the
BBC.
In Britain during the 1950s, radio broadcasting was dominated entirely by the
BBC.
Rock and
pop music fans, dissatisfied with the BBC's output, often listened to
Radio Luxembourg. During the post-1964 period, western Europe offshore radio (such as
Radio Caroline broadcasting from ships at anchor or abandoned forts) helped to supply the demand for the pop and rock music. The BBC launched their own pop music station,
BBC Radio 1 in
1967.
In
South Asia,
Radio Ceylon (the oldest radio station in the region) was the King of the Airwaves from the 1950s and 1960s. Broadcasting in Ceylon was launched by British Engineer,
Edward Harper in
1925. Radio Ceylon became a public corporation in 1967 and was known as the
Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation when the island turned into a republic in
1972.
There has been a recent resurgence of interest in what is now called
old-time radio with surviving shows being traded and collected in reel-to-reel,
cassette, CD and
MP3 formats.
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Radio format*
List of radio programs*
OTRCAT
