Radio Times

The first issue
28 September 1923

The Radio Times was first issued on 28 September 1923[8] for the price of 2d, carrying details of programmes for six BBC wireless stations (2LO, 5IT, 2ZY, 5NO, 5WA and 5SC), newspapers at the time boycotted radio listings fearing that increased listenership might decrease their sales.[9] It included a 'message to "listeners"' by the BBC's chairman, Lord Pease.[10] Initially, The Radio Times was a combined enterprise between the British Broadcasting Company and publishers George Newnes Ltd. within the latter typeset, printed and distributed the magazine. In 1925, the BBC assumed full editorial control, but printing and distribution could not begin in-house until 1937,[11] The Radio Times established a reputation for using leading writers and illustrators, and the covers from the special editions are now collectable design classics. By 26 September 1926, the narrow columns of BBC's wireless programme schedules were broken up by the insertion of a photograph or two – relevant to or depicting subjects of the broadcasts. On 1 May 1927, The Radio Times produced an experimental Braille edition under the auspices of the National Institute for the Blind. Its success led to a regular weekly Braille version publication costing one penny.

From 5 January 1934, to facilitate these changes, the three-column programme pages were expanded to include a fourth column with the television programmes given a new section layout (from 8 January of that year), and The Radio Times announced a regular series of "experimental television transmissions by the Baird process" for half an hour every night at 11.00pm. The launch of the first regular 405-line television service by the BBC was reflected with television listings in The Radio Times' London edition of 23 October 1936.[11][12] Thus Radio Times became the first ever television listings magazine in the world. Initially only two pages in each edition were devoted to television, which ran from Monday to Saturday and remained off air on Sundays.

Masthead from the 25 December 1931 edition, including the BBC's coat of arms with the motto: "Nation shall speak peace unto nation"

Masthead from the 8 January 1937 edition, the first using the title 'Radio Times'

After 14 years, from issue 693 (cover date 8 January 1937), the definitive article word "The" was no longer used on the masthead/ The magazine became simply called Radio Times, and also published a lavish photogravure supplement on the same date of that year.[13] Prior to the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the BBC radio listings provided a National Programme for the whole in the United Kingdom, and the Regional Programme appeared in seven different versions (London, Midlands, North, West, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland), plus the Aberdeen and Stagshaw programmes each with a combination of national and regional were transmitted to the north east of Scotland and England respectively before the two stations merged into a single service, and included three pages of television listings.

When Britain declared war with Germany on 3 September 1939 and the television broadcasting ceased, but radio listings continued throughout the war with a reduced service. As from 23 June 1944 (just 18 days after D-Day), the Allied Expeditionary Forces edition carried details of all the programmes for the Home Service and General Forces Programme. By the same year paper rationing meant editions were only 20 pages of tiny print on thin paper. Radio Times expanded with regional editions introduced from 29 July 1945 and television resumed once again on 7 June 1946.

From 18 January 1953, television listing schedules, which had been in the back of the magazine, were placed alongside daily radio schedules. On 17 February 1957 (after the abolition of "Toddlers' Truce", in which transmissions terminated between 6 and 7pm), television listings were moved to a separate section at the front with radio listings relegated to the back, a day's listings were sometimes spread over up to three double-page spreads mixed with advertisements, but this format was phased out when independent publishers were allowed to publish television schedules:

From 8 October 1960, BBC television and radio schedules were re-integrated as the programmes included a new 'pick of the week' with a single third page for previews before each day's listings coming before the two pages of television and then four pages of radio, while the new bold masthead was designed by Abram Games (who created graphical designs such as the 'Festival Star' on the cover of the 1951 Festival of Britain and the 1953 'Bat's Wings' ident) containing the words 'BBC tv and Sound' on the left side, which became one of the shortest-used designs in the magazine's history. On 4 August 1962, when Radio Times was again revamped, the masthead was replaced with one incorporating the words in the Clarendon typeface on the left, and the 'BBC / tv / Sound' (later became 'BBC1 / tv / BBC2' from April 1964) reversed out to the right; while the main change was the reduction of BBC radio schedules for three stations to a double-page spread brought down into size, it had been running at between 60 and 68 pages but the relaunched issue two years earlier contained only 52 pages.

