It proved successful, and the company's CEO, Ralph Bernard, and programme director, Michael Bukht, drew up the plans for a national station.

Brolly had brought the idea to Rick Senat, the long-serving head of business affairs in London for Warner Bros. and current owner of Hammer Films.

The Radio Authority had granted an exemption so that Time Warner could hold more than 25%, provided a UK citizen/corporation was larger in the shareholding group.

[citation needed] The station launched at 06:00 on Monday 7 September 1992, after two months of test transmissions using a recording of birdsong.

[4] Nick Bailey presented the first programme, and Zadok the Priest by George Frideric Handel was the first piece to be played.

[5][6] Other launch presenters included Henry Kelly, Susannah Simons, Petroc Trelawny and Adrian Love.

[7] Classic FM has broadcast from its current studios, on the second floor of 30 Leicester Square in central London, since March 2006.

In April and May 2017, High Score, the first series on UK radio dedicated to video game music, was first broadcast on Classic FM.

First broadcast in 1996, the show counts down the 300 most-popular pieces as voted for by listeners, culminating in the number one on the evening of Easter Monday.

[21] In the 2019 Hall of Fame, Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending reclaimed the top spot, followed by Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.

Classic FM broadcasts the "Nation's Favourite Christmas Carol" in a similar format to the "Hall of Fame".

[26][27] Selector software developed by RCS Inc in the United States, which had previously been used only for pop music, was adapted for classical music by Howard, Ray and others to include many more fields and categories, and deal with many more rotation rules to create a playlist from the 50,000 listed tracks;[28] the first "officially broadcast" track was "Zadok the Priest".

Hayley Westenra is an ambassador of the charity, which also receives support from many famous faces from the world of classical music and entertainment.

Throughout the year The Classic FM Foundation holds fundraising events including concerts, sponsored treks and an annual appeal.

The station closed in March 2008, and Classic FM itself then took on the broadcasting of a jazz programme every night between midnight and 02:00, until September 2008.