London Test Transmissions - Capital/LBC

Test transmissions. Dull, but exciting too. Not least in the early 70s, when there was little else on FM to listen to, apart from Police messages.

They were, as the name implied, just a way of transmitting a little something on the carrier wave so that the engineers could establish if all was well as the transmitters were plugged in.

Hear, here, the original 1973 London test transmissions, paving the way for both Capital and LBC. The voice (and I wish I knew to whom it belonged) is fairly matter-of-fact. No sense of drama, despite his being likely the voice which launched the commercial radio industry.

The old IBA tests originally were largely produced by the station on behalf of the regulator ; hence the IBA address being given formally for any enquiries. They typically began with tone, moving maybe to voice only, then progressing to a mix of music, announcements and, more recently, promos, and desperate pleas for new advertisers.

The industry’s first regulator, the IBA, was far stricter on test transmissions than the Radio Authority or OFCOM. Now stations have a lot more fun, with Classic FM’s famous birdsong; and some being even more ambitious to grab attention. Many others, though, stick to the old semi-formal approach, with the sense of excitement in the air, and the real contrast between the tests and the energy of programming proper at launch. Hence, even nowadays, test transmission language sounds reassuringly prosaic, with a nod to these IBA days. Accordingly, stations still talk about 'test transmissions' when re-launching, even though the transmitters have been tested for decades.