...Till Reith has built Jerusalem, transmitting to England's* green and pleasant** land.

*and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's **and the less green and unpleasant bits too

===

In the third and final part of our General Strike special, 100 years on, we look at 10-12 May 1926, in a week that changed the BBC forever - as John Reith walked a tightrope of independence and impartiality.

Plus the legacy of the strike, how it changed the BBC, and of course we couldn't resist bringing you the iconic moment of Reith announcing the strike's end, by reading Jerusalem with accompanying orchestra and choir. While there was no recording at the time, Reith re-enacted it in 1932.

The newspapers, the bulletins, the occasional later reminiscence (Peter Eckersley, Stuart Hibberd...), this aims to be the most thorough - and yet I hope entertaining - retelling of the BBC and the General Strike. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did putting it together.

With thanks to these excellent resources...

Radicalstroud.co.uk

Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick

The Trades Union Congress

The BBC Written Archive Centre

1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley

Into the Wind by John Reith

Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting

Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory

Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone

The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy

Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles

Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’

Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning

Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris

Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html

SHOWNOTES:

• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Broadcasts over 50 years old are beyond copyright, but anything that is BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. 
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour
• Our latest Substack summarises these 5 over-steps of the BBC in the General Strike: paulkerensa.substack.com
• Our Facebook group has ample marvellous photos and newspaper articles - thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
• Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
• Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
• Join Paul's mailing list
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever.
• Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa
• Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 121: Ask Elvis, The Archers, The Cultures of Early Television conference, and An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - all live events you come to this summer. We'll chat to those behind these do-please-come-along happenings.

Then on Episode 122, we're back in our chronological retelling in Nov 1923, for the launch of the first relay station, Sheffield 6FL.

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

100 years ago this week (at time of podcast release), two million strikers were out in solidarity with the miners. It brought unique challenges to the BBC - with Winston Churchill trying to take it over, a tightrope of independence and impartiality, and broadcast requests from the Archbishop of Canterbury (no), the Leader of the Opposition (no), the TUC (no) and the Prime Minister (come on in sir!).

John Reith welcomes the PM to his own home, even rewriting his speech for him while he's on air. It's all part of what we're calling The BBC and the General Strike in 5 (Over-)Steps.

This episode, we'll discover over-reaching editorialising of the news, Reith the rewriter and those notably absent voices of opposition. Hmm. But then again, what would you do differently... and would that hand to Churchill the BBC on a plate?

All will become clear, in our day-to-day guide through the middle of the General Strike during those nine days in May 1926.

This episode looks at 6-9 May. Last episode we looked at 3-5 May. Next episode we'll look at 10-14 May plus the General Strike's legacy (and Reith's apologies).

I hope you'll agree it's a fascinating tale, worth us taking the long way round. The details - from the role played by Reith's creaky office chair to his mum listening to the PM through the study door, and from Earl Grey's doorstep duel to Peter Eckersley's shock when he discovers imbalanced news - are deserving of retelling. So thanks for listening, if you do. And you should. Join us! 

Part 3 follows on 10 May 2026 - 100 years on from the moments featured. Be subscribed to get the episodes when they land.

With thanks to these excellent resources...

Radicalstroud.co.uk

Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick

The Trades Union Congress

The BBC Written Archive Centre

1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley

Into the Wind by John Reith

Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting

Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory

Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone

The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy

Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles

Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’

Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning

Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris

Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html

SHOWNOTES:

• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Broadcasts over 50 years old are beyond copyright, but anything that is BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. 
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour
• Our latest Substack summarises these 5 over-steps of the BBC in the General Strike: paulkerensa.substack.com
• Our Facebook group has ample marvellous photos and newspaper articles - thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
• Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
• Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
• Join Paul's mailing list
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever.
• Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa
• Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 120: The General Strike at 100, part 3: Reith wins?

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

But while it was a time of national crisis, it was also an opportunity for the BBC - and particularly John Reith.

With most newspapers ceasing publication, the BBC gained a news division, and a reputation, for independence and impartiality - at least, that's what Reith hoped. But it meant opponents and critics at every turn - from strikers believing they were being unfairly ignored, to Winston Churchill thinking the BBC were too generous to the strikers. Surely, thought Churchill, it was better for the government to commandeer the BBC, and become an audio version of his pop-up partisan paper The British Gazette?

There's a lot to this tale. So to do it justice, we're breaking it into four podcasts. This is part 1 - with the birth of the BBC's news-gathering squad, and Reith locking horns with Churchill, though cosying up to the PM. And he announces the strike - and other interruptions - from his own home studio.

Our guest is Professor Michael Tracey, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and former head of the Broadcasting Research Unit.

Part 2 follows in a few days' time - 100 years on from the moments featured. Be subscribed to ensure you get the episodes when they land.

With thanks to these excellent resources...

Radicalstroud.co.uk

Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick

The Trades Union Congress

The BBC Written Archive Centre

1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley

Into the Wind by John Reith

Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting

Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory

Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone

The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy

Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles

Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’

Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning

Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris

Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html

SHOWNOTES:

• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever.
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour
• Read Paul's Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
• Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury
• Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
• Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
• Join Paul's mailing list
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 119: The General Strike at 100, part 2: Reith v The Archbishop

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

A special episode about a new play about on the true tale of Britain's first broadcast debate on homosexuality. We're outside of our moment-by-moment timeline (currently anchored in November 1923 - we return there soon) to highlight this under-appreciated moment at the 1950s BBC.

After much deliberation, BBC producers planned and recorded an experimental discussion programme, but it wasn't broadcast until three years later, as an edited version called 'The Homosexual Condition'. The content may be rather shocking to today's ears, but progressive as far as its producers were concerned.

The recordings are long lost, but the transcript survives and was discovered by Professor Marcus Collins (Professor of British History at Loughborough University) at the BBC Written Archives Centre.

Marcus brought it to Dr Stephen Hornby (Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Practice at the University of Salford) who put pen to paper. They both join us this episode tell us how history met drama in this new play: The BBC's First Homosexual.

It's on tour this year to Dublin and Edinburgh after a sell-out five-star-reviewed tour of England. Find it at:

11-16 May - Teachers Club, Dublin

5-16 August - Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh

Details: linktr.ee/inkbrewtheatre

SHOWNOTES:

• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stops Corsham (Wilts), Weston-super-Mare, Gloucester... paulkerensa.com/tour
• Read Paul's Substack - the latest one is on early media predictions - paulkerensa.substack.com
• Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury
• Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
• Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
• Join Paul's mailing list
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 118: The BBC and the General Strike: Reith v Churchill v PM v TUC... A centenary special!

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

We started covering that first year back on episode 18! It's taken a while to get here - but what a year it was. From the first BBC news bulletin, songs and children's programmes to outside broadcasts, simultaneous broadcasting, new stations in Scotland and Wales, a government enquiry, new premises, wireless manhunts, the Radio Times and so much more, we've covered the lot across nearly 100 episodes.

This episode we lead up to the first birthday with plans for the pips, a Shakespearean anniversary, and a raucous farewell do for Marconi boss Godfrey Isaacs.

Then the birthday broadcast features speeches from John Reith and Guglielmo Marconi - hear some of that this episode, as well as reflections from Birmingham station chief Percy Edgar.

Some lovely voices from the archive here - including Reith, Edgar and Peter Eckersley, who wrote all of the early BBC birthday broadcast shows, achieving the impossible: making John Reith laugh.

SHOWNOTES:

• This podcast contains an excerpt from Marconi's BBC debut - his speech about the origins of broadcasting. Hear Paul read the full text of the speech on this Patreon video (£5/month - all supports the podcast, thanks if you support us there!): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-marconis-bbc-155370052 (also on that video: thoughts on Romany at the BBC, and Paul's latest (failed) Radio 4 pitches)
• Read Marconi's speech on this Facebook post by our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/854152096155912 (and do join the group, if you're on Facebook...)
• We mention the campaign against access changes at the BBC Written Archives Centre - more info on this open letter.  
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stops Chelmsford, Weston-super-Mare, Corsham Wilts... paulkerensa.com/tour
• Read Paul's Substack - the latest one is on early prophecies of what broadcasting might become - paulkerensa.substack.com
• Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury
• Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
• Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
• Join Paul's mailing list
• Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 117: The BBC's First Homosexual - a new play bringing a lost controversial BBC documentary to light... and then it's the centenary of the General Strike - a key moment in the making of the BBC.

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

From the BBC's first song (Kreisler's Liebesleid, played 15 November 1922) to the last in the listings of its first year (John Ireland's Phantasie Trio in A Minor), it was a pre-jazz era of light opera and the odd dose of music hall.

Guiding us through songs that were on air, plus a few other favourites from that era, musician and comedian Earl Okin handpicks from his collection of over 10,000 78s, along with a few of Auntie's early favourites from elsewhere.

You'll hear the music and tales behind:

• Liebesleid – Fritz Kreisler
• Annie Laurie – Clara Butt
• Lemare’s Andantino – Cecil Dixon
• Abide With Me – Rex Palmer
• Piccadilly Trot – Mari Lloyd
• Softly Awakes My Heart – Marian Anderson
• The Blind Ploughman – Feodor Chaliapin
• if it Wasn’t the House In Between – Gus Elen 
• On with the Motley/Vesti La Giubba – Enrico Caruso
• John Willie Come on – George Formby Sr
• Five Foot Two – The Savoy Orpheans
• Passing By – Paul Robeson
• Phantasie Trio in A Minor – John Ireland

SHOWNOTES:

• Earl Okin's Gramophone Show podcast is available wherever you get podcasts, eg http://earlokin.blogspot.com;  https://www.earlokin.net/podcast
• John Hannon's Facebook post about Richard H White is here on our Facebook group.
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. The more patrons, the more work Paul can turn down elsewhere, the more podcasts you get. Simple maths! Thanks if you support us (me) there.
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stop Chelmsford! paulkerensa.com/tour
• Read Paul's Substack - paulkerensa.substack.com
• Join our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
• Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
• Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
• Join Paul's mailing list
• Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 116: The BBC's First Birthday

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Back in our moment-by-moment timeline of what happened on the early BBC, it's three days short of its first anniversary.

The BBC aired 'The Great Silence', speeches including the Prime Minister... and then the questions began regarding the soundtrack to the Armistice commemorations. Foulds' A World Requiem, even if the Church might not like it? Elgar? Jerusalem? It's A Long Way To Tipperary? Classical or songs from the troops? And how do you broadcast a silence?

Guiding us through the music and lack of it throughout the decade, Professor Rachel Cowgill, cultural-historical musicologist, Professor of Music at the University of York. Her article is in the show-notes...

...as are details of some of the earliest recordings of a BBC broadcast - well, a recording of an event that was also broadcast on the BBC. That surely counts. We found some this episode - I think taking the number of 1920s recordings of the BBC to five. (We'll do an episode about them soon, I'm sure...)  

And Trayce Arssow's research into how 1920's Funeral of the Unknown Warrior became the world's first electrical recording - despite claims it took till 1925.

SHOWNOTES:

• Prof Rachel Cowgill's article is Canonizing remembrance: Music for Armistice Day at the BBC, 1922-7 
• Trayce Arssow's article is Pioneers in the Evolution of Electrical Sound Recording: The Guest-Merriman Electrical Recording System, 1918-1922
• 1920's gramophone record of the Funeral of the Unknown Warrior, thanks to WW1Recordings on Youtube.
• 1927's Remembrance Festival at the Albert Hall - one of the earliest recordings of something broadcast on the BBC, thanks to Vintage Sounds on Youtube.
• 1928's Remembrance Festival at the Albert Hall, thanks to EMGColonel on Youtube.
• 1928's Remembrance Festival, as above, but a great tale behind its recording, thanks to Revolutions in Sound on Youtube.
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. All keeps Paul in books and web hostings - so this podcast is what it is thanks to kinds patrons there. Thanks!
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - paulkerensa.com/tour
• Read Paul's Substack - paulkerensa.substack.com
• Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 115: Music from the BBC's first year, with musician, comedian and gramophone record enthusiast Earl Okin

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Ray's book Radio Caroline: The True Story of the Boat that Rocked is highly recommended - a fascinating part of cultural history that he's brilliantly researched and retold. Get it from his website or where you get books (link below).

Plus, as host Paul prepares for a new live show (Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer) on influential Outside Broadcast engineer RH Wood, this episode's bookended with some classic clips of Woody's broadcasts - coronations, state funerals, Churchill's war speeches, the Crystal Palace fire, the Boat Race, the first rugby commentary (re-enactment!)...

Oh and a certain drunken commentary - Tommy Woodroffe on how 'The Fleet's Lit Up'. Hear it as you've never heard it before, with the engineer's commentary of what came before and after - how and why Tommy ended up inebriated on air, and where he went next... What a tale.

Rebellion and rogueishness in the air then, and on it. Enjoy!

(And if you like it, share it? Thanks, pals)

SHOWNOTES:

• Ray Clark's website is rayradio.co.uk - get his Radio Caroline book there
• For more on pirate radio history, see offshoreradio.co.uk or offshoreechos.com
• Paul's new live show on OB engineer RH Wood - if you're quick - is on at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 7 Feb - Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer. If you're not quick, would you like it performed near you? Get in touch with Paul. Details of this and other shows at www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Paul's Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is very much still on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx 
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. All keeps Paul in books and web hostings - so this podcast is what it is thanks to kinds patrons there. Thanks!
• Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 114: The First BBC Armistice Broadcast of 1923

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

It was hoax - although arguably it's only a hoax if the hoaxer intends to fool the hoaxee... and Father Ronald Knox seemingly thought he was just providing some entertainment in his radio pastiche: Broadcasting the Barricades.

But when it's a spoof news report about the House of Commons being destroyed with trench mortars, the felling of Big Ben, the destruction of the Savoy Hotel and reports of a mob hanging or roasting alive various people... well no wonder some listeners fled their homes.

Others phoned the Savoy Hotel, the BBC, the newspapers, the Admiralty. It was chaos. But was it as chaotic as the newspapers implied?

Joining us to dig into this bizarre and wonderful tale is Dr A Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News - a highly recommended read (and fear not, Brad will return to the podcast for a special on 1938's War of the Worlds another time).

And of course, as we love a centenary re-enactment, we'll bring back to life this unrecorded broadcast, thanks to the script and a couple of sound effects (for the full works, in video form, join us Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-first-radio-147890189)

Cheers to Father Ronald Knox, who panicked Britain 100 years ago today! Listen to hear how...

SHOWNOTES:

• Thanks to Jonathan Mayo, Andrew Barker, Andy Walmsley and Paul Slade for titbits, trivia and newspaper cuttings about Broadcasting the Barricades.
• Paul's latest blog post about Broadcasting the Barricades and the birth of fake(d) news is on Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com - do subscribe there.
• Dr A Brad Schwartz's book Broadcast Hysteria is a must-read. The audiobook's great too.
• Andy Walmsley's blog on Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2023/12/broadcasting-barricades.html
• Paul Slade's website about Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://www.planetslade.com/ronald-knox1.html
• My Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is very much still on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - thanks if you listened!
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul has 2 different upcoming live shows about the early BBC: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits Norfolk and Suffolk, while new show Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer is at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 7 Feb. If it goes well, I may do it elsewhere. Let's see. www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - including the full video re-enactment of Broadcasting the Barricades. In evening dress!
• Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.

Next time, Episode 113: The First BBC Armistice Broadcast of 1923

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

On Christmas Eve 2025, Britain's latest radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, bringing back to life a little of that first radio play, the tale behind it, and fictionalising some of the quest to help give credit where credit's due.

This new drama for Radio 4 is produced by B7 Media and written by Paul Kerensa, who also hosts this podcast - so yes after 111 episodes we've finally brought some of the early BBC story (in this unofficial non-BBC podcast - for tis not made by/with/under them) to today's BBC. Thanks if you've listened to or supported the podcast in any way, as it's all helped make it happen. It takes a village! You are that village. Thanks, village!

Episode 72 of this podcast told the tale of Phyllis, and how her achievement as first radio dramatist (we can talk about the American one from a year earlier) seemed to fade from history books as Richard Hughes and his A Comedy of Danger gradually took over as 'first radio drama'. Hmm, what an oddity.

With neither a recording nor a surviving script, it was nice to discover a short story version of The Truth About Father Christmas, under Phyllis' pen name - so with that, I pitched the idea to radio drama producer Helen Quigley of B7 Media, and she pitched it to Radio 4's Drama Commissioning Editor - who gladly agreed there was a tale to tell.

So on the day this podcast lands, so does our radio drama. We're proud of it - we hope you like it. If you don't, that's fine too. It's not perfect, but it's out there! #JusticeforPhyllis - and that's the goal, hopefully via some festive entertainment for your ears.

On this accompanying podcast (unofficial - as it's not BBC), I chat to the cast, crew and descendants of Phyllis Twigg the writer and Arthur Burrows the voice behind Father Christmas, and the man who commissioned her in the first place.

So on this bumper episode, you'll hear:

Helen Quigley - director

Tamsin Greig - who plays Phyllis Twigg

Rory Kinnear - who plays Arthur Burrows

Will Harrison Wallace - who plays Mr White

Aja Dodd - who plays Jenny Adams

Carina Saner - great-granddaughter and biographer of Phyllis Twigg

Nick Heal - grandson of Arthur Burrows

Philippa Heal - great-granddaughter of Arthur Burrows

Neil Brand - composer

...Thanks to them and many more for making possible this new drama about the first drama.

Oh and you'll also hear the 7min reading of the prose version of The Truth About Father Christmas, voiced by Carina Saner, Flora Saner (great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter of Phyllis) and myself (no relation!).

Thanks to ME London hotel for sharing the recording with us - we recorded it for them, and they've been playing daily in their Atrium, as they're pretty much on the site of the first BBC studio, where that first radio drama began.

I advise you listen to The Truth About Phyllis Twigg first - if it's still on BBC Sounds as you find this podcast. If you can't or haven't, you'll still find plenty in this podcast. It was a joy to make.

And as I'm working on the biography of Phyllis with her great-granddaughter Carina (Publishers? Get in touch...), the quest continues...

SHOWNOTES:

• The Truth About Phyllis Twigg on BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - it's produced by B7 Media.
• Episode 72 of this podcast has more of the Twigg tale.
• My Substack timeline of Phyllis Twigg: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-a-timeline
• My blog for B7 Media about the new drama: https://www.b7media.com/the-truth-about-the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg/
• Professor Tim Crook's article on Phyllis Twigg: https://kulturapress.com/2022/09/24/phyllis-m-twigg-the-bbcs-first-original-radio-dramatist/
• Dr Tina Pepler's 1988 thesis on radio drama, mentioning Phyllis: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34496537/381402.pdf
• The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx
• An article from Downthetubes about The Truth about Phyllis Twigg: https://downthetubes.net/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-lifts-the-lid-on-secrets-of-early-bbc-radio/
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits Norfolk and Leicester in 2026 - and maybe your place? Get in touch: www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning.
• Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.

Next time, Episode 112: Father Ronald Knox's Broadcasting the Barricades - the BBC's Pre-War of the Worlds Radio Scare of 1926

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Podcast host Paul has been Pausing for Thought for over a decade, with Chris Evans, Zoe Ball and Scott Mills, and was recently asked to present a history of Pause for Thought to a roomful of Pause for Thoughters, the Radio 2 boss, and today's Breakfast Show host Scott Mills. So a version of that is on this episode, with some golden oldie clips, including Ray Moore and Derek Jameson. And even a bit of Steve Wright, because why not.

It's a mini-sode ahead of our Christmas special, so we look ahead to that, with a little more info on Paul's upcoming Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama, The Truth About Phyllis Twigg.

The companion episode will be next time on the podcast, but for now there's info on where in London you can go to listen to the story version of that original radio drama - ME London, the hotel on the site of Marconi House and the BBC's first studio. You can go this December, and listen to our exclusive recording, by, Paul, Carina Saner (Phyllis' great-granddaughter) and Flora Saner (Phyllis' great-great-granddaughter).

...And if you can't make it to London, we'll play it for you on the next episode. 

A little too on our moment-by-moment timeline of British broadcasting - we're in November 1923 and it's GK Chesterton from Manchester, a Welsh talk from Wales, the first radio novel, and some comments in the Radio Times on the benefits of radio opera.

(This WAS going to be an episode about the first BBC Armistice broadcast - but with all the above to tell more immediately, I decided to hold back the Armistice episode till the New Year. I know - it's not November - but we have a timeline to follow. In early 2026)

SHOWNOTES:

• Random Radio Jottings’ blog post on Pause for Thought’s history - with clips! https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2020/04/pause-for-thought.html
• ME London hotel host our recording of The Truth about Father Christmas, Dec 2025 only! Some more details from the manager: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mattba_melondon-takemetothemoon-activity-7402369630956326913-n1OS/ ...Pop by the hotel, have a listen! Get in touch with them first to be sure: https://www.melia.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/london/me-london
• The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx
• An article from Downthetubes about The Truth about Phyllis Twigg: https://downthetubes.net/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-lifts-the-lid-on-secrets-of-early-bbc-radio/
• Paul on Radio 4 Extra's Daily Service, inc a little on The Truth about Father Christmas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002n6kc
• A few selected highlights of Paul's History of Pause for Thought slide show at Broadcasting House: https://bsky.app/profile/paulkerensa.bsky.social/post/3m6orjdhkxs2m
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Any clips are other oooooold and out of copyright, or recent and the copyright is the BBC's - tiny excerpts hopefully qualify as fair use. Right? Right.
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits Norfolk and Leicester in 2026 - and maybe your place? Get in touch: www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning.
• Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.

Next time: Episode 111: The Truth About The Truth About Phyllis Twigg - our new radio drama about the first radio drama.

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

In November 2025, 17th BBC Director General Tim Davie resigned because... well we're still trying to find out exactly why. Again, politics is at play - though it's difficult to know if that's at the White House, the House of Commons or Broadcasting House.

Dr Tom Mills, sociologist at Aston University and author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, joins us to whizz through 17 Directors General, their own politics and their battles with politics.

Meet:

John Reith, Frederick Ogilvie, Cecil Graves, Robert Foot, William Haley, Ian Jacob, Hugh Greene, Charles Curran, Ian Trethowan, Alasdair Milne, Michael Checkland, John Birt, Greg Dyke, Mark Thompson, George Entwistle, Tony Hall and Tim Davie.

(Add some 'sirs' and 'lords' in there - I've only de-titled them here as we're often talking about them while they were DG, and it's confusing who was appointed what and when. No disrespect intended)

All men, you may notice. There are a few women in this tale too - though not many, and usually by such names as Margaret Thatcher and Mary Whitehouse.

It's a complex tale - I hope we make it less so for you.

