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BBC Radio 1

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BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music, current chart hits and future hits. It also plays a wide range of genres, including pop, hip-hop, R&B, dance, electronica, rock, indie and alternative music every day. Radio 1's sister stations are 1Xtra, which plays Black contemporary music, Radio 1 Dance, dedicated to dance music, and Radio 1 Anthems, dedicated to throwback music.

Radio 1 broadcasts throughout the UK on FM between 97.1 MHz and 99.7 MHz, digital radio, digital TV and BBC Sounds. It was launched in 1967 to meet the demand for music generated by pirate radio stations, when the average age of the UK population was 27. The BBC claims that it targets the 15–29 age group, and the average age of its UK audience since 2009 is 30. BBC Radio 1 started 24-hour broadcasting on 1 May 1991.

According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 7.39 million with a listening share of 4.8% as of May 2025.

Radio 1 was established in 1967 (along with the more middle-of-the-road BBC Radio 2) as a successor to the BBC Light Programme, which had broadcast popular music and other entertainment since 1945. Radio 1 was conceived as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London, which had been declared illegal by Act of Parliament. Radio 1's initial format was influenced in particular by Radio London's American-style Top 40 format, in which music was divided into categories played in strict rotation. The new service was initially promoted in the summer of 1967 by trails (voiced by Kenny Everett) which referred to it as "Radio 247", the station's temporary working title.

Radio 1 was launched at 7:00 am on Saturday 30 September 1967.

Broadcasts were on 1214 kHz AM (247 metres), using a network of transmitters which had carried the Light Programme. Most were of comparatively low power, at less than 50 kilowatts, and this resulted in the station only having patchy coverage.[citation needed]

The first disc jockey to broadcast on the new station was Tony Blackburn, who had previously been on Radio Caroline and Radio London, and presented what became known as the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. The first words on Radio 1 – after a countdown by the Controller of Radios 1 and 2, Robin Scott, and a jingle, recorded at PAMS in Dallas, Texas, beginning "The voice of Radio 1" – were:

And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1.

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