The first record that Tom Browne played on "Solid Gold 60" at 4.00 pm on Sunday 1 October 1972 was Honky Cat by Elton John. The first two hours were broadcast only on Radio 1's medium wave channel, which at that time was 247 metres although occasionally local radio stations broadcasting on FM in mono such as BBC Radio London (94.9 MHz) would carry the transmission from 4 - 6pm. The previous Sunday chart show, the long running Pick of the Pops with Alan Freeman, aired between 5-7 pm and was broadcast not just on 247m but Radio 2's FM and LW frequencies for the entire show, but the axing of Pick of the Pops, brought a change to the allocation of FM and LW airtime, with Radio 1 losing one of the precious hours of valuable FM and LW for its chart show, as they reverted to Radio 2. This was bad news for the numerous parts of the country where reception of Radio 1 on 247m was poor, especially during the dark winter months when AM reception deteriorated.
