This is a list of events from British radio in 1946.
Events
January
3 January – American-born Nazi propagandist William Joyce is hanged at HM Prison Wandsworth in London for high treason for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio.
20 January – Composer Granville Bantock writes to fellow composer Rutland Boughton criticising the BBC Music Department's attitude towards some newer composers.[1]
February
No events.
March
5 March – Have A Go with Wilfred Pickles and his wife, Mabel, is introduced; it is the first British quiz show to offer prizes (although these are limited to a few pounds and some home-made produce).[2] Initially broadcast as Have a Go, Joe! on BBC Home Service North until August, from 16 September it is produced by BBC Manchester for national transmission on the Light Programme.[2]
The BBC's regional director for Wales tells Welsh MPs that there is "not enough talent... to sustain a full continuous programme".[3]
July
No events.
August
No events.
September
29 September – The BBC Third Programme launches at 6pm. The evenings-only service is devoted to broadcasting cultural and intellectual content, serious classical music and programming about the arts.[4] Its first controller is George Barnes and its chief announcer is Alvar Lidell.[5]
October
7 October – The BBC Light Programme transmits the first episode of the daily magazine programme Woman's Hour (initially presented by Alan Ivimey), which will still be running 75 years later.
The BBC begins broadcasting a 2-month comedy series Heigh-Ho, its first script by Frank Muir, featuring Peter Waring, Kenneth Horne and Charmian Innes, and produced by Charles Maxwell; no further series is commissioned after Waring's criminal convictions come to light.[6]
November
No events.
December
December – BBC correspondent Edward Ward with a sound engineer is landed on Bishop Rock lighthouse to give a report on life there but is trapped there for a month by the weather.[7]
The BBC adopts the Paris Theatre, a former cinema in London's Regent Street, as a studio for recording comedy and other shows before a live audience.[8]
Bush DAC90 bakeliteradio introduced in the UK: it becomes the best-selling model for some years.[9]