Alan Keith 1950s, he devoted time to devising and presenting music programmes for the BBC. In 1959, he devised "Your Hundred Best Tunes", a programme of famous classical music, operetta and ballads. Keith chose the original 100 pieces himself. Many works were suggested by listeners and played in the programme. Thus a good many more than 100 works were played and the list evolved. Therefore, in subsequent years, a 100 Best were periodically voted for by listeners. In early March 2003, at the age of 94, he recorded an announcement that he intended to retire from the programme after 44 years. However,
BBC Radio 2 and evolved from the Light Programme, with some of the Light Programme's music shows transferring to the newly launched BBC Radio 1. The first show had started at 5:30am (on the Light Programme) but continued with "Breakfast Special" from Paul Hollingdale as Radio 1 split. In early years, much programming and music was common to both stations, particularly on the shared FM frequency. Radio 1 was targeted at the audience of pirate radio stations whereas Radio 2 settled down as a middle-of-the-road station playing laid-back pop/rock, folk and country, jazz and big-band music, easy listening, light classics, and oldies, with