I was in the
chemistry department of Aberdeen
University in
Scotland. I was inside a 19-inch cabinet trying to wire up a
controller for a stepper motor for a diffraction grating monochrometer and listening to
BBC Radio 1 (I was a
young and
foolish postgrad student).
The record that was playing finished and there was a short period of dead air. Then the DJ (I can't remember which one) came on and said words to the effect of:
"Excuse me, we were just watching the shuttle launch on TV and it's blown up. I'm sorry we're a little bit rattled. Here's another record."
This was probably the first general announcement of the crash in the UK. Radio 4 (to which I switched very quickly) did not have any information for over another half hour.