The playlists have mostly been obtained directly from the archives of Steve Barker - we thank Steve for making them available and permitting us to reproduce them.
Notes
- It is important to understand that a playlist does not accurately represent what was actually played on air, or the correct order! Where there are known errors, these will be noted and corrected, but without comparison to the show as broadcast (where available), it is impossible to be sure. Hence, they should be considered advisory or representative at best, rather than an accurate representation of historic fact.
- During the first few decades of On The Wire, Steve would write out the planned running order in advance the show, often with a list of "spare" tracks, but on many occasions tracks would be bumped from one show to a later one, dropped altogether, or other tracks played instead, and this isn't always clear from the playlist available.
- Tracks played by Fenny or other guest contributors may well not be listed.
- Starting around 25th May 2013, the BBC playout system has automatically tracked music played, and these playlists are available via the show's iPlayer Radio page.
- Early playlists are handwritten, later typewritten but often with hand annotations, eventually becoming produced on computer and printed. For this generation, we only have paper copies. These are reproduced as images, so unfortunately at present they are not searchable. However we do hope to transcribe many of them to text (can you help?). Playlists sometimes feature a little bit of script or copy to read out, doodles, or other notes such as competition questions and even winners. These notes will probably not get transcribed.
- Sometimes the dates on playlists are incorrect, sometimes just a day out, but it was also common to write the incorrect year, particularly at the start of a new year.
- Some earlier playlists have symbols against them. Some common meanings:
- T = tape (reel-to-reel)
- C = cassette
- "comp" = competition
- "dedy" = dedication
- "false" = track has a 'false' ending
- "F" = Fade (sometimes annotated "in" or "out")
- "H" = Hard ending?
- "N" = ?