Oh and we have news of your festive audio treat - coming soon (to Radio 4!)

SHOWNOTES:

• Dr Tom Mills' book is The BBC: Myth of a Public Service
• Tom has co-written this article on a potential future for the BBC: https://www.common-wealth.org/publications/our-mutual-friend-the-bbc-in-the-digital-age
• Paul's Substack article on the 17 Directors General: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/who-let-the-dgs-out-the-17-bbc-directors
• Paul's Substack on last episode's Mass Telepathy broadcast re-enactment: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-bbcs-mass-telepathy-broadcast
• Apply to be BBC Director General! The job ad: https://careers.bbc.co.uk/job/Director-General/34415-en_GB/
• Details of your audio festive treat - my new Radio 4 drama, about the first radio drama: https://www.facebook.com/paul.kerensa/posts/pfbid0MKWEGmjSgXaBGJqMS6FPpbga8XcRaDdqMkAqb6GT6ZNYcW65yfQKKnbrF6B7J4jal
• The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx
• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here - because like the 1925 panel, we can't read your mind: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits a variety of tour stops: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning.
• Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.

Next time: Episode 110: The first BBC Armistice broadcast.

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

'MASS TELEPATHY: An Experiment in Thought Reading in which every Listener will be invited to assist'

On 12 November 2025, we present a dramatic re-enactment, based on newspaper articles of the day, and brought to life with a cast of marvel and a guest radio drama producer.

Appropriately, the one believer on the celebrity panel was the first BBC dramatist - Phyllis Twigg. We first landed on this story on episode 72 of this podcast, exploring her tale, her innovations and her interest in spiritualism.

Alas no one else on the panel took it seriously. Like The Celebrity Traitors of 1925, a bunch of celebs (a Shakespearean actress, a panto star, the BBC's drama critic, the BBC's Director of Education, an MP, and so on) gathered in a fancy hotel with a gothic atmosphere and played a spooky game around a table, with a glass or two of fizzy rosé.

Or is it more Derren Brown: Mind Control?

Either way, the celebrity jury mostly played it for laughs - and enjoyed the hospitality of the Savoy Hotel a little too much. The listeners weren't happy - especially those taking it seriously at home, beaming their thoughts into the ether.

With no recording, we bring it to life for the first time in a century. In exactly a century.

If you enjoy this dramatisation, do let us know (paul at paulkerensa dot com) and/or consider joining us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa - if you like it, and if we can afford to, we'll do more like this, in and amongst our regular episodes - which right now is meant to be telling the tale of November 1923. We'll pick that up next time... For now, we have a centenary drama to bring you! So concentrate your thoughts, open your mind, and open a bottle. They did.

MASS TELEPATHY: RE-ENACTED

THE CAST

Sir Alfred Robbins - Adrian Mackinder

Cecil Lewis - Will de Renzy-Martin

Lady Tree - Helen Lloyd

Zena Dare - Natalie Chisholm

Phyllis Twigg - Carina Saner (playing her own great-grandmother)

Dorothy Warren - Marta da Silva

Lt Commander Kenworthy MP - Will Harrison Wallace

James Agate - Paul Kerensa

J.C. Stobart - Anthony Hewson

Roger Eckersley - Anthony Rudd

Written by Paul Kerensa

Produced/Directed/Edited by Helen Quigley

A Soundliness co-production with the British Broadcasting Century

1. Letter - K:

James Agate IOU

Dorothy Warren, F then G, then K

Lady Tree Z

Miss Zena Dare G

Kenworthy B 

2. Day - Saturday:

Four guessed Sunday, one Friday

3. Number - 7:

49-13-300-13-19-33-9400

4. Playing card - Three of Diamonds:

Stobart – 4 of Diamonds. Others failed to follow suit...

5. Shape - Triangle:

Circles or polygons, a shilling (Lady Tree), a rugby ball... and an isosceles triangle (Dorothy Warren)

6. Uncategorised - The Game of Bridge:

Charlie Chaplin? Lamp on the Cenotaph? A banjulele? A white leghorn pullet?

SHOWNOTES:

• Episode 72 of this podcast - from 26mins in - has more on the true tale behind the Mass Telepathy broadcast... if want to know how much is accurate: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-2dyrq-1478971
• Prof Tim Crook's article on Phyllis Twigg quotes extensively from newspapers of the day - again if you'd like to read more on the genuine event and how it was reported: https://kulturapress.com/2022/09/24/phyllis-m-twigg-the-bbcs-first-original-radio-dramatist/ (about 2/3rds down the page)
• Soundliness Productions made this dramatisation: https://soundliness.com/
• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here - because like the 1925 panel, we can't read your mind: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul's latest Substack posts include a history of BBC DGs: https://paulkerensa.substack.com
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits a variety of tour stops: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Please like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks aplenty.

Next time: Episode 109: Reith invites the PM and the King on the air - and other Directors-General over the century...

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

These aren't critics OF the BBC (there were - and are - plenty of those), but critics ON the BBC - a literary critic, a music critic, a drama critic, a film critic... Think Front Row, Barry Norman, The Old Grey Whistle Test, but decades earlier.

These weekly shows went national via simultaneous broadcasting - SB - and the BBC's London-centric regular programming started to take over the regional schedules.

On London 2LO from 14 June 1923 - and nationally on Thursdays from 18 October - was music critic Percy Scholes.

On London 2LO from 18 July - and nationally on Fridays from 19 October - was film critic G.A. Atkinson ('Seen on the Screen').

On London 2LO from 8 August - and nationally on Wednesdays from 17 October - was drama critic Archibald Haddon ('News and Views of the Theatre'), and later James Agate.

On London 2LO from 3 September - and nationally on Mondays from 15 October - was literary critic John Strachey.

And in more recent years, we add comedy criticism to the list - with some comedy writers. James Cary has written BBC sitcoms for TV and radio, inc his own Bluestone 42, Hut 33, Think the Unthinkable, and for others Miranda, My Hero, My Family and more. He joins us with his opinions on comedy, the BBC, and what he'd do if he were DG.

And Miranda Hart - once our boss (I also wrote for the show Miranda) - joins us in a conversation I had for my previous podcast, The Heptagon Club (a podcast of conversations with 7 guests per episode - it was exhausting, so I stopped, for the simpler task of chronicling the history of the BBC...)

And our latest clue to our audio festive treat. Ooh...

SHOWNOTES:

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• James Cary's books include The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer and The Sacred Art of Joking, and his podcasts include The Stand-up Theologian.
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here - do please spare 5mins to let me know your thoughts: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Thanks to Andrew Barker, our Newspaper Detective, for finding the press extracts. 
• Paul's Substack: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits a variety of tour stops: www.paulkerensa.com/tour... INCLUDING new show Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 8th Feb 2026.
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. And occasionally what's ahead.
• Please like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. It helps us fund books, web hosting, and oddities like... things coming soon...
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks! All keeps the podcast going.

Next time: Episode 108: An Evening of Mass Telepathy - a centenary dramatic re-enactment of a lost legendary broadcast! 

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

SHOWNOTES:

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Professor Seán Street's wonderful 1973 documentary on 6BM Bournemouth is a must-listen: https://soundcloud.com/seans-wireless/6bm-calling
• His brilliant article on 6BM Bournemouth is here: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/celebrating-centenary-bbc-our-work-creative-industries/question-of-anniversaries
• James Cridland's website is james.cridland.net, and his daily podcast newsletter is the excellent Podnews.
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here - do please spare 5mins to let me know your thoughts: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• The BBC's slightly bigger survey has its results now in: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ourbbcourfuture/
• Thanks to Andrew Barker, our Newspaper Detective, for finding the press extracts. Copyright may belong to a newspaper conglomerate somewhere that bought up old newspapers. I can't tell. I just know it's not mine. But fair use, right?
• Paul's latest Substack is on the Boat Race and the BBC: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-boat-race-drifts-from-the-bbc
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits a variety of tour stops: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. And occasionally what's ahead.
• Please like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. Coming soon to the podcast: a dramatic re-enactment! That involves me paying a producer for this one-off episode. I intend to give her one month's Patreon £. So now's a great time to chip in, and she'll get a good £... and might then do more for us! If you'd consider? Thanks. Guilt trip over. (...FOR NOW)
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks! All keeps the podcast going.

Next time: Episode 107: The early BBC criticism programmes: Drama, Music, Film, Books...

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Gordon Bathgate's excellent book Aberdeen Calling: 100 Years of the BBC in Aberdeen is available for your bookshelf: https://amzn.to/42mDDuJ
• Dr Aleksandar Kocic's thesis - 'What perceptions of local radio by its journalists and listeners tell us about its role and future' - is here: https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/35995?mode=full
• Graham Stewart's website Scotland On Air has more on the 2BD Aberdeen story here: https://wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/2BD
• Prof Tim Crook's article on R.E. Jeffrey and his pioneering sci-fi dramas is here: https://kulturapress.com/2022/08/29/r-e-jeffrey-pioneer-science-fiction-audio-playwright/
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here - do please spare 5mins to let me know your thoughts: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul's latest Substack is on the Boat Race leaving the BBC... and how it first arrived: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-boat-race-drifts-from-the-bbc
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits a variety of tour stops: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Y'hear?
• Please like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos etc. Coming soon: a thing that involves me paying for a few things to make a one-off fuller bigger episode. Help fund it? Thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks! All keeps the podcast afloat.

Next time: Episode 106: The launch of 6BM Bournemouth, and an interview with radio futurologist James Cridland.

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Books referred to include Those Radio Times by Susan Briggs and The Radio Times Cover Story by Tony Currie. Martin Cooper’s book is Radio’s Legacy in Popular Culture https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/radios-legacy-in-popular-culture-9781501360442/
• Steve Arnold’s website is radiotimesarchive.co.uk/. Martin Cooper’s website is prefadelisten.com
• Paul's latest Substack is here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-171149075
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story - at time of writing, soon in Ealing, Petersfield, Norfolk, Hertfordshire: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. 
• Please like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks! All keeps the podcast afloat

Next time: Episode 105: The launch of Aberdeen 2BD. Advance reading: see Gordon Bathgate’s book Aberdeen Calling: https://amzn.to/4pi9FBW

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

...But did nothing happen in that month? Of course not!

So between these two bigger landmarks, on this episode we bring you some smaller but notable ones. Also on the Beeb in Aug/Sept 1923:

• Rob Roy live from Glasgow - with fight scenes
• Reith reads the news... again. Because his mum forgot to listen.
• Sir Ernest Rutherford: first public figure to broadcast nationally.
• New time signal: weights, counting and a bell on the hour
• Sheffield, Aberdeen and Bournemouth prepare for the air
• Newcastle's beloved boss heads south
• Reith has his height measured at the Postmaster-General's house. Reith wins.
• Announcer sacked, while another commended for "an impression of virility, keenness, and a suggestion of fresh breezes on the moors". 
• The Radio Times gets an editor
• The first cat on radio?

(Thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker for most of these)

...I think that's everything we cover. You don't have to listen now...

Oh but wait! Then you'd miss our amazing guest. Conductor and arranger of note (and of notes) Gavin Sutherland has a new album out of old TV themes: The Next Programme Follows Shortly. It's a joy.

Hear Gavin guide us through half a dozen or so tracks, from Grandstand to the Channel 4 ident, from the first song on television to the secret code hidden in The Two Ronnies theme.

Have a listen, buy his album - and enjoy our chat. And the first cat on radio. Miaow.

SHOWNOTES:

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Gavin's music is by various writers, and reproduced here with kind permission of Gavin Sutherland and Fast Tunes Ltd.
• Buy Gavin's album The Next Programme Follows Shortly from Bandcamp: https://fasttunes.bandcamp.com/album/the-next-programme-follows-shortly
• Paul's latest Substack is on 37,451 days of BBC vs politics: https://substack.com/home/post/p-171149075
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• Paul's walking tour of old BBC sites: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pks-walking-tour-of-old-bbc-and-pre-bbc-buildings-pwyw-tickets-1401875560539 (or get in touch to request the next - paul at paulkerensa dot com)
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated...
• Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks! All keeps the podcast afloat

Next time: Episode 104: The Radio Times is launched!

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

They'd been testing SB for months, via crossed lines and cross conversations with the General Post Office. It would dramatically change the shape and big idea of what broadcasting was and could be. Using landlines, they linked stations - so a Covent Garden concert could be heard nationally for the first time, as other stations gave over the schedules to big concerts, or news bulletins, or... whatever London wanted. Generally speaking.

Yes, other stations could take over too - Birmingham or Glasgow might offer a concert of play. But questions were asked, even back then, of whether listeners would prefer their regular local programming, or news/concerts from the capital.

Oh but we can provide you big stars, said the Programme Department. It's a move forward. But a move backward for local programming, alas - even if it was pitched to them that they could enjoy a night off. Hmm...

As we explore and unpack that, we also welcome a guest - Mary Englsh, who began at the BBC in 1973 as a studio manager, wrote for The Two Ronnies, and nearly bled over Margaret Thatcher thanks to an editing accident.

We hear from her, including the timely observation that the BBC perhaps win trust by "broadcasting their defeats". (In the week this podcast lands, the BBC has broadcast two of their defeats - with news reports about their Gaza documentary and Gregg Wallace. Would another channel amplify their failures quite so much? Should they? Answers on a postcard...)

SHOWNOTES:

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Paul's recent talk at the Early Recordings Conference, on the earliest BBC recording and what happened to it: https://youtu.be/JdJVGhPKtjM
• Our Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
• Paul at Camden Fringe with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio, in August 2025 - come! https://camdenfringe.com/events/an-evening-of-very-old-radio/
• Paul on elsewhere on tour: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• Our walking tour of old BBC sites, 9 Aug and 6 Sept 2025 - come! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pks-walking-tour-of-old-bbc-and-pre-bbc-buildings-pwyw-tickets-1401875560539  
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated...
• Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com.
• Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• ...Latest Patreon video is an even deeper dive into the Sykes Report - we read the lot (well, most of it): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-1923s-sykes-132182661

Next time: Episode 103: Aug/Sept 1923 - Rob Roy and the first cat on radio!

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

The first government inquiry into the BBC has just finished four months of interviewing dozens of interested parties about what the Beeb should/would/could be. Should it have a competitor? How do you solve the licence problem? Did the BBC have a monopoly? And isn't it time 'listeners-in' were just called 'listeners'?

We give you a potted summary of Sir Frederick Sykes' inquiry, committee and report - somehow known as The Sykes Inquiry, The Sykes Committee and The Sykes Report. 

And our special guest, talking about three decades earlier, is Dr Inja Stanović of the University of Surrey, Surrey Future Senior Fellow, Director of Performance, and most crucially for us, Director of the Early Recordings Association. She brings reconstructed recordings and info about the Early Recordings Association (join free, click below) and its Conference.

SHOWNOTES:

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Early Recordings Association - join! https://www.surrey.ac.uk/early-recordings-association
• Early Recordings Association Conference - come! https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20250701-early-recordings-association-era-conference-2025
• The album 'Austro-German Revivals: (Re)constructing Acoustic Recordings' by Inja Stanović & David Milsom - listen for free! https://unipress.hud.ac.uk/plugins/books/30/
• Paul Kerensa on Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
• Paul Kerensa at Camden Fringe with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio, in August 2025 - come! https://camdenfringe.com/events/an-evening-of-very-old-radio/
• Paul Kerensa on elsewhere on tour: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• Paul's walking tour of old BBC sites, 9 Aug and 6 Sept 2025 - come! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pks-walking-tour-of-old-bbc-and-pre-bbc-buildings-pwyw-tickets-1401875560539  
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated...
• Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com.
• Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• ...Latest Patreon video is an even deeper dive into the Sykes Report - we read the lot (well, most of it): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-1923s-sykes-132182661

Next time: Episode 102: Simultaneous Broadcasting, on the BBC in August 1923.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Thanks if you've joined us for the story so far, from Morse and Marconi to Reith and the Pips (before Gladys Knight took over lead vocals).

This special 100th episode is for both the newcomer and the seasoned veteran - being the previous 99 episodes in summary form, BUT with lots of new bits.

So this is no best-of... (alright it's a bit of a best-of) ...this is packed with new things we didn't know, old things we hadn't found yet, new perspectives on the areas we've covered previously, things we left out completely, and much more, or less, depending on how you look at it.

New things include:

• The first song Marconi played via wireless (thanks John Hannon)
• New (corrected!) info on Marconi's first sports report by wireless - not 1899 in America, but 1898 in Ireland...
• Long clips of Britain's first DJ Gertrude Donisthorpe, Marconi engineer William Ditcham, first broadcast singer Winifred Sayer, Marconi man R.D. Bangay, and more, that we haven't played you before.
• News on the Melba recording (er, not good news)
• A 6min-long never-before-heard reminiscence by Arthur Burrows, reflecting on the first BBC broadcast, with new info - including the 2LO orchestra being accused of electoral bias because of their song choice. The first accusation of BBC on-air bias... in musical form!
• The opening words of the first BBC children's broadcast
• New info on Harry Tate's 'Broadcasting' sketch (thanks Alan Stafford)
• The first singer of Cardiff 5WA
• The Sykes Committee look into the BBC (just to keep the story moving forward, a bit)

And we've been asking you for your favourite moments so far. So we re-bring you:

• Peter Eckersley on 2MT Writtle
• Tales from 2ZY Manchester and 5IT Birmingham
• More Peter Eckersley on 2MT Writtle
• Even more Peter Eckersley on...

...You get the idea.

Thanks for joining us for our first 100 episodes - here's to our next 100.

Do share this with people to help make that happen!

.

SHOWNOTES:

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Our re-enactment of the first BBC broadcast is on Youtube.
• Dr Andrea Smith's new book is Shakespeare on the Radio, published by Edinburgh University Press.
• Alan Stafford's book is Bigamy Called the Radio Star, published by Fantom.
• Paul's latest Substack article is about Arthur Burrows (first voice of the BBC) and his link with the Eurovision. I claim there's no Eurovision with him! Find it on paulkerensa.substack.com
• See Paul Kerensa on tour, with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• The Early Recordings Association Conference takes place at The University of Surrey, Guildford this July. I'll be presenting on 1 July. Details here: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20250701-early-recordings-association-era-conference-2025
• Also catch Paul at the Religion Media Festival on Monday 9 June: https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/events/religion-media-festival-2025/
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated...
• Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com.
• Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!

Next time: Episode 101: The Sykes Inquiry, and the Early Recordings Association.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

More than that - new evidence shows that he came up with and championed the idea of the one BBC. For years, the British government (via the Post Office) has been credited with the plan for a singular British broadcaster. But lost meeting minutes have been rediscovered....

The academic who found these minutes - misplaced for decades - is David Prosser of the University of Bristol. He joins us to tell us about the 18 May 1922 meeting where Godfrey Isaacs proposed that the Marconi Company share patents and collaborate with its rivals to form one (British) Broadcasting Company.

And Robert Godfrey - Isaacs' great-great-grandson - joins us to give new insights into the life of this under-heralded pioneer in the ways of wireless. Hear tales of the Marconi Scandal, Titanic, business wrangling, broadcasting innovation, battles with the press, and a life cut short.

There's a lot to tell, so this is a longer episode than usual - sorry! Actually I'm not sorry... these chaps know their stuff, and it's an incredible tale.

.

SHOWNOTES:

• Read David Prosser's article: 'Marconi Proposes: Why it's time to rethink the birth of the BBC' - on the University of Bristol website: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/193478467/Prosser_Marconi_Proposes_Why_it_s_time_to_rethink_the_birth_of_the_BBC_26_Sep_2018.pdf
• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Paul is now on Substack - for more in-depth-but-lighthearted broadcasting history, subscribe at paulkerensa.substack.com
• See Paul Kerensa on tour, with The BBC and Me: Then and Now, aka An Evening of (Very) Old Radio: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting, live.
• The Early Recordings Association Conference takes place at The University of Surrey, Guildford this July. I'll be presenting on 1 July. Details here: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20250701-early-recordings-association-era-conference-2025
• Also catch Paul at the Religion Media Festival on Monday 9 June: https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/events/religion-media-festival-2025/
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated...
• Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com.
• Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!

Next time: Episode 100! Your highlights of the British broadcasting origin story - Marconi, Melba, Eckersley, Reith and more. And maybe the Sykes Inquiry, if we get time (unlikely!)

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Yes for one episode, The British Broadcasting Century leaves Britain to become The Irish Broadcasting Century. Well how could we not bring you the tale of Marconi setting up a (legal) radio station at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, to broadcast to the Horse Show... only to be closed down a few days later because the government panicked - and especially in the company of the Irish broadcasting historian Eddie Bohan.

After Ireland in 1923, we return to Britain in the present-day for an interview with composer David Lowe - the man behind the BBC News theme (as well as The One Show, Grand Designs, Countryfile and more). David's new album of official BBC News themes (and remixes) is available now from Spotify, Apple Music and other places.

SHOWNOTES:

• David Lowe's album of Official BBC News Themes is on Spotify, Apple Music etc: https://davidlowemusic.com/product/bbc-news-official-themes/
• David's website is https://davidlowemusic.com/
• Eddie Bohan's book The History of 2BP: Ireland's First Licensed Radio Station is available from https://amzn.to/4jcoVwe
• Eddie's brilliant blog is at The Irish Broadcasting Hall of Fame: https://ibhof.blogspot.com/
• We also mention these episodes: See episode 48 for more on 2BP's earlier role for Daimler's in-car radios at the Glasgow Motor Show in January 1923. See episode 77 for the tale of Frank Milligan, thanks to Eddie.
• The Early Recordings Association Conference takes place at The University of Surrey, Guildford this July. I'll be presenting on 1 July. Details here: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20250701-early-recordings-association-era-conference-2025
• If early recordings are your thing, do consider joining the Early Recordings Association, for free, at https://www.surrey.ac.uk/early-recordings-association. And its lead Dr Inja Stanovic joins us on a future podcast.
• Original music is by Will Farmer. The BBC News themes you hear are used with kind permission from David Lowe. Get his album! 
• See Paul Kerensa on tour, with The BBC and Me: Then and Now, aka An Evening of (Very) Old Radio: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting, live.
• Also catch Paul at the Religion Media Festival on Monday 9 June: https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/events/religion-media-festival-2025/
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated...
• Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com.
• Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!

Next time: Episode 99 - Godfrey Isaacs - head of The Marconi Company, and the chap who come up with the idea for... the BBC.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

There are two studio moves - 2ZY Manchester and 5IT Birmingham leave their old premises in style ('The Etude in K Sharp by Spotsoffski'... "The studio ghost looks round - burial forever of the carrier wave...") and find new city centre studios, including a heavy goods lift with a pulley that visitors need to pull themselves, so put down your briefcase or cello and get hoisting...

