BBC ITV. However, the BBC monopoly on radio services would persist until 8 October 1973 when under the control of the newly renamed Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the UK's first Independent local radio station, LBC came on-air in the London area. As a result of the Pilkington Committee report of 1962, in which the BBC was praised for the quality and range of its output, and ITV was very heavily criticised for not providing enough quality programming, the decision was taken to award the BBC a second television channel, BBC2, in 1964, renaming the existing service BBC1. BBC2 used the higher
BBC Radio 2 with a 6:55am start up on Sundays. The station closed down at around 12:33am each day. However from Monday 29 September 1975 the closedown hours were scaled back even more, with BBC Radio 2 concluding their day at around 12:10am Mondays to Fridays, and at 12:33am on Saturdays and Sundays. There were exceptions to the rule, especially over Christmas and New Year periods when hours would be temporarily extended. Broadcasting hours would be extended to the 5am2am schedule on Saturday 1 April 1978. BBC Radio 2 became the first national 24-hour radio station in the UK in 1979. The station's