Page "BBC Radio" Paragraph 5

Although no other broadcasting organisation was licensed in the UK until 1973, commercial competition soon opened up from overseas.

The commercial competitors were for the most part represented by the International Broadcasting Company that bought blocks of airtime from radio stations such as Normandy, Toulouse, Ljubljana, Juan les Pins, Paris, Poste Parisien, Athlone, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome.

In the period from 1927 to 1939, light entertainment on the British airwaves was for the most part the domain of the 10 part-time English language IBC stations.

By 1938 on Sundays upwards of 80 % of the British audience turned their dials away from the BBC to these IBC stations which followed an American format of commercial broadcasting.

They were eventually silenced by the advent of the German military taking control of their transmitters in France, Luxembourg and other countries during World War II.