At the Birmingham station, we check in with Uncles Edgar and Thompson and their innovative Children's Hour, who now has a Radio Circle - the origins of Children in Need, perhaps?

We visit London 2LO to find Marion Cran, one of the first gardening presenters, as well as a wireless elephant. We visit Glasgow 5SC, with guest expert Graham Stewart.

We're grateful to other experts: comedy historian Alan Stafford, Children's Hour historian Dr Zara Healy, and Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - among others. This podcast is a group effort! If you listen, you're part of that too, so do get in touch...

...In fact DO get in touch ahead of our 100th episode. We'd love to hear from you with your favourite parts of the story so far. Write an email or record a voice memo, send to paul at paulkerensa dot com - anything about a moment from early broadcasting that you particularly found marvellous. Peter Eckersley on 2MT Writtle? Gertrude Donisthorpe the WW1 DJ? The drunken launch of Savoy Hill? The first BBC Christmas? What's your favourite? Do tell. Email us!

SHOWNOTES:

• I'm now posting on Substack: https://substack.com/@paulkerensa - My first post is on the bizarre history of the BBC Concert Hall/Radio Theatre/WW2 dormitory. Do subscribe if you'd like a fortnightly long-form blog post type of reading thing.
• Last episode's guest Beaty Rubens brought this to Radio 3 recently: Between the Ears: Listen In
• Alan Stafford's biography of John Henry is Bigamy Killed the Radio Star: https://www.fantompublishing.co.uk/product/bigamy-killed-the-radio-star/
• Paul Kerensa's books include Hark! The Biography of Christmas: https://amzn.to/4iuULoB - with the audiobook read by Paul: https://amzn.to/4gdlYud
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting, live.
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated...
• Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com.
• Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps!
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!

Next time: The first Irish broadcast - on 2BP in Dublin, with guest Eddie Bohan. Seek out his books to grace your bookshelf!

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

It's curated by Beaty Rubens, who has also written a book of the same name. I joined her at the exhibition for a tour and an interview, recorded live at the Bodleian. Thanks to them for their hospitality - and for caring for countless artefacts, including the Marconi Archive.

And we have authors galore, all with different takes on broadcasting history - I think I count three professors, a doctor, and several yet-to-be-titled too. 

We bring you:

• Beaty Rubens - Listen In: How Radio Change the Home: https://bodleianshop.co.uk/products/listen-in
• ...and the Bodleian exhibition of the same name: https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/listenin
• David Hendy - The BBC: A People's History: https://amzn.to/3X3SDuU
• Simon J Potter - This is the BBC: Entertaining the Nation, Speaking for Britain 1922-2022: https://amzn.to/3CWfqSu
• Tim Wander - 2MT Writtle: https://marconibooks.co.uk
•  Edward Stourton - Auntie’s War: https://amzn.to/4b463g8
• Amy Holdsworth - On Living With Television: https://amzn.to/41keqRi
• Alan Stafford - Bigamy Killed the Radio Star: https://www.fantompublishing.co.uk/product/bigamy-killed-the-radio-star/
• Martin Cooper - Radio's Legacy in Popular Culture: https://amzn.to/41iLTM6
• ...and his blog: https://prefadelisten.com/
• Paul Kerensa - Hark! The Biography of Christmas: https://amzn.to/4iuULoB / audiobook read by the author: https://amzn.to/4gdlYud

- Original music is by Will Farmer.

- Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!

- Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting, live.

- This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC.

- Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com. (Rerite that as an email address)

Next time: August 1923 on the BBC - new radio HQs in Birmingham and Manchester, developments in Scotland, the Radio Circle, a wireless elephant, and the first(ish) radio gardener Marion Cran.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Well, I say 'five'. I mean nine. Christmas is a time for giving, so have four extra... Nine Gold Airings didn't sound as catchy.

You'll hear:

- 1922 – Rev John Mayo - the BBC's first religious broadcast for Christmas Eve 

- 1926 – Christmas Overture by Coleridge-Taylor, The BBC Wireless Symphony Orchestra conducted by Percy Pitt

- 1926-34 - Bethlehem, the BBC's first on-location radio drama, live from St Hilary's church in west Cornwall

- 1932 – The first royal Christmas message from George V

- 1934 – The bells of Armagh Cathedral, and Christmas on the Aran Islands

- 1936 – A Cornish Christmas Carol by the BBC Chorus

- 1936 – The Wassail Song by the BBC Chorus

- 1941 – Refugee children and their parents reunited across the Atlantic via BBC and NBC

- 1942 – Carols in the Desert, Godfrey Talbot, BBC Correspondent with the 8th Army in Tripolitania

SHOWNOTES:

- Paul's book Hark! The Biography of Christmas is available in paperback (https://amzn.to/4iuULoB) and audiobook read by the author (https://amzn.to/4gdlYud)

- Hear the full recording of 1934's Bethlehem play: https://youtu.be/WwC8BemyBtI?si=_m-p_5y3rHPKkrIX

- Hear the voices behind the Bethlehem play, on this wonderful 1986 BBC Radio Cornwall documentary: https://youtu.be/HqCO_0uSBFk?si=3AoPR2Gt3We_wgSn

- For more on Godfrey Talbot and his BBC career shadowing the 8th army in WW2, see this marvellous detailed biographical blog post:

https://war-experience.org/events/godfrey-talbot-voice-of-the-desert-and-8th-army/

- Episode 60 of this podcast has more on Rev John Mayo's first BBC religious broadcast, and other landmarks of the genre: https://pod.fo/e/160bd7

- Episode 72 of this podcast is on the first radio drama, on Christmas Eve 1922 - Phyllis Twigg's The Truth about Father Christmas: https://pod.fo/e/1d6747 - and I'll be writing more about her and this landmark radioplay very soon. Keep an eye out for it!

- Original music is by Will Farmer.

- Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!

- A Christmas present, for us? Well if you'd rate and review the podcast where you found it... Thanks! You shouldn't have.

- Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting, live.

- This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC.

- Old clips are likely beyond copyright as they're so old. Newer clips may be BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. 

Next time: August 1923 on the BBC - new radio HQs in Birmingham and Manchester, developments in Scotland and Dublin, and the first radio gardener, Marion Cran.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

But first, the tale of July 1923 in British broadcasting, which includes a pop-up non-BBC station in Plymouth (5DJ), the first BBC film critic G.A. Atkinson, a comedian asks an orchestra to laugh for him, the BBC's first Sunday afternoon radio concert, new nicknames for 'listeners-in' ('ethonians', anyone?), and my favourite of all... The Wireless Manhunt.

Here to tell us more, our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker, and Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam Dr Carolyn Birdall (whose book is 'Radiophilia').

They contrast 1923's Wireless Manhunt with 2023's uncannily similar Radio 1's Giant DJ Hunt, with Greg James searching for all of his co-presenters around Britain, and beyond.

Back in 1923, Uncles Arthur, Caractacus, Jeff, and Aunt Sophie all go on the run around London, and MANY listeners spot them, track them, nearly arrest them, and much more.

Oh and some lovely audio from Peter Eckersley - a song and the tale of his trip to Sheffield, where listening to the BBC was like "an insurrection in hell". Everyone's a critic. 

SHOWNOTES:

• Buy Dr Carolyn Birdsall's book Radiophilia from https://amzn.to/4etpBe6 or wherever you get books (buy from that link, I get a few pennies, full disclosure!).
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks.
• Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting.
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Solo-run. So your listenership and support really matters - thanks!

Next time: August 1923 on the BBC - new radio HQs in Birmingham and Manchester, developments in Scotland and Dublin, and the first radio gardener, Marion Cran.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

...Our guest is celebrating 50 years since he began in television - Stuart Prebble has made World In Action, led ITV, created Grumpy Old Men and now brings Portrait Artists to Sky Arts. He talks about his new memoir, Still Grumpy After All These Years. Buy it now!

SHOWNOTES:

• Buy Stuart's book from stuartprebble.com or wherever you get books.
• We also mention Andy Walmsley's brilliant Random Radio Jottings blog.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks.
• Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting.
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Solo-run. So your listenership and support really matters - thanks!

Next time: July 1923 on the BBC - a wireless manhunt and a cheeky pop-up station in Plymouth. 

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

The First Sports Broadcasts: from 'Yachts Slowly Drifting' to MCR21

Our moment-by-moment origin story of British broadcasting reaches 6th June 1923 - and what's sometimes thought to be the BBC's first sports broadcast: author Edgar Wallace giving his 'reflections on the Derby'...

...The trouble is, it wasn't the BBC's first sports broadcast.

But then... what is a sports broadcast? A live commentary? Or will a later summary do? Or how about a police radio transmission, where the Epsom Derby winner happens to be mentioned for anyone listening to hear?

This episode we bring you the tales of every early landmark sports broadcast we know about, including:

• Special guest Nick Gilbey, trustee of the Broadcasting Television Technology Trust and one of the doer-uppers of the mighty MCR21 mobile control room van, first built in 1963, and now looking snappier than ever.
• The BBC's actual first sports broadcaster - forgotten for a century - Willie Clissett, on Cardiff 5WA with a weekly 'Chat on Sport of the day' from 2 April 1923. Was it rugby? Let's say yes. It was Wales.
• How jockey Steve Donoghue somehow became Britain's first broadcast sports champion... ion 3 occasions across 3 different years. He was on Britain's first sports broadcast, winning 1921's Epsom Derby. Edgar Wallace reported on his win at 1923's Epsom Derby. And his win was shouted on-air by a passerby, upsetting the press, at 1925's Epsom Derby. Three different horses, three landmark broadcasts, one incredible jockey.
• The boxing and billiards on London 2LO in 1922.
• Early clips of Wimbledon, the Boat Race and the Derby.
• And was the first sports broadcast Marconi's 1899 Morse message 'Yachts Slowly Drifting'? In which case, was the first sports broadcaster actually Guglielmo Marconi himself?!

Correct us on any of the above! Seriously. Please do. We want this to be an accurate record of events! Email paul@paulkerensa.com with any feedback, suggestions, alterations or offers of big-screen adaptations.

SHOWNOTES:

• Visit MCR21.org.uk for pics and words about the wonderful MCR21 mobile control room van. Click on their newsletter and subscribe to get info in your inbox.
• Watch Nick Gilbey's half-hour BBC tribute documentary on Peter Dimmock: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fw3c9c
• See the Marconi van used at the 1921 Epsom Derby broadcast - and the airship pics from above: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/966054144965706/
• See the 1923 Derby - plus a little of the police use of wireless traffic tech - on this Pathe video: https://youtu.be/s-qnFvgJMFY?si=bedG3HWmyui1VNmj
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks.
• Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting.
• Paul's walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites returns soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via the home of the Electrophone! Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details.
• This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, well, the only BBC, the Company. Not with or at the behest of today's Corporation...
• ...Although we gladly will. Corporation - call me!

Next time: Summer 1923 on the BBC - music, the first whisper of television, and a cheeky pop-up station in Plymouth. 

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Meet the Electrophone! 

Dr Natasha Kitcher is the Electrophone expert - she's a Research Fellow at the Science Museum, formerly PhD student to Loughborough University - and has spent years researching this unusual, largely unknown pre-radio cable streaming service, used by Queen Victoria and hundreds of homes in London and Bournemouth. Or you could visit the Electrophone HQ in Soho to listen in their saloon. (More on our walking tour that visits that exact building: birthplace of the headphones!)

We also talk about what broadcasting is nowadays: does streaming count as broadcasting? What about catch-up? Does it lose something when it's not live?

Join the debate from this, er, pre-recorded podcast (sorry we're not live) - email your thoughts to paul@paulkerensa.com - the same email address for any podcast correspondence, your Airwave Memories (earliest radio you recall?) or Firsthand Memories (ever see broadcasting in action?)  

We also move on our chronological tale of British broadcasting history into June 1923, with feedback from the first BBC Shakespeare and the sad demise of the first broadcast singer, Edward Cooper.

Next time? The First Sports Broadcast on the BBC... or was it? Nick Gilbey joins us - expert on outside broadcasts, Peter Dimmock, and the BBC van... 

SHOWNOTES:

• Dr Natasha Kitcher's articles on the Electrophone include this Science Museum blog and Museum Crush.
• There are some marvellous old pics of the Electrophone, its HQ and its flyers on the British Telephones site.
• Watch Paul Kerensa on BBC1's Songs of Praise (while it's on iPlayer!) on 1922's first religious broadcast... er, via radio. Not including the Electrophone, obvs.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks.
• Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi.
• Paul's walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites returns soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via the home of the Electrophone! Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

We're in late May 1923 - 28th to 31st to be precise - and the BBC has suffering from a boycott of theatre producers. Performers are hard to come by, so the Beeb brings drama and comedy in-house.

The result? Cathleen Nesbitt (later from Upstairs Downstairs, An Affair to Remember and The Parent Trap) produces and stars in the first of many full-length Shakespeare plays, Twelfth Night on 28th May 1923. Prior to this, there had been scenes and Shakespeare nights. But this was a chance to broadcast the longest and most ambitious play of this new medium.

Illuminating us on this, the return of Dr Andrea Smith of the University of Suffolk - the expert on the BBC and Shakespeare. She'll tell us all about the legacy of Auntie and Shakey, including the only one of his plays that to date has still not been adapted for BBC radio.

And three days after that first Shakespeare, another BBC debut: comedian John Henry, set to become broadcasting's first comedy personality. His comic monologues, often surreal and downbeat, evolved into tales of his family life, then a dialogue with his beloved Blossom... while off-air, their domestic life became more tragedy than comedy.

Comedy historian Alan Stafford tells all. It's quite a tale. John Henry surely deserves mention in the history books...

...on which, both Andrea and Alan have books out soon. See below shownotes for details - and we'll mention more of them on the podcast and on our social mediums when they're published.

SHOWNOTES:

• Look out for Dr Andrea Smith's book 'Shakespeare on the Radio: A Century of BBC Plays', published by Edinburgh University Press in 2025.
• Look out for Alan Stafford's book 'Bigamy Killed the Radio Star - John Henry: BBC Comedy Pioneer', published by Fantom Publications in late 2024.
• Clips are generally so old they're beyond copyright, or rights may be owned by, er, someone. If that's you, let us know. We can talk. We're friendly. We're just to inform, educate and entertain. 
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks.
• Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi.
• Paul's book Auntie and Uncles is coming soon too.
• A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites is coming soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details.

NEXT TIME: The Electrophone: Queen Victoria's Streaming Device of the 1890s. 

There may be some delay between episodes at the moment, due to summer holidays, and life throwing things at us. More soon, ASAP. Thanks for bearing with us.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 89 is our Election Night Special special, covering Britain's 28 general election results broadcasts over 102 years. 

Broadcasting in both USA and UK have both launched were pretty much launched with election results.

On 2 November 1920, KDKA Pittsburgh launched regular commercial broadcasting with the presidential election results, giving listeners-in the latest at the same time as journalists. Revolutionary! On 15 November 1922, the BBC went national with London, Birmingham and Manchester announcing the election results and Bonar Law as PM. 

Joining us to tell the tale from here, dropping in at every election night special in Britain since, we have Gary Rodger (author of Swing: A Brief History of British General Election Night Broadcasting) and Harry White (host of The Modern British History Podcast).

...Hear first female liberal MP Margaret Wintringham on her gramophone election message...

...Discover the only person to have announced election results AND served as an MP...

...Find out how black-and-white TV converted the blues, reds and yellows of parties to the small screen...

...Meet pioneering producer Grace Wyndham Goldie, who created the TV election night special...

...Discover the origins of the swingometer...

...Oh and Dimblebys. There are many Dimblebys.

Vote with your ears by listening to this podcast - and vote with your vote by voting.

SHOWNOTES:

• Buy Gary Rodger's book Swing: A Brief History of British General Election Night Broadcasting. 
• Listen to Harry White's Modern British History Podcast.
• The clips used are, we believe, beyond copyright due to age - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks.
• Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi.
• A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites is coming this summer - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details.

NEXT TIME: The first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC - and comedian John Henry. 

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

This time, 2-24 May 1923 is retold via press cuttings (thanks to our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker), showing us that:

Some corners of the press were mounting an anti-BBC campaign, complaining it was offering "poor fare". A few days later, other articles refuted that claim. 

Some corners of the government were eager to renegotiate the BBC agreement, with the Sykes Inquiry under way to look at licences and obligations.

Some corners of the live arts scene were worried their box office takings would be hit by radio entertainment, so decided to boycott Auntie Beeb.

...A few too many opponents!

There are also bands (first Birmingham station director Percy Edgar tells of the Grenadier Guards, a small studio and not much ventilation), simultaneous broadcast tests and plans for new stations (first chief engineer Peter Eckersley tells of his ambitions for the signal-to-noise ratio), and Reith's plans for the Sunday Committee to determine the future of, well, Sundays.

Plus our guest is ITV's first head of technology Norman Green. He tells us about his innovations in colour film and Teletext (he's the double-height guy!). Norman will return on a future episode too...

SHOWNOTES:

• The clips used should be far beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Hear more of Percy Edgar, inc his memoir read by his grandson David Edgar, in this episode: https://pod.fo/e/c6b86
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi
• A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites coming this summer - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details.

NEXT TIME: We break from May 1923 for A Brief History of Election Night Specials.

THE TIME AFTER THAT: The first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC! May 1923 continues... 

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

It first took place on 19 May 1924, live from the Surrey garden of cellist Beatrice Harrison. In this centenary special, we celebrate the musician, the muse and the microphone that made this incredible feat possible: the first major outside broadcast of nature.

The renowned cellist petitioned the BBC for some time to broadcast this unusual duet, and while John Reith at first thought it wouldn't work, new microphones developed by Captain H.J. Round ensured that the birdsong would carry... so long as they sang.

Did they sing? (Yes.) Was it faked? (No.) Was it the first broadcast birdsong? (Not quite.) All of this and more will be answered and delved into this episode, with an interview with Patricia Cleveland-Peck, author of The Cello and the Nightingales: The Life of Beatrice Harrison - new edition just released.

We look at the scandalous rumours of fakery, the technical developments that meant the BBC's first fading, the Cardiff broadcast that just beat them to it, the bleak wartime duet between The Nightingale and the Bomber, and even John Reith's odd nightingale impersonation, the very same day he first heard radio in 1917.

SHOWNOTES:

• Iain Baird's excellent article on the technology and legacy of The Cello and the Nightingale is at https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/song-of-the-nightingale/
• Buy The Cello and the Nightingales: The Life of Beatrice Harrison by Patricia Cleveland-Peck (NB: I get several pence commission if you click that affiliate link! I ambitously expect to retire on this money)
• More on Patricia's books and career on her website: https://patriciaclevelandpeck.com/
• A video version of Paul's interview with Patricia can be seen here on Youtube: https://youtu.be/CjaNILDlmZ0?si=Dp6fbbLbS-gZKVJu
• We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi
• Walking tours of BBC's London sites coming this summer. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details.

NEXT TIME: We're back in May 1923 for bands and boycotts on the early BBC.

More info on this radio history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

This time on episode 86, we encounter the only other off-air radio recordings of the interwar years (that I know of): the 1932 recordings by Mr F.O. Brown of Greenbank.

His grandson Alex cleared out the family attic as recently as 2016, discovering these bizarre metal discs with no idea what they contained, or how to listen to them. Alex consulted the British Sound Library, the internet, and wherever else he could find knowhow on playing these records to preserve the sounds.

What he found was several dozen 1930s recordings, from BBC jazz bands to radio royalty, from George Bernard Shaw to his own grandfather giving a spoof tour of Edinburgh. 

This episode we chat to Alex about his painstaking work preserving these recordings, and we hear a few. Enjoy Henry Hall opening Broadcasting House, extracts from the 1932 Royal Command Performance, and Reginald Foort and his big organ (stop it).

Then head to http://greenbank-records.com/1930s-recordings#/samples/ to hear the rest! You'll also find Alex's illuminating blog at http://greenbank-records.com/blog

1932 was the year the BBC started recording themselves, but only very sparingly. Most of these recordings are the only surviving copy of each broadcast - and there aren't many more pre-WW2 recorded broadcasts at all.

Thanks to Alex for sharing his story and the recordings, and thanks to F.O. Brown for using his EKCO Radiocorder to do what so many of us have done over the years: in my case, push the record and play buttons on a cassette recorder while Steve Wright was on Radio 1... or in my children's case, recording themselves playing Radio 2 jingles on the Wise Buddah website... but in this case, assembling a recording device from scratch to preserve monarchs and music on disc, so we can still hear them today.

SHOWNOTES:

• Head to Greenbank Records for the full works.
• We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - any near you?

NEXT TIME: The Centenary of the Cello and the Nightingale

More info on this radio history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

100 years ago at time of writing, King George V opened the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, becoming the first monarch to broadcast.

It also stands as the oldest surviving recording of a BBC broadcast - and the only excerpt of the BBC from the 1920s. 

The BBC couldn't record anything until 1932, when the Blattnerphone came along. So how did this 1924 broadcast manage to be retained?

For decades, it wasn't. A 1964 episode of Desert Island Discs tells the tale, of how their 1936/1955 Scrapbook for 1924 programme aired without the recording, but with a sad admission that there was none... till a listener got in touch. Dorothy Jones' husband had recorded the king off-air via a home-made device. Thanks to him, and her, and Scrapbook producer Leslie Baily, we have this sole recording of the 20s' Beeb.

It's quite a tale. The broadcast alone was revolutionary - with 10 million people listening via loudspeakers on street corners, brand new radio sets for their homes... even Downton Abbey hired in its first wireless set (but will Lord Grantham keep it? Oh go on then...)

Hear all about the momentous exhibition, the broadcast, the recording, and a rundown of royals who ruled the airwaves - and it goes back further than you might think.

Hear too of brand new research into an unheralded royal radio encounter from 1906 - before even 'the world's first broadcast' took place, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (Palace) were enjoying a 'radio' whistling solo and a personalised greeting.

Thanks for listening.

Do share, rate, review, rant, rave, tell people about the podcast. It's a solo operation - not made by the BBC, just by comedian & writer Paul Kerensa. So thanks!