From 30 September 1967, Radio Times introduces the all-new colour pages of magazine feature sections which include 'star stories', Percy Thrower's gardening, Zena Skinner's cookery, Bill Hartley's motoring, as well as 'round and about' with up-to-the-minute stories in both television and radio from around the world, and also the four new BBC radio stations (that replaces the Home Service, the Light Programme and the Third Programme) were launched within the schedule listing pages:

On 6 September 1969, Radio Times was given a radical makeover. The front cover was surrounded by a black border and italicised its masthead (in the Caslon typeface with swash capitals that remained until April 2001) in an attempt to emphasise the 'R' for radio and 'T' for television. The new format saw the introduction of a weekly column previewing 'this week's films' by the critic Philip Jenkinson. The look of the magazine initially became far more restrained, with less white space between columns on headings. Most significantly, the lifestyle section (which covers motoring, gardening and cookery) and the crossword was completely dropped, while the highlights section on the right page was scrapped. But despite the new look, they switched the date format from 'month-day-year' to 'day-month-year' and ceases carrying cigarette advertisements after 46 years since its first published. From 5 July 1975, the magazine was given a refreshed layout which consisted of horizontal black bars from top to bottom with the familiar darker-shaded look, and eventually the BBC's television schedules included a 'colour' annotation which was dropped after eight years, but programmes in black and white were never indicated (except feature films originally made for the cinema).

The major change was on 23 November 1978 within the presentation of radio programme listings, in response to wavelength changes that enabled Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to receive their own separate domestic services in addition to Radio 4 (also known as the national 'Radio 4 UK' service remained until 29 September 1984), with the arrival of these services on the pages were forced into a six-column grid. On 30 August 1980, Radio Times developed a new double-page spread of Robert Ottaway's highlights from the week ahead, often used for both BBC radio and television programmes. Also, the regular inside-back-page section for younger listeners and viewers featured the Newsround presenter John Craven and a selection of new puzzles were created by the television producer Clive Doig – such as the first-ever Trackword, consisting of nine squares in one word, as well as backstage stories, and a strip cartoon of Peter Lord's Morph) at the bottom of the page.

Between March and December 1983, Radio Times had severe industrial disputes when the British Printing & Communications Corporation and the union SOGAT 82 joined forces, and production was affected due to printing problems:

• 23 March – The BBC regrets that because at the printers for next week's edition are in short supply, but copies will be available in the South West, the West of England, North East, and many parts of South and the North of England.
• 7 April – The BBC expects copies of the magazine will be available in Scotland, Northern Ireland and North of England from 16 April, following the print workers in East Kilbride and near Bristol have returned to work.
• 4 June – The general election special issue with the combined England edition, as well as the three constituent nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) across throughout the country was used for one week only.
• 16 July – The edition was finally returned to our fully-regionalised form with complete details of all BBC television channels and radio stations for national, regional and local.
• 10 December – The magazine was printed and published as the single national edition once again, after misses an issue but due to a print workers' strike from the previous week.

On 23 June 1984, the radio listings have been redesigned for these pages that improve their legibility to paving the way for a new printing technology, but some copies are already printed by this process will be other changes that enhance our service to our readers, and from 1 September of that year, web-offset printing was used for the first time when the magazine became brighter and more colourful, with newsprint and sheets of gravure is replaced by black ink and white paper, also installing a Helvetica typeface that replaces Franklin Gothic which has a larger character style, and the television listings has also been redesigned including the new film icon and 'today at a glance' (is occupied on the far right page) were added. Starting from 25 October 1986, Radio Times introduces the new family viewing policy warns BBC Television does not broadcast programmes before 9:00pm which it believes to be unsuitable for children after that time parents can be expected to share responsibility but some programmes may be appropriate for adult audiences.

On 19 November 1988, Radio Times launches our new weekly back page section called 'My Kind of Day', which devoted to latest star interviews with various special guests. Also on the same year (17 December), its popularity climaxed when the Christmas edition sold an astounding 11,220,666 copies, and the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest-selling edition of any British magazine in history.

