[11] Initially, The Radio Times was a combined enterprise between the British Broadcasting Company and publishers George Newnes Ltd within the latter typeset, printed and distributed the magazine.

[12] The Radio Times established a reputation for using leading writers and illustrators, and the covers from the special editions are now collectable design classics.

By 26 September 1926, the narrow columns of BBC's wireless programme schedules were broken up by the insertion of a photograph or two – relevant to or depicting subjects of the broadcasts.

On 1 May 1927, The Radio Times produced an experimental Braille edition under the auspices of the National Institute for the Blind with its success led to a regular weekly version publication costing one penny.

[14] Prior to the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the BBC radio listings provided a National Programme for the whole of the United Kingdom, and the Regional Programme appeared in seven different versions (London, Midlands, North, West, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) each with a combination of various transmitters respectively before the two stations merged into a single service, and included three pages of television listings.

When Britain's declaration of war with Germany on 3 September 1939 and the television broadcasting ceased, while radio listings continued with a reduced service.

On 6 September 1969, Radio Times was given another radical makeover, as they switched the date format from "month-day-year" to "day-month-year" and ceased carrying cigarette advertisements after 46 years.

The front cover was surrounded by a black border and italicised its masthead (now in the Caslon typeface with swash capitals; this logo remained until April 2001), in an attempt to emphasize the "R" for radio and "T" for television.

The regular inside back page section for younger listeners and viewers featured content from Newsround presenter John Craven and a selection of new puzzles created by the television producer Clive Doig, such as the trackword (which consisted of nine squares in one word), as well as backstage stories and a comic strip of Peter Lord's Morph at the bottom of the page.

Newsprint and sheets of gravure gave way to black ink and white paper, Helvetica replaced Franklin Gothic for a larger character style, and the television listings were also redesigned including the new film icon[c] and the "today at a glance" sidebar on the far right of pages were added.

Starting from 11 October 1986, the new family viewing policy warned readers that BBC Television does not broadcast programmes before 9.00pm which it believed to be unsuitable for children.

On 19 November 1988, Radio Times launched a new weekly back page section called "My Kind of Day", which was devoted to the latest star interviews with various special guests.

The warning phrase "contains strong language", used for BBC television programmes from 9.00pm during the hours of watershed broadcasting restrictions was also implemented at this time, lasting until 2009.

10 April 2010 saw major changes as Radio Times went through an overhaul, with two pages of the latest reviews and highlights ("choices") somewhat akin to the TV Times, while the daytime listings moved onto the evening section having the full day's output for the five main channels on one double-page spread, other changes saw listings start at 5.00pm rather than 6.30pm (sometimes earlier than 5.00pm for weekends, bank holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year), the addition of electronic program guide numbers into the channel headers, and the inclusion of director and year of production details for films throughout the day.

On 24 March 2020, to coincide with the launch of Disney+, Radio Times introduced two new sections for podcasts and six pages devoted to streaming and various catch-up services.

From 25 January 2022, the Freeview schedules have altered once again starting with the return of BBC3 (launches on 1 February after six years since the television channel has moved online), whether ITV2's listings now occupies at the bottom, as well as the seven remaining services were also placed in the second and third pages respectively.

The special NTL edition of Radio Times replaced the monthly Cable Guide magazine, which had been published from September 1986 to December 2002.

In 1934, Radio Times achieved a circulation of two million and its net profit in that year was more than one quarter of the total BBC licence income.

[16] Following the 1969 relaunch, circulation indeed dropped by about a quarter of a million, it would take several years to recover but the magazine remained ahead of glossier lifestyle-led competitor, TV Times.

During the deregulation of television listings, there was strong criticism from other magazines that Radio Times was advertised on the BBC (as well as on commercial broadcasting channels), saying that it gave unfair advantage to a publication and includes the tagline: "If it's on, it's in".

In September 2023, Radio Times publishes its own 180-page film guide dedicated to reviews and trivia over 1,000 titles with five different star rating systems which include 250 favourites from the beginning of cinema in 1902 to the present day.

To mark the 90th anniversary of its publication, the Museum of London hosted an exhibition lasting several months in 2013, which showed various covers as part of the magazine's history.

[30] Five years later (on 17 April 2010) before the next general election, three special covers depicting the Daleks invading the capital once more within showing their colours of red, blue and yellow as one of several Britain's political parties for Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats were used individually.

[citation needed] The 1988 Christmas double issue (dated 17–30 December) had a panto-themed cover illustration by Lynda Gray, with its popularity climaxed when the publication sold an astounding 11,220,666 copies, and the Guinness Book of Records certified it as the biggest-selling edition of any British magazine in history.

Over the past years, Radio Times published special majestic covers (often marked as a 'souvenir' issue) dedicated to royalty which reflects the monarchy of the United Kingdom, as well as other significant events include birthdays, coronations, jubilees, royal weddings, state funerals and various celebrations across the decades.

The stations carried were as follows: The number of regional editions has been altered over the years within gradually being reduced over time due to there being fewer variations in the programme schedules: Since its began on 28 September 1923 (during the interwar period), there was just a single national edition to cover all the BBC wireless services including relay stations from 1924: From 10 October 1926, the two separate regions – 'Northern' and 'Southern' – were published before Radio Times reverted to one edition and covering all the local stations once again on 7 January 1934: Between 1930 and 1935, many of the original 21 BBC local stations eventually reduced to six regional services (including Wales from 1937) as well as five national variations with the exceptions of Plymouth, Bournemouth, Aberdeen and Stagshaw were remained until 1939 before the outbreak of World War II: After the end of World War II in Europe, the seven local variations were resumed on 29 July 1945 which also used by BBC Home Service as they referred similar to its pre-war Regional Programme during the 1930s.

[citation needed] On 8 September 2021, Radio Times introduced a 40-minute podcast show hosted by Jane Garvey and Rhianna Dhillon that includes interviews with television celebrities.