SHOWNOTES:

• If you enjoyed this, make sure you've listened to our episode on The History of Coronation Broadcasts and A Brief History of the BBC Archives.
• Listen to the 1924 recording of the Prince of Wales and King George V.
• Listen to the 1923 gramophone record of King George V and Queen Mary.
• Listen to the 1923 recording of President Woodrow Wilson - the world's earliest recording of broadcast radio.
• See the picture of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra encounter 'the talking arc' via our Facebook group or on Twitter. (search for 'talking arc')
• We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and gain bonus videos and writings in return - we're reading the first book on radio, Cecil Lewis' Broadcasting from Within, for example. Hear all instalments read to you: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901
• ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, summer 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when.
• Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio could be playing in your town. If not (likely), book it! Details: www.paulkerensa.com/tour

More info on this radio history project at: 

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Kate did some digging in the archives, and discovered the long lost tale of the early BBC's Women's Hour (rather than Woman's Hour), which ran from 1923-24. Why so brief? What impact did it make? Which listeners did it cater for? She's here to tell us everything.

Hear the topics, the tales, some of the voices, how the regional stations nipped in first, how Men's Talk didn't last quite as long, and how it Women's Hour had one of the first examples of listener feedback. 

Next time: The earliest BBC recording, as we leap forward a year for one episode, for the centenary of King George V's landmark broadcast - plus the bizarre tale of how we now get to hear it. 

SHOWNOTES:

• Dr Kate Murphy's books are a must if you're interested in this area (and if you're reading this, sorry to break it to you, but you're interested). Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC and Hilda Matheson: A Life of Secrets and Broadcasts. Buy them both - I did. 
• This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC.
• Any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and bonus bits include this video meander around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901
• ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when.
• These recently uploaded plans of Savoy Hill show you everything from Reith's Thames view to the office of Women's Hour boss Ella Fitzgerald: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/932696548301466/  
• Catch Paul on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - for where/when, see www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter.
• Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks!

More info on this radio history project at: 

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Thanks for listening (-in).

Episode 83 opens the doors to the first permanent home of Auntie Beeb, with a grand launch night on 1 May 1923. I think it's one of the most crucial - and funniest - 24 hours in the BBC's history. 

So we recreate as much as we can of that one day:

• A last-minute dress code sees senior management in far-too-big suits...
• John Reith's tee-total buffet goes terribly wrong....
• The closing speaker goes missing - and is found, sozzled. Will Reith let the drunken lord on the air, and will he string a sentence together? 

All will be revealed, plus the music, the speeches (from Lord Gainford, Sir William Bull and Lord Birkenhead), the first Men's Talk (next time, it's Women's Hour, the next day) and the launch of the Sykes Inquiry - just that minor thing of the govt and the press loathing the BBC. A reminder: this was 1923. 

Our guest too covers more recent years of broadcasting - Charles Huff, producer of Tomorrow's World and The Great Egg Race, tell us about radio days of his youth, from Educating Archie to Eastern Bloc jamming. 

Next time: Dr Kate Murphy joins us to talk about the first Women's Hour progamme, as well as other 1920s women's broadcasting - and why it stopped.

SHOWNOTES:

• This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC.
• Original music by Will Farmer.
• We're hugely grateful to the BBC Written Archives Centre for access and permission to recreate the Savoy Hill launch speeches. BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Books consulted include Sir John Reith by Garry Allighan, The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain by Brian Hennessey, Savoy Hill by Brian Hennessey, and Never Look Back by Cecil Lewis. Among others.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and bonus bits include this video meander around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901
• ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when.
• Paul's on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - for where/when, see www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter.
• Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks!

More info on this radio history project at: 

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Back in our podcast timeline, telling the moment-by-moment origin story of British broadcasting, we reach a bittersweet moment: the BBC moves out of its first studios, the temporary studio on the top floor of Marconi House.

We pay tribute with a look at the Beeb's final day at MH, 30 April 1923 - a broadcast promoting Women's Hour (by a man) and Hawaiian guitar music (hear it here!).

And we spend much of the episode re-examining Auntie's first day at Marconi House - indeed BBC Day 1 - as I've just discovered a 1942 memoir from Arthur Burrows, first voice of the BBC. And he says some things I've never read anywhere else before. Was there music on the BBC's first day? He thinks so...

..but we don't! And by 'we', I mean our invited guests: Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker and The Great Collector Dr Steve Arnold. We look at the evidence, from newspapers to the archives to best guesses, and try to piece together the jigsaw of the BBC's first 3 days.

Also some more recent BBC memories, as Radio 2 leaves Wogan House, Paul reflects on his memories of broadcasting from there - and working briefly with Steve Wright - a tribute to the great DJ, now Jockin' in the Big Show in the sky.

SHOWNOTES:

• This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter.
• Original music by Will Farmer.
• BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Al rights reserved.
• Huge thanks to the BBC Written Archive Centre for help and permission regarding the memoir in this episode - and to the Burrows family... if you're out there, I'd love to say hi!
• Listen to the Burrows memoir without interruption here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/audio-first-bbc-96829718
• Some Patreon links for patrons only (do join! £5/mth, cancel whenever)...
  • Steve Wright - a video of my waffling away about him a little aimlessly, and walking between Broadcasting House and Wogan House: https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-steve-wright-98460958?cid=129996334
  • I mention on the podcasat a Patreon video of my walk around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: https://www.patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901
  • ...and the walk from Magnet House (first BBC HQ) to Marconi House (first studio): https://www.patreon.com/posts/magnet-house-to-68777192
• ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when.
• My Radio 2 Pause for Thought in tribute to Steve Wright: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0hbpwgr
• Paul Gambaccini's moving tribute to Steve Wright/Wogan House: https://twitter.com/airchecks/status/1759491760827351416
• I also mention my son's Minecraft version of Marconi House. It's got quite a few inaccuracies - but it was made by a 10-year-old with little-to-no knowledge of the Marconi House history - just access to a few plans. So admire the effort if not the accuracy! It's here, if you'd like: https://youtu.be/TatzKmF1z3k
• Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter.
• Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos.
• Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks!

Next time: We've closed Marconi House, so let's open Savoy Hill!

More info on this radio history project at: 

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Is that the time? It must be 100 years (to the day, as I release this episode) since six baby pips were born onto the airwaves. 

As the Greenwich Time Signal - aka The Pips - turns 100, we look back at their origin story, thanks to horologist Frank Hope-Jones and also his overlooked contribution to broadcasting itself.

Plus Big Ben's bongs, heard by Manchester listeners days before London's listeners. We explain how... but also why Manchester's time signal was often a little approximate, thanks to too many double doors. 

SHOWNOTES:

• Original music by Will Farmer.
• Thanks to our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker.
• Voices include: Harold Bishop, Peter Eckersley, Sir Noel Ashbridge, Kenneth Wright, Frank Hope-Jones... and probably more.
• We try to only use recordings out of copyright. If you have been affected by rights issues involved in this, do let me know. Everything's editable. 
• This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter.
• I mention Charlie Connelly's excellent podcast about 100 years of the Shipping Forecase. Hear here: https://audioboom.com/posts/8423037-100-years-of-the-shipping-forecast
• Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter.
• Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos.
• Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks!

Next time: Season 6 continues with a celebration of Marconi House - its last day as a BBC studio, and its first.

More info on this radio history project at: 

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

It's all just a chance to turn episode 80 into a re-enactment of this remarkable untold tale of Britain's first religious broadcast. Contrary to what some records say, it wasn't the BBC who began religious broadcasting in Britain - it was lone Peckham pioneer preacher Dr James Ebenezer Boon, on 30 July 1922.

Thankfully he wrote everything down - from the words of his sermon to the gramophone record hymns he played, to the feedback received from listeners, to his thoughts on the opportunities of future religious broadcasting.

We'll also tell you about America's first religious broadcast (1921) and the first non-radio religious broadcasts - via the Electrophone (in the 1890s!). And we'll propel forward to look at the BBC's first church service on 6th January 1924 (and why it wasn't quite the first after all), with its centenary round about now-ish.

We discover too the BBC's first Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist broadcasters. Have a guess now roughly when each debuted on air? Then find out in this episode. (It was surprisingly early...)

Whether your religion is religion or radio, I'm sure you'll enjoy this episode. It's different to others we've done, as at its centre is a full re-enactment, so expect a 15min sermon, and hymns - sung along to by the live audience (including several religious broadcasters of note) at Christ Church Evangelical, McDermott Road, Peckham. This was Dr Boon's church, that he wired up back in summer 1922, then left to broadcast INTO it from five miles away - but reaching Coventry and the east coast (who offered to send in a collection, bless 'em).

Huge thanks to Christ Church Evangelical, especially Adrian Holloway, for allowing us access (I even went to see the roof, where Dr Boon put his aerial!) for that rare thing - recreating a landmark broadcast where it occurred.

Thanks too to Dr Jim Harris and Andy Mabbett for their help in bringing the story to life. Branden Braganza and Riley King recorded it (a video will appear on Youtube soon - details here when that happens). Will Farmer composed the original music. Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC.

Make sure you've also heard our other episode spinning through a century of 'God on the air' - episode 60: A History of Religious Broadcasting.

And if you'd like to read along to the sermon, or read Boon's full notes, you can, on Wikisource. (Thanks Andy Mabbett)

Thanks for listening. More info on this project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio, and find me on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at paulkerensa.com/tour. Or book it for your place?

Support the show on patreon.com/paulkerensa - where videos and writings await for you £5/mth (cancel whenever, I'll never know). It all helps support the podcast.

Or support it for free by sharing on your social medias, or with your pals and acquaintances.

Bless you for listening.

NEXT TIME:

Season 6 begins! With the BBC leaving Marconi House for Savoy Hill. More re-enactments are coming...

Last time we had three doctors; this time our first guest is definitely someone who's seen The Three Doctors...

PAUL HAYES' book is Pull to Open: 1962-1963: The Inside Story of How the BBC Created and Launched Doctor Who https://tenacrefilms.bigcartel.com/product/pull-to-open-1962-1963

AMANDA HANCOX's book is Sunday: A History of Religious Affairs through 50 Years of Conversations and Controversies https://amzn.to/3TlSz8Q

DAVID HAMILTON's books are The Golden Days of Radio One and Commercial Radio Daze http://ashwaterpress.co.uk/DavidHamiltonbooks.html

BEN BAKER's book is The Dreams We Had As Children: Children's ITV and Me https://linktr.ee/BenBakerBooks

PAUL KERENSA's book is Hark! The Biography of Christmas - in paperback and audiobook https://amzn.to/486DrA6

You'll also hear BBC Radio Sussex/Surrey's (now Kent's as well) Mark Carter - who to my knowledge doesn't have a book (yet) but is, in David Hamilton's words "a great radio man".

• Original music by Will Farmer.
• This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter.
• Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter.
• Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos.
• Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast, or shouting from the rooftops, are most welcome. It's run by just one person, with zero advertising or PR, so that's where you step in! I'll measure you up for a sandwich-board, yeah? Thanks!

Next time: our Christmas/Epiphany special will be the FULL re-enactment of Britain's First Religious Broadcast from July 1922. A rarely-known story - you'll sometimes see the BBC credited as first religious broadcaster, 24 Dec 1922. But no, there was one preacher who five months earlier... More next time! Religious or not, if you like radio, you'll love this tale.

Merry Nearly Christmas, or if you're reading this in the rest of year, a simple hello will suffice. Hello.

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

• Original music by Will Farmer.
• This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter.
• Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter.
• Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos...
• ...such as this video (free for all) - in which I read my 1923 copy of the Radio Times, exactly 100 years on from when it was on news-stands: https://youtu.be/kbtEhWg7fUY?si=h6nQToLhaVlkIQxY
• If you can rate/review the podcast nicely somewhere, maybe where you get podcasts normally, I'll be hugely appreciative. This is a one-man band of a show, so your amplification of it is the only thing getting it out there. THANKS!

Next time? Three more authors. Then it's our Christmas special: The First Religious Broadcast: Re-staged where it began.

Stay tuned.

Like our previous 'Loose Ends' episode, we've a few threads to pull on:

• The tale of Arthur Burrows on SS Victorian, breaking records and playing records in July 1920 - an eyewitness account, from 'Wireless at Sea: The First Fifty Years' by H.E. Hancock. Read along here if you like: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Technology/Technology-Early-Radio/Wireless-at-Sea-Hancock-1950.pdf (p.110)
• An interview between Frank Clive Milligan and his father Andrew Milligan about Andrew's father Frank Milligan, the pioneer behind 5MG from October 1922. Thanks Eddie Bohan for the link-up! Read Eddie's great blog about Frank Milligan here: https://ibhof.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-irishman-who-shaped-scottish-radio.html. We told of Frank Milligan/5MG on episode 48: https://pod.fo/e/12bf51
• My findings at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham - and thanks to them as ever! Including some 'new' info from Burrows' reminiscence, about whether day 1 of the BBC had music.
• Bob Richardson, prop rescuer extraordinaire, on some of a Tardis and the horse racing hexagonal drum.
• Info on The First Religious Broadcast: Re-staged where it began, in Peckham. If you're reading this before 10 Nov 2023, come and see! It's free. tiny.cc/1st-rb
• We're nothing to do with the BBC, y'hear?
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Join us on Facebook or Twitter.
• Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa to support the show for £5/mth. Get audio/video/writings in return. Join soon and get an old book in the post too!

More soon. Next time: Authors' special. Aren't they?

paulkerensa.com/oldradio 

On RT centenary day itself, part 2 of our back-story of back issues, as Radio Times turns 100.

Catch part 1 if you haven't already: https://pod.fo/e/1f20d1 - there we journeyed from 1923 to 1991, when the monopoly was ended and the British government opened up the TV listings market.

In part 2, we're joined again by today's Radio Times co-editor Shem Law and RT enthusiast, collector, historian and BBC Genome contributor Dr Steve Arnold - plus the author of The Radio Times Story Tony Currie.

How come part 2 covers just a few decades then? Well, Shem Law told us aplenty about RT present and future too. It's a real treat that certainly made me re-assess the state of the industry in a number of ways: from what we consume, to how we choose what to consume, to how we hear about what we choose what to consume. With me? Great. Listen on. Listen in. If it's on Radio Times, it's in this episode.

SHOWNOTES:

• Steve Arnold's website: radiotimesarchive.com 
• The Radio Times Story by Tony Currie: https://amzn.to/3t0TCQc
• The Radio Times Cover Story book, edited by Shem Law & co: https://amzn.to/3ES4YZv
• The Gift of a Radio by Justin Webb: https://amzn.to/45c3GDo
• Paul Kerensa's books: https://amzn.to/3LEGOWd
• We are nothing to do with the BBC - this is a solo independent operation.
• Support us at Patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/mth gets you extra video, audio & writings.
• Paul's on tour this with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio AND The First Religious Broadcast: Re-Staged - come see: paulkerensa.com/tour.
• Music by Will Farmer, apart from Radio Times by Henry Hall.
• Subscribe, Rate, Review, Thanks!

NEXT TIME: We'll be having a break for a month or so, partly to delineate the seasons (partly to do more researching). Up next, an authors' special, navigating approx 150 years of wireless, radio, TV and more via half a dozen or so notable writers and academics with books that you-yes-you can buy, read, and grow your brain.

Thanks for listening (in).

And happy centenary, Radio Times!

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

(The 'the' vanished in 1937) 

Britain's favourite magazine is a century old this very week, at time of recording.

So it's a bumper edition - not dissimilar to the fat two-weeker that lands on your doorstep or falls off supermarket shelves due to weight and gravity every festive season. This is a two-parter, paying tribute to a century of the 'Official Organ of the British Broadcasting Company' as it was once subtitled. If it's on, it's in, and it's in this podcast. 

Part 1 brings us from 1923-1991 - with two tour guides:

Shem Law is one of today's two Radio Times editors, and he invited me to RT HQ for a chat, a cuppa, and a browse of his favourite covers. (See link below for a link to our Facebook page, to see the covers he picks at as favourites - or least favourite).

Dr Steve Arnold is a RT enthusiast, collector and broadcast historian. If it's on Radio Times history, it's in his brain. 

Also this episode, Radio 4's Justin Webb on his grandfather Leonard Crocombe - the first RT editor. Or was he? Steve Arnold has more on that. 

This is only part 1. Part 2 will follow in a couple of days, with more from Shem and Steve as well as Tony Currie, author of The Radio Times Story. 

SHOWNOTES:

• The pics of those covers, and other visual talking points (the WW2 map, my oldest RT etc): https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/828907702013685/
• Steve Arnold's website: radiotimesarchive.com 
• The Radio Times Story by Tony Currie: https://amzn.to/3t0TCQc
• The Radio Times Cover Story book, edited by Shem Law & co: https://amzn.to/3ES4YZv
• The Gift of a Radio by Justin Webb: https://amzn.to/45c3GDo
• Paul Kerensa's books: https://amzn.to/3LEGOWd
• We are nothing to do with the BBC - this is a solo independent operation.
• Support us at Patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/mth gets you videos galore.
• Paul's on tour this Autumn with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio AND The First Religious Broadcast: Re-Staged - paulkerensa.com/tour.
• Music by Will Farmer.
• Subscribe, Rate, Review, Thanks!

NEXT TIME: Part two of the Radio Times back story!

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

On 30 April 1923, celebrated conductor Percy Pitt joins the BBC as Musical Advisor/Director/Controller (his job keeps changing), bringing new scope and scale to the nation's favourite music provider. Symphonies! Dance bands! A violinist who's refused a taxi cos the driver doesn't like what he's heard!

In 1955, Johnny Beerling joins the BBC in a world of Housewive's Choice and needle time. In 1967, Johnny journeys to the pirate ships then helps bring Tony Blackburn to the airwaves for the launch of Radio 1. Johnny tells us all about it in part 1 of an exclusive interview.

And in 1969, Alec Reid is a studio manager when a talented young band have a brush with the Beeb - the genesis of Genesis. Oh, and a little thing called the Moon landing.

Plus, what was the first song on the BBC, back in November 1922? We have answers. Several.

Happy listening!

SHOWNOTES:

• We're nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about the old BBCompany, and not made by the present-day BBCorporation.
• Hear the full unedited 53min Johnny Beerling interview on patreon.com/paulkerensa (uploading very shortly - if it's not there, check back!). It's £5/mth for extra audio, video + writings - cancel whenever you like (I'll never know!).
• Johnny Beerling's book is Radio 1: The Inside Scene.
• Alec Reid's ghostly tales can be found here in audiobook form.
• Paul's book Auntie and Uncles is out at some point: Paulkerensa.com/book
• Music is by Will Farmer
• Rate/review us where you found this podcast?
• Paul's tour on old radio: Paulkerensa.com/tour
• Share this episode by all means. Online, offline, anywhere! Thanks.

NEXT EPISODE:

Nearing the end of 'season 5' (though season 6 will follow straight after) will be a special on the centenary of the Radio Times.

Stay subscribed: podfollow.com/bbcentury or wherever you get podcasts.

Thanks for listening!

paulkerensa.com/oldradio 

It's a royal wedding so the BBC celebrate in style, with a gala concert, sponsored by Harrods (yes, sponsorship on the BBC!), given by The Co-Optimists, the legendary interwar comedy troupe. The cast includes Stanley Holloway (later of My Fair Lady) and, weirdly, the ex of the prince getting married. Whoops.

We also explore a landmark pre-BBC broadcast by The Co-Optimists, in the summer of 1921. It's London's first broadcast, and pretty much the only legal broadcast of 1921. We'll explain why, and you'll hear them in full flow.

Plus, for those who prefer their comedy more recent, we've got comedy writers James Cary and Simon Dunn, as well as Hi-De-Hi's Jeffrey Holland, telling us about later BBC comedy from The Goons to Bottom, via Steptoe, Dad's Army and Roy Clarke's ovens.

It's a lot to pack in, so it's a longer episode than we usually go for, but we trust you'll be entertained, or at least informed about being entertained, or educated about being informed about being entertained...

SHOWNOTES:

• Simon Dunn's books include Proctology: A Bottom Examination.
• James Cary's books include The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer.
• Paul Kerensa's books include Hark! The Biography of Christmas - also available as an audiobook.
• Hear The Co-Optimists via this Youtube channel.
• Alan Stafford's article on John Henry and the first BBC topical comedy. 
• A photo of 'Listening to the Gala Concert at Harrods' (thanks Andrew Barker!) - 26 April 1923.
• A photo of the Beaver Hut, Strand (the site of the later Bush House) - Summer 1921.
• Sidney Nicholson's wedding anthem - Beloved Let Us Love One Another - hosted by the English Heritage Music Series at University of Minnesota.
• We are nothing to do with the BBC - this is a solo independent operation.
• Support us at Patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/mth gets you videos galore.
• Paul's on tour this Sept/Oct with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - paulkerensa.com/tour.
• Music by Will Farmer.
• Subscribe, Rate, Review, Thanks!

NEXT TIME: Music! With Percy Pitt in 1923 and ex Radio 1 boss Johnny Beerling in the present day, reflecting on 1967+.

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

So much so, that the official record - in history books, on various BBC sites, in broadcasting legend - wrongly credits Richard Hughes' A Comedy of Danger in 1924 as the first original radioplay.

So is it because Twigg was writing for children? Or because her script didn't survive? Or because she's female? All and more?

On episode 72, our timeline brings us to 23rd April 1923 - Shakespeare's birthday - so as good a time as any to glance back, and forwards, to set the record straight about this forgotten female pioneer. 

Her pen name unlocks a whole new side to her, proving that far from vanish into the ether, she gave broadcast more children's stories, a bizarre paranormal experiment, and somehow also became the world's first TV cook! Plus there are cookbooks for children, porcelain cats and novelty lampshades.

Wow.

Somehow Phyllis Twigg/Moira Meighn is therefore the ancestor of Dennis Potter, Jamie Oliver, Angelica Bell and Derren Brown. She's one of a kind - in fact she's about four of a kind. Her tale's not fully been told till now, and we've gathered pretty much everyone who knows it onto this podcast.

Hear from Professor Tim Crook, Emeritus Professor of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London - he's gathered biographical information, sheet music, cookbooks and wonderful insights into this double pioneer.

Peter Grimaldi, Phyllis Twigg's grandson, brings tales from the archive that he's only recently discovered. (Watch the full video of Peter's interview with us here on Youtube: https://youtu.be/WpkGH88IHfc)

Dr Andrea Smith of the University of Suffolk joins us too to anchor us back in our April 1923 timeline, with scenes from Shakespeare on-air for the bard's birthday.

Thanks to the Twigg family for sharing her story with us, and especially to Prof Tim Crook for sharing his research and linking us with Peter Grimaldi.

Thanks too to Robert Seatter and John Escolme of the BBC History and Heritage Department, for being so open and hospitable to hearing Twigg's tale...

