is
London 's
BBC Local Radio station, and part of
BBC London . Broadcasting across the city on 94.9
FM ,
DAB ,
Telewest Cable TV ,
Sky Digital and also on the
Internet , it was previously known as London Live, ''GLR'' (Greater London Radio) and before that ''Radio London'', not to be confused with the
Pirate Radio station of the
Same Name . Each incarnation represented different management and scheduling.
The earliest ever regular local radio broadcast dates as far back as the
1920s , with the launch of 2LO in 1922. The station, based at Marconi House on the
Strand ,
Central London was opened by
Guglielmo Marconi became the
British Broadcasting Company 's first radio station. The first-ever news bulletin was read by Arthur Burrows. ''"2LO Calling"'' was its
Call-sign and preceded all programmes on the air. In 1923 2LO moved to bigger premises with studios adjactent to the Savoy Hotel in London. Its transmission tower was located on the roof of department store
Selfridges in the
West End . In 1930 2LO evolved into two programming networks - the
BBC National Programme and the
BBC Regional Programme , of which 2LO was intergrated into the latter.
''See main article:
2LO ''
Local radio was to arrive in London as part of an pilot project headed by the late
Frank Gilliard , who on arrival to the United States discovered local radio stations of varying formats and was to bring this concept to Britain.
Test transmissions for the new local radio station were carried out from
Wrotham, Kent on 95.3
MHz in
FM mono, relaying
BBC Radio 1 on medium wave, with several announcements informing listeners of the new service. On the
6 October 1970 was launched, three years before commercial radio for London in the guise of LBC. An additional medium wave frequency was allocated on 1458 kHz (206 metres) from Brookman's Park. 95.3 soon changed to 94.9.
