Between the 1920s and the outbreak of the Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme. As the name of the latter suggests, as well as a "basic" service programmed from London, the Regional Programme included a large measure of additional, alternative or rescheduled programming originating in six regions. Although the programmes attracting the greatest number of listeners tended to appear on the National, the two services were not streamed – that is, they did not attempt to appeal to different audiences; instead, they appealed to a single audience but provided a choice of programming.

On 1 September 1939, the BBC merged the National and the Regional Programmes into one national service from London. The reasons given for this included the need to prevent enemy aircraft from using differentiated output from the Regional Programme's transmitters as navigational beacons. To this end, the former "regional" transmitters were synchronised in chains on (initially) two frequencies, 668 and 767 kHz, with an additional chain of low powered transmitters (known as "Group H") on 1474 kHz appearing later. Under this arrangement "regional" broadcasting in its pre-war form was no longer feasible; however, much of the programming on the new service was gradually decentralised to the former "regional" studios (because of the risks from enemy attack/bombing/invasion in London) and broadcast nationally.

The new service was named the Home Service, which was also the internal designation at the BBC for domestic radio broadcasting (the organisation had also had Television Service and Overseas Service departments).

On 30 September 1967, the BBC split the Light Programme into two services: a popular music service and an entertainment network. The Corporation took the opportunity of renaming the national networks from the same date. The Light Programme became BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. The Third Network became BBC Radio 3, with the Music Programme losing its separate identity (the Third Programme, Study Session, and Sports Service, however, retained their identities – under the banner of BBC Network Three – until 4 April 1970).

The BBC Home Service was renamed BBC Radio 4. It continued as a regionalised service and continued to use the term "Home Service" to refer to regional programming and scheduling, with the Radio Times listings being headlined "BBC Radio Four - Home Service"

With the introduction of BBC Local Radio, starting with BBC Radio Leicester on 8 November 1967, it was felt that the future of non-national broadcasting lay in local rather than regional services. To this end, the BBC produced a report, Broadcasting in the Seventies, on 10 July 1969, proposing the reorganisation of programmes on the national networks and the end of regional broadcasting.

The report began to be implemented on 4 April 1970 and the Home Service regions gradually disappeared (with some of its frequencies reallocated to Independent Local Radio), until 23 November 1978 when Radio 4 was given the national longwave frequency previously used by Radio 2 and was relaunched as Radio 4 UK (with two additional longwave transmitters opened in Scotland).

The "national regions" survived to become separate stations – BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Wales / BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Ulster – at first relaying the majority of Radio 4 programming but later becoming completely independent.

The last remaining Regional Home Service was an FM opt-out of Radio 4 for Devon and Cornwall. This "South West Region", also carried on several low power medium-wave transmitters, continued in existence until BBC Radio Cornwall and BBC Radio Devon opened on 17 January 1983.

During the 1970s Radio 4 FM in the East of England (Tacolneston, Peterborough and relays) carried a breakfast magazine programme, Roundabout East Anglia, the region lacking any BBC Local Radio stations. The service closed in advance of the opening of BBC Radio Norfolk in 1980.

Radio 4 FM continued to carry four daily five-minute regional news bulletins on Mondays to Saturdays until the early 1980s, by which time BBC Local Radio had reached most areas of England. The wide coverage of the Holme Moss transmitter meant that listeners in much of Northern England received combined North and North-West news.