...Now you can hear it too! It's quite a story - and perhaps for the first time on this podcast, we're discovering something new about something old.

While the script of The Truth About Father Christmas remains lost, we do now have the short story that Twigg adapted it into... Anyone for a retro-adaptation back into a radioplay again?

I think this tale needs telling further. But let's start with this podcast...

SHOWNOTES:

• Tim's comprehensive blog post about Twigg/Meighn is a treasure trove of info about her career.
• The Truth About Father Christmas - the short story from the 1925 anthology The 'Normous Sunday Story Book (copyright remains with Twigg's family)
• The photo of the BBC's Mass Telepathy Experiment, 12 Nov 1925, inc. Phyllis Twigg.
• The 1941 Ministry of Information film featuring Moira Meighn is Bampton Shows the Way - thanks Tim for finding it!
• TIm's new book is Writing Audio Drama, published by Routledge.
• We're nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about the old BBCompany, and not made by the present-day BBCorporation.
• Music by Will Farmer
• Support us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa
• Rate/review us where you found this podcast?
• Paul's tour on old radio: Paulkerensa.com/tour 
• Paul's novel Auntie and Uncles - out soon: Paulkerensa.com/book

Thanks for listening.

Share this episode by all means. Online, offline, over a garden fence, on the phone to an old pal, whomever.

NEXT EPISODE:

We've had drama, time for some comedy! April 1923 on the BBC: Comedians, at Harrods.

Stay subscribed: podfollow.com/bbcentury or wherever you get podcasts

Pip pip pip pip pip piiiiiiiiiip

This episode is one of those where media meets politics meets history - and we're giving you all the nit-picking details, because if we don't, who will?! We only pass this way once...

...And by 'this way', I mean April 16th-24th 1923.

On our previous episode, the five-month-old BBC was almost on its last legs, facing battles from the press (the Express) and the government (a feisty Postmaster General who doesn't feel generous with the licence fee).

Now episode 71 sees the BBC discussed in the House of Commons, as two debates introduce the Sykes Inquiry, and see MPs debate, debase, defend and potentially defund the BBC. (A reminder: this was 1923, not 2023.) 

To bring this to life, we've revisited the Hansard parliamentary record of precisely what was said, and reunited (or recruited) our Podcast Parliamentary Players.

So you'll hear:

Neil Jackson - Mr Ammon

Alexander Perkins - Lt Col Moore-Brabazon

Lou Sutcliffe, David Monteath, Paul Hayes, Fay Roberts, Tom Chivers - Postmaster General Sir William Joynson-Hicks (aka Jix)

Shaun Jacques - Sir William Bull, Mr Pringle

Gordon Bathgate - Ramsay Macdonald, Sir Douglas Newton

Steve Smallwood - Captain Benn

Jamie Medhurst - Captain Berkeley

Carol Carman - Mr Jones

Andrew Barker - Mystery Speaker

Wayne Clarke - Mr Speaker, J.H. Whitley

...and apologies if I've missed anyone out! It's quite possible.

If you'd like to follow along (why would you?), the text of the two debates are here:

April 19th 1923:

• The text of Peter Eckersley's on-air engineering talk (thanks to Andrew Barker):

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/624629565774834/ (Join our Facebook group!)

• The 1938 Radio Times I mentioned, that I was kindly sent: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/788427186061737/

• This episode contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v.3.0

• Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about the old BBCompany, and not made by the present-day BBCorporation.

• Apologies we were going to feature Dr Martin Cooper - but the debates over-ran! Soon, Martin, with apologies. Meanwhile, buy his book: https://amzn.to/44eSXIM
• Music by Will Farmer
• Support us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa
• Rate/review us where you found this podcast?
• Paul's tour on old radio: Paulkerensa.com/tour 

   

   

  Thanks for listening, if you do. This one's a bit heavy!

  NEXT TIME:

  The first radio dramatist - The Truth about Phyllis Twigg

  paulkerensa.com/oldradio

In April 1923, the five-month-old BBC faced a two-pronged attack.

The Daily Express ran an anti-BBC campaign, with front page stories questioning its existence, and even offering to take over broadcasting themselves. Over the course of one week, the Express applied to the government for a broadcast licence (and were turned down).

Meanwhile the Postmaster General's chance encounter with Reith in the street brought to a head 'the licence problem'. Reith wanted more £ for the BBC; the govt wanted more £ for themselves.

It's a hundred years' war that's still raging, so it's the ideal episode to bring in Prof Patrick Barwise and Peter York, authors of The War Against the BBC: How an Unprecedented Combination of Hostile Forces is Destroying Britain's Greatest Cultural Institution... And Why You Should Care.

Their insight in 2023's BBC battles tell us of right-wing press ('SMET': Sun, Mail, Express, Telegraph), now joined by GB News and Talk TV, plus think tanks galore doing down Auntie Beeb. This is all coupled with cuts in funding that is starting to affect output, from local radio to orchestras to the merged news channel.

April 5th-15th 1923 is perhaps just the beginning then...

• Buy Patrick Barwise and Peter's York book The War Against the BBC: https://amzn.to/3qX6bLB
• Read their article for Prospect Magazine: 'We have bad news for the right-wing BBC haters: most of the public just don't agree with you.' https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/60479/attention-bbc-haters-the-public-arent-behind-you
• See Paul Kerensa on tour with 'An Evening of (Very) Old Radio': www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• More info on Paul's forthcoming novel Auntie and Uncles: www.paulkerensa.com/book
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Thanks for supporting on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! www.ko-fi.com/paulkerensa.
• Do rate and review us - 5 stars would be lovely, thanks!
• We're here to inform, educate and entertain - though as ever we are nothing to do with the present-day BBC. We're just talking about them, not made by them.

Next time...

Episode 71 - Today in Parliament: The BBC Debates of April 1923, plus Dr Martin Cooper on radio in popular culture.

www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Programme-makers and listeners:

• Nick Wilson (producer, Wide Awake Club)
• Chris Jarvis (presenter, Show Me Show Me)
• David Jervis (grandson of Capt H.J. Round)
• Andrew Barker (Newspaper Detective)
• Charles Huff (producer, The Great Egg Race)

• Uncle Arthur (Burrows)
• Uncle (A.E.) Thompson
• Auntie Bronwen (Davies)
• Auntie Cyclone (Kathleen Garscadden)
• Dinko, the Foreman of the Pixies (Reginald Jordan)
• Uncle Humpty Dumpty (Kenneth Wright)

• On Living with Television by Dr Amy Holdsworth is available here: https://amzn.to/3C3wt0F
• Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Woman at the BBC by Dr Kate Murphy is available here: https://amzn.to/3BX12oR 
• Scotland On Air by Graham Stewart will be out later this year. Details here: https://wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/Main_Page
• Read more of Arthur Corbett-Smith's 1924 notes on Children's Hour on Dr Zara Healy's brilliant blog post: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbchistoryresearch/entries/cf4a5612-fdd9-47ec-88c8-a576e4bf7bd0 (we hope to have her on the podcast soon!)
• Listen to my CBeebies Radio series Granny Anne's Joke World, starring Maureen Lipman, written by me - 8 episodes are here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/radio-granny-annes-joke-world
• My new book, out some time, is Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC - details here: https://paulkerensa.com/book
• My live tour, 'An Evening of (Very) Early Radio' (or sometimes it's an afternoon...) visits Guildford, Romsey, Chelmsford, Kettering, Turnham Green and maybe more (it's very bookable, portable, and affordable!) - details here: https://paulkerensa.com/tour
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not via them.
• Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa.
• Support us for free by sharing this podcast. Or rating + reviewing where you found us. The more stars, the better... It helps our (ready for a terrible word?) discoverability. Cheers!

Next time: The Press vs BBC vs Govt: 1923 and 2023 - with Prof Patrick Barwise and Peter York. Be afraid, be very afraid...

https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

...Corbett-Smith to the rescue? Trouble is, he's a little divisive. Some say he's the greatest gift to broadcasting (well, he does - he wrote his memoir in the third person), others say he's best out of the BBC (Reith, some newspaper correspondents).

Listen - make your own mind up.

To help you decide, two fab guests - Shakespeare-on-the-air expert DR ANDREA SMITH of the University of Suffolk (as Corbett-Smith aimed to be first to broadcast all his complete works) and GARETH GWYNN (writer of sitcom The Ministry of Happiness, all about Corbett-Smith and Cardiff 5WA).

Plus the first National Anthem on the BBC... the first time signals... and an early Newcastle station director so popular that when he moved to Bournemouth, Geordies bought more powerful radio sets just to hear him from the south coast.

Enjoy!

• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not via them. 
• Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa.
• Support us for free by sharing this podcast. Or rating + reviewing where you found us. The more stars, the better... It helps our (ready for a terrible word?) discoverability. Cheers!

https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

A Brief History of Coronation Broadcasts (or Broadcast Coronations)

How the BBC has brought two such ceremonies to the air, as they (and others) now tackle a third, for King Charles III.

We'll tell you all about the two previous on-air crownings, of George VI and Elizabeth II, both on radio and TV - but first we'll go back to the four monarchs before them:

• Queen Victoria's (1938) used a certain technological advancement to bring more eyes than ever before to a coronation procession.
• Edward VII's (1902) had a film made of it, though a simulation using actors. (Had director Georges Méliès got his way, it would have included Queen Victoria's ghost!). Edward's wife Princess Alexandra had a few links to broadcasting too.
  • Watch Georges Méliès' film The Coronation of Edward VII (1902): https://youtu.be/ME6z810Zre8
• George V's (1911) was filmed for newsreel.
  • That newsreel footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SoUPxIkZ8 
• Edward VIII's (1937) was planned then canned after his (broadcast) abdication.
• George VI's (1937) took the same coronation day, same plans, changed the name etched onto the crown (I think that's how they do it), and his state occasion made it to radio and TV: the first broadcast coronation. We'll meet the engineer who taught him to conquer his stammer for the microphone, but had to sleep in Westminster Abbey. And learn how many (or how few) cameras were available to use. You probably have more in your house right now...
  • BBC radio's coronation broadcast - Stuart Hibberd, John Snagge etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWPE4GIp9kE - thanks to Random Radio Jottings blog
  • BBC website inc making-of film: https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/two-coronations/
  • George VI's coronation speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfD14kL2XAk
• Elizabeth II's (1953) was "the OB of all OBs", aka "C-Day". Hear from Richard Dimbleby, John Snagge... and learn why we should toast him at hymn 9 (don't worry - there aren't that many) 
  • The complete ceremony, televised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NTjasbmgw
  • Coronation Day Across the World, courtesy of Random Radio Jottings/Andy Walmsley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jg4uK2DGFA
  • BBC website on Elizabeth II's coronation, inc behind-the-scenes film: https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/june/coronation-of-queen-elizabeth-ii/
• Charles III's (2023): Well that's not history enough yet for our liking...
  • Here's a nice guide to the televised coronation, past and present: https://news.sky.com/story/the-kings-coronation-will-be-televised-and-much-more-how-ways-to-watch-have-changed-since-the-queen-was-crowned-12848891

===

Like this episode? Do share it.

Or rate and review us.

Or chip in on patreon.com/paulkerensa (or ko-fi.com/paulkerensa) to help fund like this. Thanks!

===

This podcast is nothing whatsoever to do with the BBC. We believe the clips used are no longer in copyright due to age. It is possible that some somehow retain BBC or Crown copyright, in which case the content belongs to them, and certainly not us.

It's all here purely to inform, educate and entertain.

For more on this deep dive project into broadcasting's back-story, see paulkerensa.com/oldradio, including details of the live show and novel.

Subscribe to get each episode when it lands.

NEXT TIME: Major Arthur Corbett-Smith - Reith's maverick rival of 1923.

Please stand for the National Anthem.

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Our timeline continues into late March 1923 - which means that as well as news, we now have daily weather forecasts on the early BBC. It's just in time for the end of the Ideal Home Exhibition - selling radio to the masses, and oh look how useful it is.

Also that month, SOS messages began in Birmingham: brief broadcasts trying to reach relatives of those critically ill, or missing persons, or even missing pelicans.

Joining us to talk about yesterday's news is former news editor at Pebble Mill, Breakfast News and many more BBC news programmes MAURICE BLISSON. To talk about today's BBC news, and the war against it, we have Prof PATRICK BARWISE and Peter York (see their book below - and hear more of them in 3 episodes' time), and on the SOS origins of broadcasting, Prof GABRIELE BALBI.

Plus other on-air quirks and remnants from March 1923, such as the first broadcast from a church, the first educational broadcasts, and Peter Eckersley telling us not to oscillate.

Episode 66 is packed as ever then... Next time: meet Arthur Corbett-Smith, the unorthodox Cardiff station director.

• Listen to Radio 4 documentary 'And Now An Urgent SOS Message' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRI8DO8QAwg
• Buy Patrick Barwise and Peter York's book The War Against the BBC - https://amzn.to/40axAp8
• Read Patrick Barwise and Peter York's article in Prospect Magazine - https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/60479/we-have-bad-news-for-the-right-wing-bbc-haters-most-of-the-public-just-dont-agree-with-you
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not via them. 
• Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa.
• Support us for free by sharing this podcast. Or rating + reviewing where you found us. The more stars, the better... It helps our (ready for a terrible word?) discoverability. Cheers!

https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

This episode is more interview than usual, including a whizzthrough 100 years of the BBC Sound Archive - from no recordings to the first recordings, Lance Sieveking's re-enactments and Leslie Baily's archive gathering, Marie Slocombe and Lynton Fletcher's channelling of Marie Kondo, location actuality recordings, the first retake and recording from a WW2 bombing mission... and that's all just in the first two decades!

Simon guides us all the way through to BBC7 and the present day - if you love old radio, it's a fascinating insight. Thanks Simon - and thanks to you and the team for looking after it for all these years.

Elsewhere, our timeline of British broadcasting's origin story continues, covering March 16th-26th 1923 - which happens to include the first BBC music library under Frank Hook. And the archive is off... So as we traverse the early tale of the Beeb, this is the perfect episode to go deeper into the tale of the archive than you've probably ever gone before (I should add we're mostly talking about the Sound Archive here. As for the Written Archives, the Television Archive - one day...) 

Plus one of my favourite stories about the early BBC, involving an Archbishop, a bit of Schubert and All-Request Monday.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did putting it together. Happy listening!

SHOWNOTES:

LOTS of extra things you could listen to if you hunger for more...

• Hear the Radio 4 Archive Hour that Simon made with Sean Street on the first Sound Archives Librarian Marie Slocombe: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/archive-hour--marie-slocombe-and-the-bbc-sound-archive/zvrf7nb
• Simon mentions this 1942 programme, 'You Have Been Listening to a Recording' featuring Lynton Fletcher and Marie Slocombe: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/you-have-been-listening-to-a-recording--part-3/znsm47h
• Hear even more of Lynton Fletcher on this 1941 literary lunch talk: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/foyles-literary-luncheon--the-bbc-recorded-programmes-department/z72kf4j
• Hear an extended interview with Marie Slocombe here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/marie-slocombe--sound-archives-librarian-1937-1972/zr4vmfr 
• The London Sound Survey is quite something - the late Ian Rawes curated it, from BBC discs including the first location recordings. See the dates down the left, and have a listen to the everyday 1930s: https://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/radio_actuality_recordings
• A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not with their permission. And in fact the BBC we're talking about isn't today's BBC - it's the British Broadcasting Company. The Corporation is not behind this in any way.
• It's a one-man operation - so thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do. Or one-off tips if you prefer are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. 
• But the free way to support us is to share this podcast with others. Help it grow by helping others find us. That will keep us going as long as... well maybe not quite as long as the BBC's archives, but we can make a start.
• Original music by Will Farmer.
• Archive material is so old it’s generally out of copyright. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

Thanks for listening. Do rate/review if you like, if you like it. And subscribe so that you get future episodes, including...

NEXT TIME: News, the first daily weather and SOS broadcasts in late March 1923 - with more great guests.

https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

So this packed show takes a walk from Magnet House to the studios at Marconi House, just as the early broadcasters would have done. We take a look at the early broadcasting philosophy of first staff - "the upper side of taste" (no grizzly murders or divorce cases).

We revisit broadcasts from the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition and head on tour with a laundry basket packed with sheet music (just don't send it to the laundrette like they did).

Hear the voices of a few who were there: Rex Palmer, Peter Eckersley, Arthur Burrows, Cecil Lewis, A.E. Thompson, Percy Edgar, Leonard Crocombe... that's about 10% of the entire BBC workforce at the time! You'll also hear a bit from Radio 4's Justin Webb...

...our main special guest is JEFFREY HOLLAND, star of Hi-de-Hi, You Rang M'Lord, Oh Doctor Beeching... and he tells how he even played Private Pike AND Private Walker onstage with the original Dad's Army cast of Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn.

It's a packed episode, but then a lot happened in early March 1923! Next time, late March 1923... Stay tuned to this frequency.

LINKS:

• Find out more about Jeffrey Holland's tour as Stan Laurel at https://www.jeffreyholland.co.uk/
•   For more on Leonard Crocombe/Justin Webb, here's our previous episode of the podcast about grandfather and grandson, both BBC stars 100 years apart: https://pod.fo/e/120761    
• The complete Leonard Crocombe record can be heard on AusRadioHistorian's Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/6N1-hGjP_2M
•  
• London Calling, Jimmy Perry's 1922-set sitcom about the early BBC starring Jeffrey Holland, can be heard on Youtube: https://youtu.be/qFSTtd69U_0
• For the full video of my walk from Magnet House to Marconi House (as was), join us on Patreon - join then cancel if you like! Here's the video: https://www.patreon.com/posts/magnet-house-to-68777192
• ...that all helps support the podcast and keeps us in books and web hosting. One-off tips delightfully welcomed too! At http://ko-fi.com/paulkerensa
• I'm booking in a mini-tour this year recreating the first religious broadcast, and/or a more general talk/show/presentation An Evening of (Very) Old Radio. More info at https://www.paulkerensa.com/tour or just email me on https://www.paulkerensa.com/contact.php - you can use that for any podcast comments, heckles, anecdotes etc too. We must bring back Airwave Memories/Firsthand Memories too. Record a thing or write some words about your early broadcast memories, if you like. Get in touch!
• Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC. Did I mention that? BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
•  

Next time we'll have the tale of late March with the first daily weather broadcasts, SOSs and an interview with a former BBC archivist.

...Subscribe so you don't miss it!

www.podfollow.com/bbcentury

It's not Scotland's first radio station (see episode 48 for the tale of how Daimler, Glasgow Motor Show and a couple of electrical shop owners made a couple of pre-BBC pop-up stations).

But this sixth BBC station mattered to John Reith more than any other. He'd grown up in Glasgow. His mum came to visit the radio station. He opened the station himself - apart from the bagpipes playing Hey Johnny Cope.

You have two fantastic guides through this episode:

GRAHAM STEWART, a BBC journalist whose new book Scotland On-Air is out very soon. Details at https://wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/Main_Page

+

TONY CURRIE, of Radio Six International, and author of The Radio Times Story. Details at https://www.radiosix.com/

SHOWNOTES:

- I mention an early 1980s children's retrospective that Kathleen Garscadden appears on. It's called Jubilee! 60 Years of Children's Programmes, it's from 1983, it's got Floella Benjamin, Sarah Greene, Mike Read, Keith Chegwin. Tony Hart and many more, including Auntie Cyclone herself, it's fab, and it's here to watch: https://youtu.be/tNZD70HiFsw 

- My novel on all this, Auntie and Uncles, is out soon! But not yet. Depending when you read this. More info may be here, unless I've missed Amazon's deadline to upload it, in which case Jeff Bezos might delete this from sale. But it will return! When ready. It's going to be great... https://amzn.to/3EODANc

- Support us on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa to keep us afloat and in return get extra writings, videos and ample more! Thanks to all who support us there. 

- We're on www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury, where our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker is chronicling newspapers on this day 100 years ago.

- Follow us on www.twitter.com/bbcentury, where I post LOTS of old radio things.

- More on this entire project at www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

- This is not a BBC podcast - we're talking about them (though very much from a favourable viewpoint), not with them.

- BBC content is used with kind permission of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved...

- ...and preserved. This podcast is the origin story of British broadcasting, told the very slow way - but hopefully in a way that informs, educates and (winks, clicks fingers like the Fonz) entertains.

Next time: We're still in March 1923 (a lot happened in March 1923) with broadcasts from the Ideal Home Exhibition, tales of touring variety acts around the early BBC stations, and a fab guest in Hi-de-Hi's Jeffrey Holland.

Subscribe to get this podcast as soon as one's uploaded - we plan on being here a while yet: www.podfollow.com/bbcentury

And we chat to Reeta Chakrabarti - a mainstay of BBC news for over 30 years. She's anchored news from the studio, broadcast from Ukraine, and recently voiced radio pioneer Hilda Matheson on the BBC100 Prom. We talk about her career highlights and the place of BBC journalism in the world today.

Back in 1923, we're telling the origin story of British broadcasting, landmark moment by landmark moment, so this episode includes:

• That first political debate: Sir Ernest Benn and J.T. Walton Newbold MP on "That Communism would be a Danger to the Good of the People” - but the audience are a little one-sided, and bring not only heckles but a rousing musical finale - The Red Flag. There are complaints... Thanks to the press of the day, we recreate the key moments of that first political debate for (we presume) the first time ever.
• Back at HQ, Caroline Banks joins to head up the female clerical staff.
• The BBC listings ban continues in the press.
• Pip, Squeak and Wilfred make the jump from a Daily Mirror cartoon strip to on-air children's programme.
• The launch of Musical, Dramatic, Literary and Film Talks.
• The first broadcast in Welsh (hear Rev Gwilym Davies).
• The first daytime programmes... and more.

It was quite a week!

Next time: Early March 1923, the BBC gains its sixth station and Scotland gains official broadcasting, as Glasgow 5SC launches. We'll bring the speeches and juicy details.

Support us? £5/mth on Patreon.com/paulkerensa keeps us going.

And/or share this if you like it - find us fresh ears!

We're on Facebook and Twitter, and a reminder that this is nothing to do with the BBC. It's a one-man non-BBC project.

Part of that also includes Paul's new novel, Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC (out this spring, ish): https://amzn.to/3ZsF335

Another part is Paul's live show on early radio: this year that includes 'The Beeb: Year 1 - 1923 Repeated' (a stand-up history show whizzing through that first year) + a re-enactment of the first religious broadcast. To book either, or with any comments on the podcast, get in touch.

Subscribte/Rate/Review if you like this episode - thanks!

paulkerensa.com

Centenary specials behind us, we deep-dive back into mid-Feb 1923, in our moment-by-moment story of British broadcasting's birth.