On 25 March 1989 (during Easter), a general overhaul of page layout and design had taken place with a major makeover for the programme schedules and the channel headings reversed out in greater clarity, BBC1 and BBC2 were once again separated as well as the return of a old layout during the late 1950s and early 1960s, with television at the front and radio at the back, along the week's Radio 1 schedules is occupied a single page followed by Radio 2 had a facing pair, then several pages of Radio 3 had five within Radio 4 had six, and finally the local radio listings, but regional features had absent from the English editions since the late 1960s were resumed in a localised page. Later on 25 November of that year, the radio schedules were restored to two pages for each day, some of the English editions for daily editorial features on radio as well.

From 2 June 1990, the entire magazine was published in colour for the first time which ended monochrome for over 67 years, the day's listings beginning with a single page of highlights that includes 'at a glance', followed by the double-page spreads of BBC television channels and radio stations, also the day showing inside the coloured block halfway down the pages vertically in which adds to a different colour, while the layout only lasted for six months when the new refreshed format debuted in the Christmas edition (22 December) where the programme listing pages retained their largely the same, and also the colour-coded days of the week is now at the top of the page headings. On 16 February 1991 as the same date for the new BBC1 and BBC2 idents, the introduction of television logos started to cover all channels and also include the programme pages for ITV and Channel 4 illustrations where the billings of white space until the next 13 days, when the full complete listings on the four main channels and satellite television from 1 March. Also added to the local radio page was an alphabetical list of the commercial radio stations available in the with frequency and a two-three word summary of that station's output.

Before the deregulation of television listings in 1991, the four weekly listings magazines were as follows:

• Radio Times carried the programme schedule listings for BBC radio and television channels, also include the new Radio 5 launched on 27 August 1990.
• The ITV-published magazine TV Times, launched on 22 September 1955 carried television programme listings for ITV, and Channel 4 from 2 November 1982. Prior to this, several of the regional ITV companies produced their own listings magazines for Look Westward (WTV), The Viewer (Tyne Tees/STV), TV Post (Ulster), Television Weekly (TWW/WWN/ITSWW/Harlech) and TV World (ATV/ABC) are published, before TV Times went national on 21 September 1968.
• Rupert Murdoch's newly publication TV Guide, launched on 19 March 1989 carrying the 28 pages of Astra satellite (1A) television listings for Sky Television channels (including Sky One, Sky News, Sky Movies, Eurosport, and from 15 December 1990, Sky Arts, Movie Channel, Power Station and Sports Channel on the Marcopolo satellite which were added after the BSB's merger), MTV Europe, RTL Véronique (for English programmes), Screensport, Children's Channel, Lifestyle and a highlights of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 listings as well.[14]
• In the Republic of Ireland, Raidió Teilifís Éireann publishes the RTÉ Guide (formerly as the RTV Guide) launched on 1 December 1961 which offers detailed programme listings for RTÉ Television and RTÉ Radio channels, while early on listings were carried for BBC Northern Ireland but were later dropped in 1966 and only RTÉ programme listings were carried until 13 April 1991.

Today both publications carry listings for all major terrestrial, cable and satellite television channels in the United Kingdom and following deregulation, new listings magazines such as Mirror Group's TV First, IPC Media's What's on TV, Bauer Media Group's TV Quick and Hamfield Publications' TV Plus began to be published, but several newspapers would be allowed to print television schedules for the entire forthcoming week on a Saturday (or a Sunday), where previously they had only been able to list each day's programmes in that edition.

