Radio 2 is to air a two-part documentary to mark the 40th anniversary of UK commercial radio.

In what is being billed as an unprecedented act of radio industry co-operation, the BBC station has commissioned production company Unique to make two hour-long porgramme tracing the history of the sector that launched in October 1973 with London stations LBC and Capital.

Among the contributors to the documentary are Ofcom predecessor the IBA's first director of radio John Thompson, Philip Birch who ...