On episode 61, we hear from:

• GARETH GWYNN on his new sitcom on the launch of broadcasting in Wales, The Ministry of Happiness (catch it on BBC Sounds)...
• ANDREW BARKER on the BBC listings ban...
• and DAVID JERVIS on his grandfather 'The Tame Wizard', Capt H.J. Round. Hear an excerpt here, or the full section in David's recording on Youtube.

And some of the landmark moments we cover include:

• Feb 13th: Cardiff 5WA launches - hear clips from The Ministry of Happiness, including a sneak-peek of episode 2.
• Feb 14th: The Pall Mall Gazette stops printing BBC listings, after a feud between press + broadcasters. Our Newspaper Detective will tell you what, why and when.
• Feb 15th: The listings ban comes in...
• Feb 16th: As Shakespeare is first broadcast, one of The Pall Mall Gazette's most famous advertisers comes to the rescue.
• Feb 17th: The first broadcast appeal, for the Winter Distress League.
• Feb 20th: Sir Oliver Lodge broadcasts... and John Reith battles the press, and gets an idea in the process. The Radio Times idea is born. 

Subscribe, share, rate, review, tell your friends, join us on Facebook, Twitter and Patreon - and thanks if you support us there.

...There on Patreon you can have Cecil Lewis' Broadcasting from Within read to you (with explanatory interruptions). Hear an extract this episode from the grandson of the chap being mentioned.

FINAL THINGS:

- Paul's new novel Auntie and Uncles will be out this Spring. Hopefully. That date may shift. Still writing it. Details: https://amzn.to/3zIY9Hq

- Paul's got two touring showatunities this year - dates TBC but for now we want BOOKINGS! The First Religious Broadcast: Re-enacted... AND The Beeb: Year 1 are both available. Fancy either at your place? A village hall? A church? A club/group/society? Get in touch: https://www.paulkerensa.com/contact.php

- Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC. Never heard of them.

Next time we'll pick up the tale on February 22nd, for the BBC's first political debate (it doesn't go to plan), and guest Reeta Chakrabarti. Don't miss it.

podfollow.com/bbcentury

Whether you're a faithful or heathen, you're very welcome here and I think you'll enjoy this whizz through a century of British broadcasting blessings (and some early US ones too) - including some very rare clips and new discoveries of old things/names/juicy geeky details.

From Reginald Fessenden's violin to Justin Welby's sermon to half the planet, via Dr Boon, Revs Dick Sheppard, W.H. Elliot, Bramwell Evens and many more, hear rare clips of the pioneer preachers, the tale of how Reith shaped religious broadcasting in his own image, and the challenges of war, TV, competition and changing attitudes. Plus the shocked Archbishop, how hats prevented a royal wedding broadcast, and where to look for some undiscovered Paul Simon music.

It's a mostly Christian tale (for historical editorial reasons), but we explore how and why the Beeb sometimes wrangled with that issue - and the rare Jewish service the BBC aired during WW2.

Helping us on our journey, three wise men (can you tell this was meant to be a Christmas, then Epiphany special?):

• Dr Ian Robertson - broadcaster and author of With God on Our Side: A Comparative Study of Religious Broadcasting in the USA and the UK 1921-1995
• Michael Wakelin - ex BBC Head of Religion & Ethics, Exec Chair of the Religion Media Centre, Exec Producer at TBI Media
• Dr Martin Cooper - broadcaster and author of Radio's Legacy in Popular Culture: The Sounds of British Broadcasting over the Decades

Buy their books! They're great. Paul's book Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC will be available soon. That will be great, when finished.

(More of these guests on future episodes - I'm holding back some gold. And frankincense. And myrrh.)

Due to limits of time, we've barely scratched the surface this episode. There could be another few episodes on this story (in fact, maybe there should be - hello radio producers. Shall we? Drop me a line...)

This is a helicopter view of 100 years of God on the air. Maybe we'll come back to it to add further details - and look out for our Christmas special later in 2023, with more on Britain's first religious broadcast.

Paul is touring this year with The First Religious Broadcast: Re-Enacted. For info on booking it for your venue/group/church/village hall/anywhere, get in touch with Paul.

You can support this podcast by joining us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa for extra behind-the-scenes videos and writings. Or tip at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa - and thank you!

We're on www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury, where our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker is chronicling newspapers on this day 100 years ago. Enjoy!

We're also on www.twitter.com/bbcentury - do say hi.

Huge thanks to Will Farmer for the original music.

Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

We are nothing to do with the BBC - just talking about them, not with their 'blessing', to use a religious term. That's what this episode is about, you see?

Next time: Season 5! We're back in the 1923 timeline to bring you all the key landmark moments of the BBC's first year, starting with the battle with the press. It's going to get feisty...

Stay subscribed, do rate/review/recommend/share, and bless you for listening.

paulkerensa.com

Enjoy hearing from experts, those who were there and contributions from you marvellous podcast listeners. (Part 1 was more archive-heavy - but rights issues get trickier as we get more recent - oh and do go back and listen to part 1 (1922-54) and part 2 (1955-87)).

Some excerpts are from longer interviews that you'll hear on the podcast soon (eg. ex Radio 1 boss Johnny Beerling, sitcom star Jeffrey Holland). Some are from previous episodes (go back and hear Lee Mack or Chris Jarvis). Some have been specially sent in for this episode (thanks Jon Dear, Alan Stafford, Dr Andrea Smith). And some are on loan from my other podcast, A Paul Kerensa Podcast - formerly known as The Heptagon Club (eg. Tim Vine, Miranda Hart).

In the below list, asterisked names are from that latter podcast - head to podfollow.com/paulkerensa and scroll back to older episodes to hear those fuller interviews...

YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO:

FURTHER LINKS: 

• Those fuller interviews with Miranda Hart, Tim Vine, Milton Jones etc can be heard on A Paul Kerensa Podcast.
• Like what we do? Support us on Patreon.com/Paulkerensa
• Do share our episodes on social media - we're on Twitter and Facebook.
• The novel based on this podcast is due out in 2024: Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC, 1919-23: see paulkerensa.com/oldradio for latest on its publication
• We're nothing to do with the BBC - we're talking about them (and others), not with them, as such.

Do stay subscribed, because we return soon in 2023, with the finer details of the 1923 BBC, including Savoy Hill, Women's Hour and the Radio Times. Some great stories to tell, with great guests.

But first, next time: The History of Religious Broadcasting, including three wise men, plus clips so rare, I don't think the BBC have them.

Thanks for listening, sharing and/or being part of this. Couldn't do it without you.

And happy centenary, Auntie Beeb!

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Part 1 contained more archive; this contains more guests, as we creep nearer the present-day and rights issues become more prevalent. 

YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO:

FURTHER LINKS: 

• Belinda Campbell's chat on Jim'll Fix It is from Paul's other podcast, A Paul Kerensa Podcast (formerly known as The Heptagon Club). Hear it here: https://pod.fo/e/fe7e9
• Like what we do? Support us on Patreon.com/Paulkerensa
• Sharing is caring. Do share our episodes on social media, or send an email to someone, or down the pub in conversation...
• We're on facebook.com/bbcentury, with a separate group on facebook.com/groups/bbcentury, and on twitter.com/bbcentury.
• The novel based on this podcast is due out in 2024: Auntie and Uncles - details at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Next time though, to conclude our end of centenary year, join us for part 3 (1988-2022).

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

This is just part 1, 1922-54 - from the company years of Magnet House then Savoy Hill, to the corporation years up to the eve of commercial competition, the last time the BBC was the sole official broadcaster.

For the early years, enjoy the archive clips, some very rare - from the first presenters, John Reith and early performers. As time goes on, extracts give way to insights: from experts, podcast listeners and those who were there...

YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO:

FURTHER LINKS: 

• Like what we do? Share it! We're on facebook.com/bbcentury, with a separate group on facebook.com/groups/bbcentury, and (while it lasts) on twitter.com/bbcentury. Tag us in, let people know you listen.
• Love what we do? Support us at patreon.com/paulkerensa
• The novel based on this podcast is due out in 2024: Auntie and Uncles - latest on its publication at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

We look forward to continuing to unpack this century of broadcasting in our usual slower way on the podcast.

But next time, join us for part 2 (1955-87) and part 3 (1988-2022).

paulkerensa.com/oldradio

But our celebrations are a little muted due to some of the changes at Beeb towers - like the cuts to local radio, BBC News and the World Service... But our guest is keeping a watchful eye from afar.

Roger Bolton has just left the BBC, but moved from Radio 4's Feedback to his own independent podcast Beeb Watch. Hear what he thinks the BBC gets right, wrong and what we need to keep a close eye on. Listen to him on this episode, then find his podcast...

SHOWNOTES:

- Roger Bolton's Beeb Watch is available from all good podcast outlets, eg: https://shows.acast.com/rogerboltonsbeebwatch

- The 3 poems you hear are:

- 'I am radio' by Eric H. Palmer (publisher in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, 30/09/27)

- A Radio Times letter by Lilian L. Cornelius (August 1928)

- 'In the early days of '23' by Olive Bottle (who signs it as the widow of C. Bottle, Assistant Engineer-in-Charge, London Control Room, Broadcasting House)

- Like us? Considering supporting on Patreon.com/paulkerensa and gain access to videos, readings from old books and monthly behind-the-scenesy updates.

- Or share what we do on Facebook or Twitter. Search for 'bbcentury' and you'll find us on both.

- Paul's new novel will be out in 2024: paulkerensa.com/oldradio should give you updates

- Last tour dates of The First Broadcast are at paulkerensa.com/tour

Next time, 100 Years in 100 Minutes (part 1: 1922-54)

Dr Andrea Smith joins us to talk us through the first broadcast Shakespeare - but it's only part 1, as on Feb 16th 1923, it's just excerpts: scenes from Julius Caesar and Othello. Andrea will return for the first full-length play, when we reach May 1923 in our podcast timeline.

Plus as the BBC finally turns 100, we consider some BBC100 celebration programming, including the redicovered Hancock's Half Hour episode - so Steve Arnold of the Radio Circle tells us the how and the why when it comes to finding and preserving such lost episodes.

SHOWNOTES:

- More info on the Radio Circle, of which Steve Arnold is part, who rescue 'lost' programmes: http://www.radiocircle.org.uk

- Hear Dr Andrea Smith on BBC Radio 3's The Essay - The Bard and the Beeb, in late October 2022: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001d68d

- The last dates of my tour of The First Broadcast live show are at www.paulkerensa.com/tour

- My novel Auntie and Uncles will be out in 2024. More details on its availability/readiness at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

- Support us on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa to keep us afloat and in return get extra writings, videos and ample more! Thanks to all who support us there. 

- We're on www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury, where our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker is chronicling newspapers on this day 100 years ago.

- Follow us on www.twitter.com/bbcentury, where I'll keep you updated with some TV/radio spots I'm doing to talk about the Beeb's birth tales - inc. BBC's Songs of Praise, BBC Breakfast and Radio 4's The Media Show.

Next time: the centenary specials! 100 Years in 100 Minutes...

Stay subscribed, and if you haven't rated/reviewed us, go on - it helps bring new ears to this pod-project.

Happy Birthday, Auntie!

We pick up our timeline of the BBC origin story in February 1923 - and the launch of Cardiff 5WA, the first Welsh broadcast station.

Plus back in 2022: places you can go, museums, exhibitions and the like - from Bradford's National Science and Media Museum (and their Switched On exhibition) to St Bride's in London (and their A Kingdom of Cardboard exhibition). We chat to Lewis Pollard, curator of broadcasting at the first, and Bob Richardson, ex of BBC Presentation and Exhibitions departments, who's put together the latter.

They're great chats - and great exhibitions. Details on the links below.

Back in Wales, in the past, you'll hear some of the speeches delivered on launch night, from John Reith, Lord Gainford, Sir William Noble and the Lord Mayor of Cardiff. Fancy! Thanks Andrew Barker for sourcing the text, from newspapers of the day. We'll post the full text of the speeches on our Facebook group - again, link below.

SHOWNOTES:

• St Bride's, London hosts A Kingdom of Cardboard, on till the end of 2022: https://sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/a-kingdom-of-cardboard-2/
• ...see my pics of St Bride's A Kingdom of Cardboard exhibition here: https://twitter.com/BBCentury/status/1558125347614375936
• Bradford's Switched On event is at the National Science and Media Museum, on till the start of 2023: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/switched-on
• ...see my pics of Bradford's Switched On exhibition here: https://twitter.com/BBCentury/status/1571255160302702597
• The BBC Heritage Collection is hosted at the Science Museum: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/search/collection/bbc-heritage-collection
• The 100 Objects of the BBC page: https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/bbc-100/100-objects/
• Paul's tour of The First Broadcast: The Battle for the Beeb in 1922 has a few more dates left (and if not, you could book it for your place: www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Read the full speeches from the launch of Cardiff 5WA, as sourced by Andrew Barker, here on our Facebook page: https://tinyurl.com/ye3kswt9
• Find us on the social medias at www.facebook.com/bbcentury and www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury or on www.twitter.com/bbcentury  
• Paul's novel Auntie and Uncles will be out soon. More info will be on the mailing list: http://eepurl.com/M6Wbr
• ...or find Paul's existing books including Hark! The Biography of Christmas (https://amzn.to/3AZCzjf)
• Like the podcast? Want to see it continue/thrive/grow? £5/mth on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa gets you extra behind-the-scenes videos - next will be another reading from Cecil Lewis' Broadcasting from Within, the first book on broadcasting. Thanks for £supporting!
• We're nothing to do with the BBC - just talking about ye olde Auntie Beeb.

Enjoy!

Next time: The First Shakespeare on the BBC - and the BBC turns 100!

www.paulkerensa.com

Sefton Delmer sent black propaganda from near Bletchley Park into Germany, as Lord Haw-Haw did the opposite, sending radio propaganda from Germany back into Britain.

Meanwhile Hilda Matheson (remember her from two episodes ago?) was sending transmissions from the JBC - the Joint Broadcasting Committee - in Woburn Abbey, also near Bletchley Park. And somehow between here, there and everywhere, bouncing between Germany and Britain and across Europe, somehow involving MI5 and Ian Fleming, there's that man again... Peter Eckersley.

It's quite a tale, and here to bring it to you is Tim Wander (author of 2MT Writtle and From Marconi to Melba) and Edward Stourton (author of Auntie's War).

Plus with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, we bring you the first broadcast from the most broadcast person in the world (I think) - aged 14, Princess Elizabeth on The Children's Hour in 1940.

Next episodes from here? Well it's the end of our summer specials, but the start of our centenary specials! The regular episodes in our 1923 timeline will return in the New Year. But first, a few episodes commemorating and celebrating 100 years of British broadcasting - including an episode on 100 Years in 100 Minutes... and for that we need you!

Record a short voice memo (20-40 seconds) on ANY element, moment, landmark or programme from the last 100 years. Send to me - paul at paulkerensa dot com. Be on our centenary special!

SHOWNOTES:

• That full clip of Princess Elizabeth (before she was Queen) on The Children's Hour: https://youtu.be/VJI9LPFQth4
• More of Lord Haw-Haw: https://youtu.be/Oe-THrWu_4I
• Edward Stourton's book Auntie's War is available from your local independent bookshop, or online inc: https://amzn.to/3dTA6gX
• Tim Wander's books include 2MT Writtle, available from some bookshops or online inc: https://amzn.to/3eEC8BX
• My novel Auntie and Uncles will be out at an undisclosed date. To find out when or for latest info, join my mailing list for updates: http://eepurl.com/M6Wbr
• ...or find my existing books including Hark! The Biography of Christmas (https://amzn.to/3AZCzjf)
• Want to read more about WW2 radio propaganda? There's an interesting article on other rogue broadcasters here: https://www.history.com/news/6-world-war-ii-propaganda-broadcasters
• If you like the episode, share it! It all helps get this project out there. This is run by just one person - so EVERYTHING helps.
• If you like the podcast enough to want to support it, help it continue, £5/mth on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa gets you extra behind-the-scenes videos - including a few extra readings from old books on the BBC in World War 2. Thanks for £supporting - it honestly keeps us going.
• We're on www.facebook.com/bbcentury  and www.twitter.com/bbcentury
• We're nothing to do with the BBC - just talking about how twas.

Next time: Museums, Exhibitions and Events celebrating 100 years of British broadcasting... (know of one? Let us know and we'll feature it!)

This time meet Auntie's War author and BBC presenter (Today, Sunday, The World at One, and plenty more), Edward Stourton. We can only ever scratch the surface in half an hour (what, no John Snagge?) - but it's a helicopter view of the key moments, from Munich to victory marches in Italy. Discover why reporting from Dunkirk to D-Day differed so much, and which BBC reporter gained notoriety for treating a war report like a football commentary.

Hear tales (and clips) of Edward R Murrow, Guy Byam, George Orwell (no clip there alas), J.B. Priestley, Charles Gardner, Winston Churchill. 

Professor David Hendy joins us too to shine a light on a forgotten figure of D-Day: Mary Lewis, a BBC duplicator. 

(There's a supplementary episode too, next time - on the flipside of broadcasting in WW2: black propaganda, as programmes were sent from Germany to Britain by Lord Haw-Haw and co, or from Britain to Germany by Sefton Delmer and co... and somehow involved in both, was our favourite radio pioneer, Peter Eckersley - next time!)

SHOWNOTES:

• Edward Stourton's book Auntie's War is available from your local independent bookshop, or online inc: https://amzn.to/3dTA6gX
• David Hendy's book The BBC: A People's History is available from your local independent bookshop, or online inc: https://amzn.to/3TnsX8Z
• Our previous summer specials included authors Sarah-Jane Stratford (https://amzn.to/3CHhFqk) and Stephen Bourne (https://amzn.to/3ARHoKf)
• Join my mailing list for updates on my forthcoming novel Aunties and Uncles: http://eepurl.com/M6Wbr
• ...or find my existing books including Hark! The Biography of Christmas (https://amzn.to/3AZCzjf)
• Be on our centenary special! '100 Years in 100 Minutes'. Pick a moment (the start of television? The final Top of the Pops?), a programme (Python? Grandstand?), or a year of broadcasting history, record yourself talking about it for 20-60sec, and send it to me: paul at paulkerensa dot com (spelt out to dodge the spambots!). I'd love to get lots of different voices on that episode, and who better than the voices of listeners! Go on. Send something in. 
• If you like the episode, share it! It all helps get this project out there.
• If you like the podcast enough to want to support it, help it continue, £5/mth on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa gets you extra behind-the-scenes videos, written updates, filmed walking tours of broadcasting heritage sites, readings from the first ever book on broadcasting... and anything else you'd like. You request, I'll see what I can do! Thanks for £supporting - it keeps me in books and web hosting.
• We're on www.facebook.com/bbcentury  and www.twitter.com/bbcentury
• We're nothing to do with the BBC - just talking about how they used to be.

Next time: More WW2 broadcasting tales from Auntie's War author Edward Stourton, plus author of 2MT Writtle Tim Wander, on black propaganda. It's quite a tale... Stay subscribed to hear it!

We’ll let's change that after this episode: summer special no.2 from The British Broadcasting Century...

EARLY BLACK BRITISH BROADCASTERS - WITH STEPHEN BOURNE

Author and social historian Stephen Bourne specialises in black heritage, and joins us to inform, educate and entertain us about people of colour on air between the wars.

I first encountered Stephen’s work when I spotted Evelyn Dove’s scrapbook in the BBC100 ‘Objects of the BBC’ season. Stephen owns her archive, and was keen to chat about some of the early black stars of British broadcasting.

You'll hear about:

Layton and Johnstone, Lawrence Brown, Paul Robeson, Marion Anderson, Evelyn Dove, The Kentucky Minstrels, Scott and Whaley (aka Pussyfoot and Cuthbert), Elisabeth Welch, Una Marson, Ken Snakehips Johnson, Adelaide Hall... and more.

Separately, you’ll also hear a song from singer Kathie Touin – a new exclusive version of one of the earliest songs about wireless: ‘There’s a Wireless Station Down in My Heart’. Thanks Graham Brown and Kathie Touin for arranging, performing and sending! Details of her album below...

SHOWNOTES:

• Stephen Bourne’s books are available at stephenbourne.co.uk/books/ and include ‘Deep are the Roots: Trailblazers who Changed Black British Theatre’, ‘Evelyn Dove: Britain’s Black Cabaret Queen’, ‘Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television’ and ‘Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45’. Do grab a book and read more on this – plenty more stories to discover.
• Kathie Touin’s website has more on her albums and singles: www.kathietouin.com. Kathie's lockdown single was ‘This Time (Save the World?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kToCUypZWic Thanks Kathie!
• See/hear a clip of Una Marson from West Indies Calling – well worth a watch: https://youtu.be/ViGwxJloI70
• I told a tale of broadcasting history on the proper BBC this week: a Pause for Thought for Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 Breakfast Show on 100 years since the first religious broadcast. Have a listen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cr3ghj
• If you like the episode, share it! It all helps get this project out there.
• If you like the podcast enough to want to support it, help it continue, £5/mth on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa gets you extra behind-the-scenes videos, written updates, filmed walking tours of broadcasting heritage sites, readings from the first ever book on broadcasting... and anything else you'd like. You request, I'll see what I can do! Thanks for £supporting - it keeps me in books and web hosting.
• We're on www.facebook.com/bbcentury  and www.twitter.com/bbcentury
• We're nothing to do with the BBC - just talking about how they used to be.

One more author special next time: The BBC in WW2: Auntie’s War with Edward Stourton. Then the timeline continues - Feb 1923 at the early Beeb...

The first of three episodes outside of our era, our regular timeline we're telling of the early BBC. Instead we leap from 1923 to 1926 and then some, to meet:

HILDA MATHESON AND THE RADIO GIRLS OF SAVOY HILL

...Your guide is Sarah-Jane Stratford - novelist behind Radio Girls. It's a wonderfully evocative book, and a great summer read. Get your copy now!

We talk about Hilda Matheson's legacy, from first Director of Talks, to her relationship with Vita Sackville-West, to Hilda's positive influence on the BBC in dark times during the build-up to World War Two.

If you like the episode, share it! It all helps get this project out there.

I mention a walking video I did for the Patreon connoisseurs - matrons and patrons can see it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/68777192 - and do consider joining up, as your few quid will help keep the podcast going. 

We're on www.facebook.com/bbcentury  and www.twitter.com/bbcentury

We're nothing to do with the BBC - just talking about how they used to be.

Next time: The earliest black British broadcasters, with Stephen Bourne.

