Fab 208

Fabulous 208

Issue of 4 June 1966 announcing link with Radio Luxembourg
Categories	Pop music, teenagers
Frequency	Weekly
First issue	18 January 1964
Final issue	27 September 1980
Country	United Kingdom

Fabulous 208 (retitled Fab 208 after August 1975) was a British pop music magazine.

Published weekly between 1964 and 1980 by Fleetway (later IPC Magazines) and aimed at the teenage market, it ran for almost 900 issues, and oversaw a period of considerable change in popular music consumption, from the early years of The Beatles' career to the growth of the music video. Many of its contributors began their professional careers with the magazine including photographers David Steen and Robert Whitaker and writers Quentin Crewe, Shena Mackay, Neil Aspinall and Michael Aldred.

First published as Fabulous on 18 January 1964, The Beatles appeared on the front cover, espousing the magazine's (then) USP: full-colour pinups. At the time, Fabulous's competition - chiefly New Musical Express and Melody Maker - were newsprint publications. As Paul Jobling and David Crowley note, The Beatles went on to appear in every edition of the magazine for the next two years, and several early editions featured no other artists. In June 1966, after a deal with Radio Luxembourg to carry its programme listings and related items, the magazine was retitled Fabulous 208 - 208 metres being Radio Luxembourg's broadcast wavelength. At its peak it had a circulation of 250,000, and for the majority of the 1960s had the biggest market share of its type.