Singalong pop and rock with soul and disco in the mix.
Radio 2 replaced the BBC Light Programme at 5:30am on Saturday 30 September 1967, sharing its first hours with the newly launched Radio 1 until Paul Hollingdale's Breakfast Special split off at seven. Musicians' Union limits on how many records it could play meant that, like the Light Programme before it, the station filled much of its early airtime with music recorded specially for broadcast. On 27 January 1979 it became the first national station in Britain to stay on air around the clock.
Days are pop and rock from the last sixty years with plenty of chat, from Sara Cox at breakfast through Jeremy Vine's lunchtime phone-in to Trevor Nelson in the afternoon. At nine on weeknights the specialists take over with blues, jazz, folk and country, Sophie Ellis-Bextor hosts a Friday night disco, and weekends go back through the decades with Tony Blackburn and Pick of the Pops.
The radio left on in every kitchen.