In this bumper episode, we hear from Eckersley expert Tim Wander, and PPE himself, as well as Noel Ashbridge and Rolls Wynn. Plus our special guest: Professor David Hendy, author of The BBC: A People's History, on the pioneer years.

This is the last of our regular timeline type shows for the summer - but next time, author interviews, with Sarah-Jane Stratford, then Stephen Bourne and Edward Stourton. Stay subscribed, and please rate/review us if you can. It all helps spread word.

• David Hendy's book The BBC: A People's History is here and in all good bookshops: https://amzn.to/3ap1l1y
• Patreon supporters can see the full 55min video interview with David Hendy here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/65412562
• We mention the documentary in 2BP, Ireland's first radio station. Nothing to do with us, but it's here and it fills in a few gaps: https://www.mixcloud.com/TheIrishPirateRadioExhibition/the-history-of-2bp-irelands-first-radio-station-in-1923/?fbclid=IwAR0dVFIPWwlCcQhyQ4OOYd2UvSwGkKqoqORmvsiN2QA8LI3fscW79Mvlwc8
• We mention Peter Eckersley's book The Power Behind the Microphone. You can read it online as a PDF here: https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/The-Power-Behind-The-Microphone-Eckersley-1941.pdf
• Join us on social media: www.twitter.com/bbcentury, www.facebook.com/bbcentury
• Thanks to Will Farmer for the original music.
• We're nothing to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely a solo-run operation.
• Archive clips are either public domain due to age, or some rights may belong to owners we know not whom. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Subscribe, share, rate, review us - it all helps!

Next time: Summer specials!

linktr.ee/paulkerensa

In January 1923, the BBC had sole right to broadcast in Britain, and yet a couple of experimental radio stations existed in Glasgow. 5MG had been on the air since October, operated by shop-owners Frank Milligan and George Garscadden, just to sell some wireless sets. And Daimler wanted to sell something too - in-car radios. So they set up a temporary station, 2BP, at the Glasgow Motor Show.

Pull over and hear all about it. Plus from Scotland to Somerset: hear Neil Wilson's tour of his wonderful Radio Museum in Watchet.

• See the full 20mins Radio Museum tour here: https://youtu.be/ZjDXKQ63RaI
• Visit the Radio Museum in Watchet - details here: https://www.radiomuseum.uk
• Come and see my show The First Broadcast, in Watchet, in conjunction with the Radio Museum - or in Ludlow, Bedford, Tunbridge Walls, Guildford, Salford, Chelmsford, London, Isle of Wight... paulkerensa.com/tour
• Thanks Tony Currie for the expert knowledge and loan of his documentary on Scotland's Radio. Tony's books include The Radio Times Story - and his radio station is Radio Six: https://www.radiosix.com
• Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/bbcentury
• Or Facebook: Facebook.com/bbcentury
• Help us on Patreon - thanks if you do! patreon.com/paulkerensa 
• Thanks to Will Farmer for the original music.
• We're nothing to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely a solo-run operation.
• Archive clips are either public domain due to age, or some rights may belong to owners we know not whom. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Subscribe, share, rate, review us - it all helps!

Next time: Peter Eckersley joins the BBC as its first Chief Engineer... and Professor David Hendy joins us for a chat.

paulkerensa.com

Its chief voice, director of programmes, Lord of Misrule Peter Pendleton Eckersley toasts its listeners with a glass of water, upgraded to champagne via the use of a pop gun - innovating to the last with one of radio's first ever sound effects. Then Eckersley, the first BBC-basher, switched sides and promptly joined the BBC, as its first Chief Engineer.

On episode 47, we've reached the moment where the BBC's peculiar airwaves rival finally shuffles off the ether, having somehow given birth to Auntie Beeb, but outserved its purpose. We tell the full story of how, why, whereupon and whomsoever led to the 2MT closedown, plus we review nearly a year of Writtle broadcasts, including the first radio quiz, first radio play and first radio mockery of a different radio station's chimes.

You'll hear the voices of (and we're indebted to) original radio pioneers Peter Eckersley, Noel Ashbridge and Rolls Wynn, and present-day experts and fans Tim Wander, Jim Salmon, CRH News, and granddaughters of PPE, Caroline and Alison Eckersley - they chatted to CRH News, who've kindly loaned us their audio.

FURTHER READING/LISTENING/VIEWING:

• Tim Wander's new book is 2MT Writtle 1922-2022: The Centenary of British Radio Broadcasting, and is available at https://2mtwrittle100.co.uk
• Tim's other books are at https://marconibooks.co.uk
• Thanks to CRH News for the loan of their audio of their video interview with Caroline and Alison Eckersley. Watch the full video at https://youtu.be/AMFKrsRVd5c - and see the rest of the CRH News Youtube channel for more videos, inc of Tim Wander's book launch.
• The video of the walk I did with Jim Salmon, from Writtle hut to Writtle pub, is a free post for all on https://www.patreon.com/posts/66447373
• The video of the Radio Museum tour (in Watchet, Somerset) is also a free post for all on https://www.patreon.com/posts/65666411
• ...Most videos I keep for Patreon supporters only - so, become one? It all supports the podcast, which otherwise, I'm doing for £nowt. Chip in at patreon.com/paulkerensa - starting at £5/mth. It helps keep the podcast going, AND you get behind-the-scenes vids etc in return.
• The tour? The First Broadcast: The Battle for the Beeb in 1922 heads to Kettering, Worthing, Ludlow, Watchet (pop into the Radio Museum while there?), Tunbridge Wells, St Albans, Salford, Guildford, Isle of Wight, Cheltenham (pop to Writtle while there?) - details of all paulkerensa.com/tour - say 'Hullo, hullo" if you come!
• Thanks to Andrew Barker our Newspaper Detective, Will Farmer our composer of original music, the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham, and the team effort of above names who've made this episode possible.
• Archive clips are either public domain due to age, or some rights may belong to owners we know not whom. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

• We're nothing to do with the present-day BBC whatsoever - just a solo operation.

• Find us on Twitter, follow our Facebook page, and join our Facebook group. Please share what we do online - it all helps find us new listeners and grow this lil' project into something bigger.
• Linktree.com/paulkerensa has Paul's mailing list and details of his books, including Hark! The Biography of Christmas, on the history of Christmas. Coming soon: Auntie and Uncles, the novel on this here broadcasting origin story...

NEXT TIME: The only other legal rival to the BBC on the air in 1923: The Daimler in-car radio broadcasts...

Thanks for listening!

paulkerensa.com

But he's just the latest of 3 generations of broadcaster in his family. Justin's grandfather Leonard Crocombe was not only the first Radio Times editor, but also briefly a broadcaster in 1923 - something which even Justin didn't know. Hear Leonard Crocombe tell a tale or two...

Plus we continue to tell our own tale, of the broadcasting in January 1923 - from reactions to the first OBs to the Veterans of Variety, via Burns Night, Dame Nellie Melba reading to the children on Australia Day, and the BBC finally getting its licence.

NOTES:

• Justin's book is available in all places that sell books, eg here.
• Hear more of Leonard Crocombe on this marvellous gramophone record, courtesy of AusRadioHistorian on Youtube: https://youtu.be/6N1-hGjP_2M
• In the podcast I talk about my visit to The Radio Museum in Watchet, Somerset. Here's a video tour given to me by owner Neil Wilson. Watchet! I mean, watch it. Then visit it. In Watchet.
• I also mention George Robey and Alma Adair's comedy broadcast (thanks Alan Stafford!) - a pic of that moment is here.
• Thanks too to Andrew Barker, our Newspaper Detective, for details of the newspaper articles.
• The Pause for Thought slot I mention is now on the BBC Sounds app here and there's more on the history of Pause for Thought on Andy Walmsley's great blog: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2020/04/pause-for-thought.html
• My tour of The First Broadcast: The Battle for the Beeb in 1922 continues! See paulkerensa.com/tour for details
• Find us on Facebook and Twitter - @bbcentury
• Thanks to Will Farmer for the original music
• My mailing list is at linktree.com/paulkerensa 
• Support the show at patreon.com/paulkerensa - inc behind-the-scenes video tours etc! All tiers get all videos from now on (but not historic videos - they're for £10/mth-ers - but going forward, everyone gets everything new I post - levelling the playing field! Do join.)
• We're nothing to do with the BBC, y'hear! 

Thanks for listening.

Next time: The end of 2MT, and Peter Eckersley joins the BBC...

paulkerensa.com 

First BBC Director of Programmes Arthur Burrows visits 5IT Birmingham and 2ZY Manchester to see the 2nd and 3rd BBC stations in action - so here's a podcast snapshot of what broadcasting was like in their makeshift studios in British broadcasting's earliest days.

Our guest is Jude Montague, whose grandfather Sydney Wright was an early on-air musician in the 2ZY Wireless Trio. And you'll hear the voices of those who were there: Kenneth Wright, Victor Smythe, Percy Edgar, A.E. Thompson...

Hear of singers toppling off platforms made of books, as they step back for the big final note. Hear of Manchester beating London to be first station to broadcast Big Ben. And hear of the Grenadier Guards Band, cramming 22 performers into a studio space fit for 3.

• Jude Montague's website - which will include details of her graphic novel about her grandfather Sydney Wright - is at www.judecowanmontague.com
• We mention Tim Wander's talk in Writtle on May 17th and the curry dinner he's hosting on May 23rd: https://cses.org.uk/events?task=civicrm/event/info&reset=1&id=368
• My play 'The First Broadcast: The Battle for the Beeb in 1922' is on tour all this year, to London, Salford, Devon, Chelmsford and beyond - and bookable for your place. www.paulkerensa.com/tour for dates and tickets.
• Email me at https://paulkerensa.com/contact.php for more info on booking the live show, or for anything for the podcast.
• For details of Paul's new novel Auntie and Uncles, on the BBC origin story, join the mailing list here: eepurl.com/M6Wbr 
• Support the show at www.patreon.com/paulkerensa - and as mentioned in the episode, Patreon superheroes can see my video interview with R4 Today's Justin Webb here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63833186 ...The audio will be on the next episode.
• You can also support the show at www.ko-fi.com/paulkerensa (effectively buying me a coffee) - thanks!
• We're on social media at www.Twitter.com/bbcentury and www.facebook.com/bbcentury and www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury - do share what we do, it all helps. 
• We are nothing to do with the BBC. Just talking about them.
• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• More on Paul's books, mailing list etc at www.linktr.ee/paulkerensa

Next time: another grandchild of an early radio wonder: Justin Webb on his grandfather Leonard Crocombe, first editor of the Radio Times.

Thanks for listening!

Gordon Bathgate is a radio history fan and author of Radio Broadcasting: A History of the Airwaves - he guides us through Idzerda's doomed story, in an episode that's less of me, more of him... plus the return of your FMs and AMs - Firsthand Memories of broadcasting in action and an Airwave Memory from Paula Goddard.

• Gordon's book is at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Radio-Broadcasting-Paperback/p/17990 or in all good book places.
• My play The First Broadcast is on tour all this year (and bookable for your place): www.paulkerensa.com/tour for dates, places and tickets.
• Our 'Firsthand Memory' came from Paula Goddard, whose wine-/tea-tasting blog is at www.paulagoddard.com
• Email me at https://paulkerensa.com/contact.php for more info on booking the live show, or to send me a Firsthand Memory (via text in an email) or an Airwave Memory (record as a voice memo), or with any questions, comments or feedback.
• Support the show at www.patreon.com/paulkerensa - and as mentioned in the episode, you can see my video interview with R4 Today's Justin Webb here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63833186 ...The audio will be part of a future episode, on Justin's career and his grandfather Leonard Crocombe, first editor of the Radio Times.
• You can also support the show at www.ko-fi.com/paulkerensa (effectively buying me a coffee) - or by simply sharing these episodes on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, fax, carrier pigeon, down the pub, on the phone, tell your friends, snare us future listeners, help build our little community...
• ...which includes www.Twitter.com/bbcentury and www.facebook.com/bbcentury and www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury...
• ...because we are a one-man band, and NOTHING to do with the BBC. They do not endorse nor sponsor nor have anything to do with this podcast. Y'hear?
• (...That said, I do work for the BBC now and then - including co-writing the new series of Not Going Out which you can see on TV soon (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015qdg), and guest-hosting Sunday Breakfast on BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey, which you can hear soon too, eg. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0brm15x) 
• Original music is by Will Farmer. Thanks Will!
• More on Paul's books, mailing list etc at www.linktr.ee/paulkerensa

Next time: the Birmingham and Manchester stations, inc. an interview with Jude Montague, granddaughter of one of their first broadcasters Sydney Wright.

Thanks for listening!

Hear all about it here on episode 43, with the voices of Peter Eckersley, Harold Bishop, Arthur Burrows, A.E. Thompson and Percy Edgar. Plus Dr Kate Murphy tells us about the first radio 'aunt', Aunt Sophie/Cecil Dixon. And what John Reith did for the first time on January 6th. You won't believe it...

This episode is drawn from over a dozen books and the like, including research at the marvellous BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham. What a place! What a team.

Cecil Lewis' book Broadcasting from Within is quoted from extensively, and I'm reading it IN ITS ENTIRETY for our matrons and patrons on Patreon.com/paulkerensa at the 'superhero' level. If you sign up, even for one month and cancel, you're helping keep this podcast afloat, so thank you.

BUT I'm making part 5 of my reading of it available to EVERYONE. This is the except that's all about this first outside broadcast, so if you'd like to hear me read it and talk about it, it's all here for you, whether you're a Patreon subscriber or not: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63268433 - Enjoy!

My play The First Broadcast is touring the land - details at https://www.paulkerensa.com/tour - or get in touch to book it in for your venue. 

Find us on social media at www.twitter.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury

And do subscribe, share, rate and review us. It all helps spread this little project, which is NOTHING to do with the BBC - it's just a one-man band.

OTHER THINGS:

• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Many of our archive clips are old enough to be public domain. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• This podcast is 100% unofficial and NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa.
• Be on the show! Email me a written ‘Firsthand Memory’ (FM) about a time you’ve seen radio or TV in action. Or record a voice memo of your ‘Airwave Memories’ (AM), 1-2mins of your earliest memories of radio/TV. Get in touch!

Next time: The Birmingham and Holland stations. Yes, Holland...

Happy listening!

In this episode, new mics, old callsigns, ambitious plans, the lack of an on-air interval: it all adds up to the start of professional broadcasting, as the two-month-old BBC moves away from its radio ham roots... 

...Not that there's anything wrong with being a radio ham! As will be revealed by our guest Jim Salmon, aka 2E0RMI. He's got plans for a celebration of the centenary of 2MT Writtle, on February 14th 2022. Full details of 2MT's 100th birthday online do at https://www.emmatoc.org/2mtcelebration. You can watch Jim's livestream (on the day only) at https://www.mixcloud.com/live/RadioEmmaToc/ - bring your own G&T and fish and chip supper to your screens!

Or if you can get to Writtle in Essex itself, they've got celebrations on Feb 11th, Feb 14th and May 17th-22nd - https://writtle-pc.gov.uk/latest-news/writtle-celebrates-marconi-in-2022/ - maybe see you there on that weekend in May!

All year, my play The First Broadcast is touring the land - details at https://www.paulkerensa.com/tour - or get in touch to book it in for your venue. It travels light! It's only me, playing Arthur Burrows and Peter Eckersley.

Support the show at www.patreon.com/paulkerensa - thanks if you do!

Find us on social media at www.twitter.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury

And do subscribe, share, rate and review us. It all helps spread this little project, which is NOTHING to do with the BBC - it's just a one-man band.

Next time: The first outside broadcast! A night at the opera...

Happy listening!

On January 2nd 1923, John Reith interviewed Miss Frances Isobel Shields for a job at the BBC, to be his secretary. At the time the BBC had four or five male staff members. Miss Shields started work on January 8th, instantly making the BBC a 20% female organisation. It's been greater than that ever since.

This episode's fab guest is Dr Kate Murphy: academic, former producer of BBC's Woman's Hour and author of Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC. Her book is brilliant and highly recommended for a deep dive into the subject.

Hear Isobel Shields' tale, plus the women who broadcast before her: Britain's first DJ Gertrude Donisthorpe, 2LO's first children's presenter Vivienne Chatterton, and one of our first broadcast comedians Helena Millais. (You can hear their fuller tales if you go back to the earlier episodes on this podcast.)

And hear about some of the women who joined the BBC soon after Miss Shields, like telephonist Olive May and women's staff supervisor Caroline Banks. Plus hear about some of John Reith's unusual management practices, from taking his secretaries to the cinema to his brutal firing criteria.

But we dwell on his hiring not firing, as well tell the origin story of British broadcasting. 

And Dr Murphy will return on future episodes! With tales of the first Women's Hour (not Woman's Hour) in May 1923, and the early female managers, like Mary Somerville and Hilda Matheson. To catch those episodes, you'll have to stay subscribed to this podcast. 

While you're there, would you give us a review where you found this podcast? It all helps bring new listeners on board. And that helps grow the project.

If you'd consider sharing what we do too, please do tell anyone who might like this - either on social media or in a real-world conversation! Just drop us in. You never know, next time you meet, you could be discussing the inner workings of Marconi House.

If you REALLY like what we do, please consider supporting us on patreon.com/paulkerensa or ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. It all helps equip us with books and web hosting and trips to the amazing BBC Written Archives Centre.

In this podcast I mention my latest Patreon video, going behind-the-scenes of my broadcasting history trawl, inc. a glimpse at my new (old) crystal set radio, 'on this day' on the 1923 BBC (with a nice surprise), and a reading about Reith. This video's available to all Patreon folks whatever their 'level' - www.patreon.com/posts/60853999 - so if you like, join, watch, then cancel. Or stick around for more videos and writings each month.

You can follow us on Twitter or our Facebook page or join our Facebook group, and say hi, or share anything of broadcasting history.

Paul's one-man play The First Broadcast tours the UK in 2022. There's now an official trailer you can watch here. The first date's in Surbiton on Feb 2nd, then Leicester Comedy Festival on Feb 3rd, Banbury on March 3rd, Barnes on March 25th, London's Museum of Comedy on April 21st AND Nov 14th, plus Bristol, Bath, Blandford Forum, Kettering, Guildford... and your place? Got a venue? Get in touch.

We also mention the BBC 100 website - inc. the 100 Objects, Faces and Voices. Who's missing? Let us know!

OTHER THINGS:

• Original music is by Will Farmer.
• Many of our archive clips are old enough to be public domain. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• This podcast is 100% unofficial and NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa.
• Be on the show! Email me a written ‘Firsthand Memory’ (FM) about a time you’ve seen radio or TV in action. Or record a voice memo of your ‘Airwave Memories’ (AM), 1-2mins of your earliest memories of radio/TV. Get in touch!

Season 3 begins with this, episode 40 overall, on New Year's Day 1923. John Reith, Arthur Burrows, Cecil Lewis and Major Anderson begin work in the one-room BBC, like an Amish schoolhouse. Each day, the number of staff and visitors grow - and helpfully Reith, Burrows and Lewis all wrote vividly about the manic days of Magnet House - home to the BBC for the first four months of 1923.

We're grateful to the books:

• Broadcasting from Within by C.A. Lewis
• The Story of Broadcasting by A.R. Burrows
• The Reith Diaries, edited by Charles Stuart
• Broadcasting over Britain by J.C.W. Reith
• Into the Wind by J.C.W. Reith

Plus you'll hear from the 5th (or 6th) BBC employee, Rex Palmer in a rare clip of 1920s broadcasting.

More up to date, 'Diddy' David Hamilton is our guest - the man with the greatest listening figures in the history of British radio.

David's books, The Golden Days of Radio 1, and Commercial Radio Daze, are available at ashwaterpress.co.uk. 

Part 1 of our interview with David was on episode 30, and part 3 will be on a future episode.

Want to watch, in-vision, the full interview? Join our band of matrons and patrons on Patreon - the full video is here. And THANK YOU to all who support us there, and keep us afloat as a one-man-band of a podcast.

You'll also find on Patreon, my readings-with-interruptions of Cecil Lewis' book Broadcasting from Within - the first book on broadcasting. Part 1 and Part 2 will be followed, of course, by Part 3 - and if you want it sooner, dear Patreon subscriber, just ask and I'll read/record/upload pronto.

We also mention in this episode:

• Paul Kerensa's interview with BBC Radio Norfolk's Paul Hayes on Treasure Quest: Extra Time, about the making of this podcast. Available for a limited time on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0b8qc1d
• The first regular listings of London 2LO in The Pall Mall Gazette. See the full listing on our Twitter profile or in our Facebook group - and thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker for sending them our way.
• Paul's one-man play The First Broadcast, touring the UK in 2022. The first date's in Surbiton on Feb 2nd, then Leicester Comedy Festival on Feb 3rd, Banbury on March 3rd, Barnes on March 25th, London's Museum of Comedy on April 21st AND Nov 14th, plus Bristol, Blandford Forum, Kettering, Guildford... and your place? Got a venue? Get in touch.

OTHER THINGS:

• Be on the show! Email me a written ‘Firsthand Memory’ (FM) about a time you’ve seen radio or TV in action. Or record a voice memo of your ‘Airwave Memories’ (AM), 1-2mins of your earliest memories of radio/TV. Get in touch!
• Please do rate/review us where you get your podcasts - it helps others find us. We are a one-man operation! We need your help.
• Archive clips are old enough to be public domain in this episode.
• This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa.

Original music is by Will Farmer.

Our guest Ben Baker is a podcaster and author of festive books including the new Ben Baker's Christmas Box: 40 Years of the Best, Worst and Weirdest Christmas TV Ever (available on Amazon or Linktree). Like the Ghost of Broadcasting Past, he guides us through the Queen's Speech, Top of the Pops, Noel Edmonds, Christmas films, bizarre hospital visits, and ample more.

Your host Paul Kerensa is a Christmas cultural fanatic - and quotes amply from his book Hark! The Biography of Christmas, especially the bits on royal Christmas speeches and Morecambe and Wise viewing figures. Paul's book is available in paperback, ebook or audiobook. Or get a signed copy direct from Paul (£10 inc p&p).

Buy both books! Ideal Christmas present - any time of the year...

Plus do you hear what I hear? Two monarchs with their landmark Christmas messages - the first on radio and the first on TV. And back by popular demand, some genuine 1923 ads from Popular Wireless magazine brought to vocal life, by broadcaster Paul Hayes and my kids.

Paul Hayes also has a blog we mention - he's watching every version of A Christmas Carol that he can find, and reports the results on watchingthecarol.blogspot.com. That's a lot of humbug.