While the major refresh on 31 August 1991, the four extra pages of satellite television listings and one page of highlights section were scrapped and replaced by the number of ten satellite channels (from top to bottom) is to be occupied by the daytime schedules for BBC1 and BBC2 on the left, followed by ITV and Channel 4 with 'at a glance' on the right, and then the main evening schedules for terrestrial television channels that remained the same layout. On 5 September 1992, the daytime listings were slightly tweaked which includes ITV's programme schedules sandwiched between BBC2 and Channel 4 within the centre pages, and also giving two pages of satellite and cable channels for each category sections to making up the six pages of television listings every day:

During 1993, Radio Times had several layouts where the programme listing pages for television (including satellite) and radio schedules have been recently altered throughout the year:

• 1 January – The VideoPlus+ number codes to cover all the terrestrial and satellite television channels for the first time, which allowed viewers with suitably equipped video recorders to entering the programme's number would ensure to set its timer from taping it.
• 2 January – The new film premiere icon appears used for the terrestrial television listings, replacing the phrase "first showing on network television".
• 5 June – The radio schedules is given a radical makeover with highlights on the right, including day-by-day Virgin 1215, Classic FM and BBC World Service were added on each page, with the local radio listings have now incorporated the weekly frequency guide which now included all stations where available, and the television schedule pages saw the introduction of the year of production detail for film titles added as well.
• 19 June – The categories for satellite television listings were completely rearranged, whether the news section (includes Sky One) moves to the left and the sport section moves to the right, also adding BSkyB's film classifications at the bottom corner on the left page.
• 24 July – The two former cable-only channels (Bravo and Discovery) appeared in the entertainment section following their launch on satellite and the cable television listings were relegated at the bottom, which means the sport section is no longer used.
• 1 September – The three new channels (UK Living, Family Channel and Nickelodeon) were launched as well as CMT Europe is also added in the unused entertainment section, marking as the same day with the introduction of Sky Multichannels package on the new Astra 1C system.
• 11 September – The satellite television listings is given an redesigned layout starting with the new movie planner section providing the latest film titles in alphabetical order on various channels at different times every day, within some changes including the new factual section (together with Discovery, Sky News and CNN International) that replaces the news category and also the sport section returned.
• 18 September – The British versions of TNT and Cartoon Network were added to the movie planner and entertainment sections respectively.
• 25 September – The daytime listings were changed once again with 'at a glance' now on the right page, with the advertisements occupying the left page. The channel heading logos were reduced into horizontal bars in smaller size on adjacent columns used for terrestrial television listings, another changes in the satellite pages saw the new children's television section (along with Children's Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network), and the cable listings (including Super Channel) has moved to the left side which next to movie planner section that means AsiaVision, Wire TV and Learning Channel were withdrawn.
• 1 October – The British version of QVC launches and appears at the bottom corner in the entertainment section.
• 26 December – The final Christmas Sunday listings used both on television and radio for the very last time, it sometimes referred to Boxing Day never fell on a Sunday and moves to 27 December, although this practice has now fallen out of common usage even when it believed to result from the legalisation of Sunday trading in England and Wales a year later.

Radio Times' design was refreshed on 3 September 1994 as the television listings had the day's name written vertically beginning with the daytime section including 'today's choices' which replaces 'at a glance' on the left page, followed by the main evening's schedules in an original four-column grid, as well as the highlights section is occupied on the far left page within the satellite listings and the movie planner is now at the right page. The major revamp took place on 25 September 1999 where all the pages in particular order starting with the letters section, followed by film reviews, then the seven-day programme guide with six pages for television (including satellite) and two pages for radio, as well as the single-page crossword and local radio listings with frequencies, and finally the 'My Kind of Day' for the back page which was preceded by classified advertisements, as the programme page headings were returned whether inside a coloured block vertically is similar to the short-lived 1990 layout, which also changed the primetime television listings from two narrow columns to one wide column and offer issued a warning phrase "contains strong language" (until 2009) used for BBC television programmes from 9.00pm during the hours of watershed broadcasting restrictions.

The layout lasted shortly before Easter on 13 April 2001, which saw the new masthead title with the BBC's corporated typeface Gill Sans (until the end of 2004 and replaced by Interstate in the start of 2005) whether the programme pages with eight pages of television listings reverted to having the day running across the top of the page horizontally from the following week, and the satellite listings expanded into four pages and the double-page movie planner section were also included. On 26 November 2002, NTL and BBC Worldwide announced a major new agreement that will offer an exclusive and tailored edition of Radio Times to every customer across the United Kingdom for every week it will be delivered directly to subscribers' homes. The special NTL edition of Radio Times replaces the monthly Cable Guide magazine (which ran from September 1986 to December 2002) will contain programme information for NTL channels including all terrestrial services with Front Row's pay-per-view movies and events will also be included. Subscribers will be offered the first four weekly issues of the new title for the same price as the existing monthly magazine, will be delivered free to homes in time for the first programme week of 4 January 2003, both companies will actively and jointly market the new edition.

