The telecommunications company PYE were to build the station but it was still forced, by the licence conditions, to use a VHF transmitter even after an earlier offer of a medium-wave frequency of 1594 kilocycles had been rejected on technical grounds. The man employed to manage the station was Richard Meyer who had previously been manager of the International Broadcasting Company (which had organised the start of Radio Luxembourg before World War II) and the commercial manager of Associated television (ATV). From the outset he was less than enthusiastic about using VHF as there were comparatively few receivers for this medium around at the time. Nevertheless, test transmissions were carried out initially on VHF, the first broadcast being a commentary on the Isle of Man T.T. of 5th June 1964. The station continued throughout the summer in stereo on FM 89.0 MHz.

Manx Radio officially became Britain's first licensed commercial radio station when regular transmissions began on November 23rd/24th using the frequency which had been previously rejected. Power was severely limited, by licence, to a mere 50watts! The operation began from a caravan situated on a hillside at Onchan Head, just outside Douglas which, according to their own website " ... being situated on a headland and exposed to high winds the station was prone in those days to needles skidding off records and the occasional bout of staff sickness from the rocking motion!"

Manx Radio relocated the transmitting station to a permanent building at Foxdale in the centre of the island in 1965 while keeping the main offices on Douglas seafront. At this time an extension of the licence was granted allowing the station to broadcast on 232 metres (1295 KHz) during daylight hours and on 188 metres at night with a power of 2kW that actually enabled it to be heard over a large part of northern England.

Despite this, the station's controllers still had ambitions of reaching a larger audience with a more powerful transmitter which caused a great deal of ill feeling between Tynewald and Westminster. The result of this was that the island had a much better relationship with a potential rival, the recently arrived Radio Caroline North, than it did with the BBC.

As if finally realising the size of the potential audience that it had been ignoring, the BBC completely revamped its setup, announcing its future plans in December 1966. The Home Service became Radio 4, The Third Programme and Network 3 became Radio 3 and The Light Programme became Radio 2 on long wave. Light programme closedown.

With these changes on 30th September 1967, along came a brand new BBC radio station accompanied by a huge amount of pre-publicity that took up where the pirate stations had left off - Radio 1 was born.

The first voice heard, which announced ". . . and welcome to the exciting sound of Radio 1..." was, ironically, that of Tony Blackburn who had previously worked for both Radio Caroline and Radio London.
His opening announcement was followed by The Move's 'Flowers In The Rain' (full playlist), the station broadcasting for 5 hours and 35 minutes on its first day, combining with Radio 2 in the evening. Radio 2 was first introduced by Paul Hollingdale.

The Record Controller, Robin Scott said of it "It's not bash-bash-bash and nothing but the harsh, strident, way-out thing. We hope that it will have more than a teeny-bop audience. It would be absurd to have just a teeny bop network".

Radio 1 initially employed about 33 disc jockeys (or 'presenters' as they were known) of which more than half were ex-pirates, many of whom had already transferred to the BBC's Light Programme. Radio London provided 11, Radio Caroline 4 plus Radio Scotland's Stuart Henry and Mike Raven of Atlanta, King and 390. With a large proportion of them having worked previously on Radio London there was a tendency for Radio 1 to have the same style of presentation, even down to the sound of the jingles.

The 'senior' disc jockeys were 'big 4' Pete Murray, Alan Freeman, Jimmy Savile and David Jacobs, other presenters including Jimmy Young, Keith Fordyce, Jack Jackson and Dan Moss. The final integration of the 'pirates' and 'establishment' radio is largely considered to have occurred when the 'pirate's pirate', Radio Caroline rebel Johnnie Walker, joined Radio 1 in May 1969.

In 1968 Radio Luxembourg changed its style, following the example set by Radio 1, and introduced all live shows with a new team of disc jockeys. Eventually, on November 25th 1969, the UK government authorised licences for another 12 local radio stations and finally allowed a replacement for the services offered by the pirate operators, on a regional level, when licensed independent commercial radio stations began broadcasting in 1973.

Despite being authorised to start local radio services, the BBC had no spare licence fee money to pay for it. The government and the BBC conceived a method of funding where the BBC would finance the setting up of the stations but local authorities would be 'encouraged' to meet the operational costs but without increasing local rates to pay for it. This rather limited the number of areas willing to cover the costs but, eventually, eight locations were selected to take part in this 'experiment': Radio Leicester, which began broadcasting on 8th November 1967 on 95.05 MHz VHF, RadioSheffield (88.6 and 95.05), Radio Merseyside (95.85), Radio Nottingham (94.8), Radio Brighton (88.1), Radio Stoke (94.6), Radio Leeds (94.6) and Radio Durham (96.8).

Amazingly, Radios Leicester, Leeds and Nottingham only started with transmitters of 140 Watts, Radio Brighton had 75 Watts and Radio Sheffield a rather pitiful 30 Watt transmitter. Radios Merseyside, Durham and Stoke were comparative broadcasting giants, with 2.5 kW transmitters. Despite the low power these proved to be a success.

During 1969. the government and the BBC studied the experiment and it was agreed that the BBC could continue with local radio on a permanent basis, with permission given for the creation of 12 additional stations, making 20 in total. The 'local station opening schedule was as follows - all 'BBC' stations apart from the two commercial stations noted: