The first Top 40 on Radio 1 - 1978

For a generation, the BBC chart was part of growing up. A Sunday night ritual. You knew from Tuesday lunchtime's news which songs had gone up and down, but one had to wait until Sunday to hear them in full - and in stereo, given the AM-only Radio 1 borrowed Radio 2's FM frequencies for the show.

There were no rival chart shows, as commercial radio had just begun and its separate 19 proud independent companies were in no mood to co-operate very much.

This edition was special, being the first where the top 40 were included in this two hour show, as opposed to the top 20.

Simon Bates did a typically stunning job here, with the voice powering out, his mic levels leaping out of the waveform on this audio. Flawless presentation, and he tells me he kicked himself when he said 'this week's..British' before playing the fab 'Britain's Number 1' JAM jingle.

The backing track for the rundown is Scots Machine by Voyage - and if you wonder what happened to the absent show which follows, it should have been the Moody Blues story on 1 and Brain of Sport on 2.

Thanks to Richard White for sending me this for posterity.