From 30 October 2004, the programme schedule pages have been revamped with the regional variations is now at the bottom of daytime section as well as the same spread on the five main channels that include BBC3, BBC4, ITV2, ITV3 (launches on 1 November) and More4 (from 10 October 2005) now appear on digital/cable section on the right page with a 'Kids' TV' section in a single page on the left, and the category sections for digital, satellite and cable listings have now returned after a four-year absence:

On 22 May 2007, two extra pages of television listings per day were added as part of a slight tweak in the publication's format, bringing it up to ten pages of listings per day in total, or five double-page spreads: one page of highlights with daytime listings and regional variations, followed by two pages of evening's terrestrial television listings (with 'at a glance' for nine digital channels until 2010), then six pages of listings for digital, satellite and cable channels, within the digital radio listings were integrated into the main radio pages, and also the three new pages of sport, lifestyle and music.

The major sweeping changes came into effect on 10 April 2010 as Radio Times went through a overhaul with the two pages for latest reviews of highlights ('choices') that similar somewhat to TV Times, while the daytime listings moved onto the evening section having the full day's output for the five main channels on one double-page spread to complete the set:

Other changes saw the evening listings start at 5.00pm rather than 6.30pm (sometimes earlier than 5.00pm for weekends, bank holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year), the addition of electronic program guide numbers into the channel headers, and the inclusion of director and year of production details for Film4 throughout the day. For that time during the London 2012 Olympics (also in Rio 2016) and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, whether the listings for three terrestrial channels (BBC2, ITV and Channel 4) are now occupied on the right page and Channel 5 was moved to the next page on the left, which means BBC1 and BBC3/BBC4 as the Olympic broadcasters that also remind viewers in the possibility of both using the red button and online for BBC channels with additional broadcasts.

Following the closure of the BBC3 channel on 20 February 2016, Radio Times stated to include BBC4 in the main channels section with Channel 5 being relegated to the Freeview section, reverting back to its original four-channel format which had been used for that pages between 1 March 1991 and 29 March 1997. As from 25 March 2020, Radio Times introduces the two new sections of podcasts and the six pages of streaming and various catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer, Now TV, Disney+, BritBox, Netflix, Amazon Prime and UKTV Play. That same year (8 September), the three pages of Freeview schedules were redesigned as well as the films section (together with Film4, Talking Pictures TV, Horror Channel and three Sony Movies services), which means the children's television listings along with PBS America, Smithsonian Channel, Quest, HGTV, Pick and Challenge will move to the left side in the third page next to satellite and cable section, while Sky Arts will be available free-to-air from 17 September and moves to the second page on the right side.

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is the most represented programme on the cover, appearing on 29 issues (with 35 separate covers due to multiples) in the 49 years since the programme began on 23 November 1963.[19]

The Radio Times for 30 April – 6 May 2005 covered both the return of the Daleks to Doctor Who and the forthcoming general election.

On 30 April 2005, a double-width cover was used to commemorate the return of the Daleks to Doctor Who and the forthcoming general election.[20] This cover recreated a scene from the 1964 Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth in which the Daleks were seen crossing Westminster Bridge, with the Houses of Parliament in the background, and also the cover text read "VOTE DALEK!". In a 2008 contest sponsored by the Periodical Publishers Association, this cover was voted the best British magazine cover of all time.[21]

There are several regional editions that which contain different schedules for regional programming, all editions of Radio Times carry variations of adjoining regions for television and various local radio listings.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Radio Times.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Radio Times

• Official website
• BBC – History of the Radio Times
• Radio programme about cover art with gallery
• A selection of Vintage Radio Times covers
• BBC Genome - Radio Times listings from 1923 to 2009