Worcestershire has a long history in radio broadcasting.
The county is home to the Droitwich Transmitting Station near Wychbold, currently broadcasting BBC Radio 5 Live and commercial radio services - Absolute Radio and TalkSport on Medium Wave/AM and BBC Radio 4 on Long Wave.
The site is the location of the British Broadcasting Corporation's most powerful long-wave transmitter, which during World War II, coded messages read during normal programme broadcasts, were received by the French Resistance.
Meanwhile, in 1939; the BBC bought the historic Wood Norton site near Evesham, and equipped the premises with a dozen temporary studios.
These were to be used in the event of an evacuation of the BBC's operations in London and other urban areas.
By 1940; Wood Norton was one of the largest broadcasting centres in Europe with an average output of 1,300 radio programmes a week.
The BBC monitoring service were also based at Wood Norton, where linguists, many of them foreign nationals, were hired to listen in to broadcasts from Europe until they were relocated to Caversham Park in early 1943.
The move was made to release space at Wood Norton so that it could become the BBC's main broadcasting centre, should London have to be evacuated because of the threat from Nazi Germany's V-weapons.
The site was also prepared for use during the Cold War, as an emergency broadcast centre.
The site is still in use for the BBC's engineering and technical training.
Worcestershire has a long history in radio broadcasting. The county is home to the Droitwich Transmitting Station near Wychbold, currently broadcasting BBC Radio 5 Live and commercial radio services - Absolute Radio and TalkSport on Medium Wave/AM and BBC Radio 4 on Long Wave. The site is the location of the British Broadcasting Corporation's most powerful long-wave transmitter, which during World War II, coded messages read during normal programme broadcasts, were received by the French Resistance. Meanwhile, in 1939; the BBC bought the historic Wood Norton site near Evesham, and equipped the premises with a dozen temporary studios. These were to be used in the event of an evacuation of the BBC's operations in London and other urban areas. By 1940; Wood Norton was one of the largest broadcasting centres in Europe with an average output of 1,300 radio programmes a week. The BBC monitoring service were also based at Wood Norton, where linguists, many of them foreign nationals, were hired to listen in to broadcasts from Europe until they were relocated to Caversham Park in early 1943. The move was made to release space at Wood Norton so that it could become the BBC's main broadcasting centre, should London have to be evacuated because of the threat from Nazi Germany's V-weapons. The site was also prepared for use during the Cold War, as an emergency broadcast centre. The site is still in use for the BBC's engineering and technical training.
Worcestershire