BBC Radio Orchestra

The BBC Radio Orchestra was a broadcasting orchestra based in London, maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1965 until 1991.

The BBC Radio Orchestra was formed in 1965 as a large, flexible studio orchestra on the Nelson Riddle/Henry Mancini model, featuring a full jazz Big Band combined with symphonic strings. The various sections of the Radio Orchestra, prefixed A-E, could be used for different kinds of recordings and sessions. Of all these sections, only the "C1" big band section of the Radio Orchestra had its own real identity and was known as the BBC Radio Big Band. The orchestra’s primary function was to accompany popular singers in ‘cover versions’ and play instrumental arrangements of the popular tunes of the day on BBC Radio 2, as in the 1960s, broadcasting regulations meant the BBC was only allowed to play five hours of commercial gramophone records per day on air. However, the Radio Orchestra did play a great deal of jazz and light music by leading light composers and arrangers including Robert Farnon,Angela Morley and Nelson Riddle, and at its peak was considered one of the finest studio orchestras in the world.

The BBC Radio Orchestra was disbanded in 1991, with the BBC Big Band retained as a full-time ensemble till 1994 when the corporation made the band a freelance unit, whilst allowing it to retain its name and identity.

When the BBC Radio Popular Music department was formed in the early 1960s, it inherited both the BBC Revue Orchestra and the BBC Variety Orchestra and immediately began to investigate the possible amalgamation of the two ensembles, which had similar instrumentation and virtually duplicated each other's outputs. Michael Standing, the then head of sound broadcasting at the BBC, suggested creating an orchestra that would form a flexible pool of players that could be used for various combinations. The complete listing of the proposed combinations which could be formed out of the 56 musicians who were to make up the new orchestra, comprised, in addition to the full "A" orchestra, no fewer than 10 separate combinations across four groups, B, C, D and E.

On 9 September 1964, Mark White (Organiser, Popular Music Services) produced what was possibly the smallest memo ever sent within the BBC, with the subject "New Aeolian Hall Orchestra", stating definitively that "It has now been decided that the title of the New Aeolian Hall Orchestra will be The Radio Orchestra. Unfortunately the effect was spoilt by the insertion in red ink of the word New between The and Radio !

...
Wikipedia