Speaking blogs, host Paul Kerensa has a 'Yule blog', on festive history, going back far beyond the birth of broadcasting.

This is our last special before we embark on season 3, and 1923. So next episode, it's full steam ahead into Magnet House as the six-week-old BBC gets a staff and one office. Aw. Join us!

OTHER WAYS TO BE PART OF THIS BROADCASTING HISTORY MEGA-PROJECT:

• Be on the show! Email me a written ‘Firsthand Memory’ (FM) about a time you’ve seen radio or TV up close, a recording, a live broadcast, a studio, an OB. What surprised you about it? Or record a voice memo of your ‘Airwave Memories’ (AM), 1-2mins of your earliest memories hearing/seeing radio/TV. Get in touch!
• Paul's new one-man play The First Broadcast is now booking for dates in 2022. Got a venue? Book me for your place. Here's one - The Museum of Comedy. Join me there on November 14th 2022, the exact date of the BBC's 100th birthday!
• Please do rate/review us where you get your podcasts - it helps others find us. We are a one-man operation! We need your help.
• Some of you actually like the podcast enough to financially support it! Just a few quid a month all adds up and keeps us on books, research and web-hosting. I'll soon be visiting the BBC Written Archives Centre at Caversham - but it all costs! Fancy chipping in? Patreon.com/paulkerensa means I give you extra video, audio, advance writings etc in return for a few pounds...
• ...or Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa tips me the price of a coffee as a one-off. Thanks! It all helps make more podcasts.
• Join our Facebook group!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Join Paul's mailing list! inc info on his writing, writing courses (one starts in January), stand-up, radio etc.

Archive clips are old enough to be public domain in this episode.

This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa.

Original music is by Will Farmer.

A special for episode 38, as we bring to life an interview with Guglielmo Marconi on what he made of broadcasting, two months into the BBC's existence.

Our source is Popular Wireless magazine, January 27th 1923 issue. Read along if you like (plus bits from December 1922) - thank you to WorldRadioHistory.com for housing this long lost magazine.

Needless to say, we don't claim any rights to the wonderful old magazine, and while we THINK it's either public domain or its rights owners are untraceable, we humbly defer to whoever DOES own the rights - and are ever grateful to the original journalists, editors, owners... and of course to Marconi himself.

Given that Popular Wireless magazine was full of ads for radios and parts - and given the BBC then and now is ad-free - we thought it might be fun to bring some of those ads to life too, thanks to listeners who've sent in recordings. Applause for Gordon Bathgate, Alan Stafford, Andrew Barker, Paul Hayes, Lovejit Dhaliwal, Neil Jackson, Philip Rowe, Richard Kenny, Wayne Clarke, and my kids.

There's a grateful thanks to Radio Times for making us their Podcast of the Week - and a little more about the pictures they featured of radio's female pioneers (see below for links to episodes about them).

We wrap up with a summary of what the BBC has planned for its BBC100 season, now that its centenary programming has been announced - everything from Dimbleby to Horrible Histories.

OTHER THINGS WE MENTION:

• CRH News - Andy Stephens has some lovely Marconi history videos and features on his Youtube channel.
• Marconibooks.co.uk is where you'll find Tim Wander's fab books, including the recent From Marconi to Melba.
• I point you to a few of our previous episodes: on the first BBC Christmas, on Britain's first DJ Gertrude Donisthorpe, on radio's first professional singer Winifred Sayer, and on first radio comedian Helena Millais.
• See our feature in the Radio Times here on our Facebook page - Podcast of the Week!
• Buy my festive history book Hark! The Biography of Christmas from an indie bookshop like St Andrews (£6.99), from Amazon (inc audiobook), or a signed copy direct from me (£10 inc p&p).

You can email me to add to the show. eg. Your ‘Firsthand Memories’ - in text form, a time you’ve seen radio or TV being broadcast before your eyes: a studio, an outside broadcast - what were your behind-the-scenes insights? Or record your ‘Airwave Memories’ (AM) - a voice memo of 1-2mins of your earliest memories hearing/seeing radio/TV. Be on the podcast!

My new one-man play The First Broadcast is now booking for dates in 2022. Got a venue? Book me for your place. Here's one - The Museum of Comedy. Join me, in April or in November on the very date of the BBC's 100th birthday!

Thanks for joining us on Patreon if you do - or if you might! It supports the show and keeps us in books, which I then devour to add the podcast melting pot. In return, I give you video, audio, advance writings etc.

Buy me a coffee ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks! It all helps make more podcasts.

Join our Facebook group... Follow us on Twitter... Rate and review this podcast where you found it... It all helps others find us. 

My mailing list is here - sign up for updates on all I do, writing, teaching writing, stand-up, radio etc.

Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Oh yes they are.

This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa.

Original music is by Will Farmer.

• First broadcast singer Winifred Sayer
• First BBC pianist Maurice Cole (the most wonderful accent, “off" = "orff")
• First BBC singer Leonard Hawke (although WE know from episode 28 that the Birmingham and Manchester stations broadcast music the day before - but the BBC didn't know that)

• Professor Gabriele Balbi of USI Switzerland
• Marconi historian Tim Wander (buy his book From Marconi to Melba)
• Radio historian Gordon Bathgate (buy his book Radio Broadcasting: A History of the Airwaves)

SHOWNOTES:

• This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa
• You can email me to add something to the show. eg. Send your ‘Firsthand Memories’ - in text form, a time you’ve seen radio or TV being broadcast before your eyes: a studio, an outside broadcast - what were your behind-the-scenes insights? Or record your ‘Airwave Memories’ (AM) - a voice memo of 1-2mins of your earliest memories hearing/seeing radio/TV. Be on the podcast!
• My new one-man play The First Broadcast is now booking for dates in 2022. Got a venue? Book me for your place. Here's one - The Museum of Comedy. Join me, in April or in November on the very date of the BBC's 100th birthday!
• Thanks for joining us on Patreon if you do - or if you might! It supports the show, keeps it running, keeps me in books, which I then devour and add it all to the mixing-pot of research for this podcast. In return, I give you video, audio, advance writings, an occasional reading from C.A. Lewis' 1924 book Broadcasting From Within etc.
• Thanks if you've ever bought me a coffee at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Again, it all helps keep us afloat.
• Like our British Broadcasting Facebook page, or better still, join our British Broadcasting Century Facebook group where you can share your favourite old broadcasting things.
• Follow us on Twitter  if you’re on the ol’ Twits.
• I have another podcast of interviews, A Paul Kerensa Podcast, inc Miranda Hart, Tim Vine, Rev Richard Coles and many more. Give us a listen!
• Please rate and review this podcast where you found it... and keep liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online. It all helps others find us. 
• My mailing list is here - sign up for updates on all I do, writing, teaching writing, stand-up, radio etc.
• My books are available here or orderable from bookshops, inc Hark! The Biography of Christmas. Coming in 2022: a novel on all this radio malarkey.
• Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Oh yes they are.

• Marconi himself appeared on the BBC in 1936, playing himself in a reconstruction of when he first sent Morse code across the Atlantic in 1901...

• Those are Marconi’s last recorded words before he died, there with his assistants Pagett and Kemp, though Kemp was played by an actor. They’re recreating the moment when they sent Morse Code from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland, 2000+ miles away. Prior to that 255 miles was the wireless record.

• Marconi was always outdoing himself. As a teenager he’d sent radiowaves across his bedroom – a transmitter and receiver ringing a bell. Then outside, asking his assistant across a field to fire a gunshot if the wireless signal reached him. Then over water. Then... in 1896 the 21yr old Marconi came to England. The Italian army weren’t interested in his new invention, so he thought he’d try the influential engineers of London. I think it’s that decision that set London and the BBC as the beating heart of broadcasting a couple of decades later.

• There was a magical moment where Marconi strode into Toynbee Hall in East London, with two boxes. They communicated, wirelessly, and he simply said: “My name is Gooly-elmo Marconi, and I have just invented wireless.” That’s a drop mic moment. If they had a mic to drop.

• Others played with this technology. In December 1906, Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden managed to make a very faint speech broadcast for ships near Brant Rock Massachusetts – making the first entertainment show for radio. He played a record, Handel’s Largo, played O Holy Night on violin, and read from Luke’s gospel, chapter 2. Well it was Christmas Eve.

• This was actually my way in to this whole radio story. I wrote a book on the history of Christmas, called Hark! The b of C. So I researched Fesseden’s Christmas entertainment first... and also the first BBC Christmas of 1922. When I read that the Beeb had 35,000 listeners at that point, but 4 employees, I had to know who these 4 employees were! I started digging. When I discovered that 2 of those people had an on-air feud, one of them was John Reith, an arguably immoral moralist, and the 4th was soon sacked by him... I thought, there’s a book in this. So as I research and write that, I’m podcasting as I go on the BBCentury. I love that this medium of podcasting owes so much to those early pioneers... and I’m no engineer. For me, it’s all about the characters. We’ll get to the BBC pioneers soon enough, but Marconi, he was one of those characters.

• Through the 1910s, business was booming for Marconi, but he still saw radio as a two-way thing – we ‘radio’ for help. Marconi took the credit for radio’s use in catching criminals – Dr Crippen, who’d escaped on a ship across the ocean. And saving lives, onboard Titanic. Soon every major vessel carried radios and a Marconi operator – for a fee of course. He made his money in sending messages, the world over, between two people. The broadcast aspect was an accident – a pitfall of radio being too ‘leaky’. So the first listeners were actually called ‘listeners-in’ – the messages weren’t intended for them.

• So it was at a more amateur level – the radio hams – who’d be experimenting with ‘broadcasting’. Britain’s first DJ, technically, was a woman called Gertrude Donisthorpe in WWI. Her husband Horace was the eager experimenter, an army wireless trainer by day, and at night the couple would cycle to a field near Worcester, he’d set up one side, her on the other, and she’d play records and recite rhymes just for her audience of 1 – her husband, to see if it worked. She’d cycle across the field to see if it had, often finding he’d cycled off to tell her via a different route. As they progressed, they started transmitting limited wireless concerts for some local troops. And they were popular. Radio amateurs enjoyed what they heard, when they could hear it. There was demand for wireless entertainment... just not much supply.

• But the engineers like those at the Marconi Company, were continually strengthening and improving the technology. Marconi’s right-hand man Captain Round for example...

• No fan of red tape... this Churchill lookalike, round face, cigars and no-nonsense... joined 1902, genius... designed radios... especially for aircraft... Jutland direction-finding... But Captain Round is a name to watch.

• After the war, 1919, just months from the birth of broadcasting, The Marconi Company still had no real interest in radio as an artform or entertainment or anything other than point to point messaging. Apart from one person, their Head of Publicity, Arthur Burrows...

• In 1918 Burrows wrote: “There appears to be no serious reason why, before we are many years older, politicians speaking, say, in Parliament, should not be heard simultaneously by wireless in the reporting room of every newspaper office in the United Kingdom. . . . The field of wireless telephone, however, is by no means restricted to newspaper work. The same idea might be extended to make possible the correct reproduction in all private residences of Albert Hall or Queen’s Hall concerts or the important recitals at the lesser rendezvous of the musical world. . . . There would be no technical difficulty in the way of an enterprising advertisement agency arranging for the interval in the musical programme to be filled with audible advertisements, pathetic or forcible appeals—in appropriate tones—on behalf of somebody’s soap or tomato ketchup.” We’ll come back to Arthur Burrows.

• Around the same time in America, future radio mogul David Sarnoff sent a memo referring to a “radio music box”, that could “listeners-in” could have in their homes, playing the music broadcast by wireless stations, that were cropping up, especially in America, and a steadily increasing rate.

• In Britain, Captain Round of the Marconi Company continued to experiment. Rightly medalled after the war, he switched his attention from using radio to find enemy ships, to using radio to transmit the human voice further and stronger than ever before. This meant tests.

• Now the nature of radio, the quirk of it, is that it’s not private. You can’t experiment without anyone with a set listening in – and since the war there were more and more ex wireless operators and amateur radio “hams”. So as Round experimented, in Chelmsford at the end of 1919, with his assistant William Ditcham, across Britain and even into Europe, people heard him. Ditcham had to read out something into his microphone – just the candlestick part of an old telephone. Ditcham would begin by addressing those listening – the ‘leaky’ nature of these radio experiments meant the engineers actually used those cheekly listening in to find their range and signal strength. So Ditcham would begin: “MZX calling, MZX calling! This is the Marconi valve transmitter in Chelmsford, England, testing on a wavelength of 2750metres. How are our signals coming in today? Can you hear us clearly? I will now recite to you my usual collection of British railway stations for test purposes... ...The Great Northern Railway starts Kings cross, London, and the North Western Railway starts from Euston. The Midland railway starts from St Pancras. The Great Western Railway starts from...”

• Railway timetables! And they were a hit. Mr Ditcham became an expert is this new art of broadcasting, before the word was even invented. He noted: “Distinct enunciation is essential and it’s desirable to speak in as loud a tone as possible!”

• Word spread. Letters to newspapers said how much radio amateurs were enjoying Ditcham and Round’s wireless experiments... but the content could do with being a bit more exciting. How about a newspaper?

• So in January 1920, William Ditcham became our first broadcast newsreader, literally reading the news, from a paper he’d bought that morning. Well, he’d sit on it a day, and read yesterday’s paper... The press might have a problem with their copyrighted news being given away for free. And thus begins the rocky relp between broadcasters and the press. It’s worth keeping them on side...

• In Jan 1920, there are 2 weeks of ‘Ditcham’s News Service’ – that’s Britain’s first programme title. That gains over 200 reports from listeners-in, as far as Spain, Portgula, Norway... up to 1500 mi away. So the transmitter is replaced, from 6kw to 15kw. Ditcham ups his game too. Throws in a gramophone record or two. 15mins of news, 15mins of music. A half hour in total – that seems a good length for a programme – really it was what the licence allowed, but it’s clearly stuck – at least till Netflix and the like mean programme length has becoame a little more variable, a century later.

• Then in Feb, there’s live music – just a few fellow staff at the Marconi Works in Chelmsford, including Mr White on piano, Mr Beeton on oboe and Mr Higby on woodwind.

• At Marconi HQ, Arthur Burrows, that publicity director who wrote of possible wireless concerts and ketchup sponsors, he gets behind this in a big way. He heads to Chelmsford, supports Ditcham and Round, and even joins the band.
• And you know who else joins the band...

• ...from the neighbouring works building – Hoffman’s Ball Bearings - a singer, Miss Winifred Sayer. Now as she’s not a Marconi employee, she needs to be paid... so she’s radio’s first professional

• Previous broadcasts had been a little luck of the draw, but this one, well it would be nice to tell people it’s going to happen. So Captain Round sends out the first listings – the pre Radio Times, radio... times... you can hear Winifred Sayer and the band: 11am and 8pm, Feb 23rd till March 6th That memo goes out to all the Marconi land stations and ships at sea. The first song Winifred sang was called Absent – she later called it a “punch and judy show”, and enjoyed her ten shillings a show. As she left, the MD of Marconi’s said to her: “You’ve just made history.”

• So, we have radio, right? Not so fast! The fun is just beginning...

• The press, you see, were worth keeping on side. The Daily Mail got wind of this. Arthur Burrows, that publicity chap and radio prophet, he became friends in the war with Tom Clarke, now editor of the Daily Mail. And the Mail loved a novelty. They’d sponsor air races and car dashes and design-a-top-hat competitions. Radio was right up their fleet street.

• But they’d need a bigger singer than Winifred Sayer from Hoffman’s Ball Bearings. They wanted to see how big an audience there’d be for broadcasting – a word just coming into use, a farming term, about how you spread seed, far and wide, scattershot, never quite knowing how far it reaches, and whether it will be well received and grow into something. So the Daily Mail fund one of the world’s biggest singers: Dame Nellie Melba – of Peach Melba fame. She was over in England at the Albert Hall doing some shows, so for a thousand pounds – enough to buy a house – she came to Chelmsford. Outside broadcasts didn’t exist at the time, given the size of the kit. Ditcham and Round prepared the Chelmsford Works building, although that involved a small fire, a carpet Melba rolled away as soon as she saw it, and a microphone made from an old cigar box and a hat rack. Arthur Burrows gave Madame Melba a tour when they weren’t quite ready... She took one look at the 450ft radio mast and said “Young man if you think I’m going to climb up there, you are greatly mistaken.”

• She broadcasts on June 15th 1920, and it’s a huge hit, despite a shutdown just before finishing her last song. Captain Round makes her do it again, without telling her of the shutdown, by simply asking for an encore.

• Arthur Burrows gives the opening and closing announcements, instead of William Ditcham, because this has been Burrows’ dream. Broadcast radio concerts. So what next? It spanned Britain, reached Madrid, parts of the Middle East...

• But it’s too successful. The Air Ministry finds planes couldn’t land during the concert. It dominated the airwaves. So despite a few extra professional concerts from Chelmsford that summer – opera stars like Lauritz Melchior, and Dame Clara Butt – the govt step in and shut all radio experiments down.

• Arthur Burrows finds himself at sea, literally, that summer, demonstrating radio to the press on the way to an interionational press event... but without govt backing, journalists now see radio as maybe a means to communicate newsroom to newsroom. Ditcham’s news and Melba’s music seem to be all that broadcasting amounted to.

• For 18 months, nothing. Radio amateurs, and indeed Arthur Burrows at Marconi, petition the PostmasterGeneral to reconsider. And finally... it worked.

• Because while the ether had fallen silent in Britain, it continued in Holland, a bit in France, and in America radio is booming. Not wanting to be left behind, the British govt say ok, you can have one radio station. The Marconi Company is granted a permit. But much to Burrows dismay... the job lands on the desk of another person I want to introduce you to... Peter Eckersley

• Eckersley was with the Designs Dept of the Aircraft Section of Marconi’s. His team had helped create air traffic control; Eckersley had been there in the war for the first ground to air wireless communication, and now in their spare team, his team in a muddy field in the village of Writtle in Essex, not far from Chelmsford, would have to fit this broadcasting malarkey in in their spare time, for an extra pound a show, not much.

• It was odd. Radio amateurs wanted it. Burrows the Marconi publicity guy wanted it. Eckersley and his team couldn’t give two hoots about it – in fact they celebrated when the govt banned radio 18 months earlier, as finally the airwaves were clear for them and their serious work, instead of constant blinking opera from Chelmsford.

• But it’s Eckersley’s job, to start Britain’s first regular radio station: 2MT Writtle. And from Feb 14th 1920, for the first few weeks it sounds pretty normal. They play gramophone records, chosen by Arthur Burrows at head office. Burrows has arranged a sponsorship deal – not with ketchup with a gramophone company, who provide a player so long as it’s mentioned on air. Peter Eckersley’s team of boffins break the gramophone player. There was a live singer – the first song on the first regular broadcast radio show was the Floral Dance, though the Times called it only “faintly audible”. It is not a hit. For 5 weeks this continues, bland introductions to records, a live singer or two. And Peter Eckersley, the man in charge, goes home each night to hear the show his crew put out on the wireless. Until week 6, when he stays, for a pre-show gin and fish and chips and more gin at the pub. Then he... runs down the lane to the hut and reaches the microphone first! And he starts talking......

• Eckersley talks and talks and mimics and carouses... He plays the fool, plays the gramophone records, off-centre, or covered in jam...

• ...the strict licence meant closing down for 3mins in every 10, to listen for govt messages, in case they have to stop broadcasting. Eckersley doesn’t shut down for 3mins. The licence limited them to half an hour. Not Eckersley. Over an hour later, he stops. And sleeps it off. Next day, his team gather round and tell him what he said.

• Our man Arthur Burrows gets in touch. A stern admonishment! Burrows’ dream of broadcasting, had been dashed on the rocks by Eckersley, a man drinking, on the rocks. But accompanying Burrows’ angry missive came a postbag of listener fanmail. “We loved it” they said. “Do it again.” Burrows was a lone voice against Eckersley’s antics, so the following Tuesday, and every Tuesday in 1922, Peter Eckersley seized the mic again and again.

• Demand for radio sets boomed. Ports stopped receiving ships when Peter Eckersley was on. Parliament even closed their sessions early to hear him. He was our first radio star. And he helped spawn an industry.

• Burrows is still fuming, but there is no greater demand for radio. So he applies for a 2nd licence, for a London station – let’s do this radio thing properly. 2LO in London is granted that licence, and Burrows isn’t taking any chances – HE will be the primary broadcaster.

• Poetry readings, sports commentary, opening night boxing match. Later in the summer, garden party concerts. And as Burrows is a publicity and demonstration man, many of these broadcast concerts are for private institutions, charity events, a chance to show what broadcasting can do.

• Other wireless manufacturers other than Marconi’s express an interest, they ask the PMG for a licence to broadcast too. MetroVick in Manchester, they want in, so the PMG says fine. Kenneth Wright is the engineer at MetroVick who gets the job of launching in Manchester.

• Wright continues in Manchester... Eck continues in Writtle in Essex... Burrows continues in London...

• But Eckersley mocks Burrows. In fact people write to Arthur Burrows saying how much they enjoy his broadcasts on 2LO London, but could he stop broadcasting every Tuesday evening for the half hour Eckersley’s on, cos listeners want to hear Eckersley lampoon Burrows. For instance, Burrows played the Westminster chimes in the studio – this is 18mths before Big Ben’s chimes would be heard on the BBC. So Eckersley outdoes Burrows by finding all the pots, pans, bottles and scrap metal he can, and bashing it all with sticks. Messy chaos! He loved it.

• He’s another, retold by Eckersley and Burrows themselves, some 20 years apart... You see, both would close their broadcasts with a poem.

• All through the spring and summer of 1922, each broadcast is still experimental. Official broadcasting hasn’t quite yet begun – because no one knows if there’s a future in this. In fact the Marconi Company largely thought all this was one big advert to show consumers how easy wireless communication is, and how they should all pay Marconi’s to help them send point-to-point messages.

• But the bug grows. The press want in. The Daily Mail apply for a licence for to set up a radio station. They’re turned down – it would be too powerful for a a newspaper to have a radio station. It only took Times Radio 100 years...

• In Westminster, the PostGen is inundated by applications for pop-up radio stations. He can’t just keep licensing all of them. What is this, America?! Arthur Burrows...

• In May 1922, the PostGen says to the wireless manufacturers, look. I can’t have all of you setting up rival radio stations. But I will licence one or maybe two of you. Get together, chat it through, work out how you can work together.

• For a while, it looks like there will be two british Broadcasting companies – a north and a south. Kenneth Wright...

• ...but after weeks, even months of meetings, primareily with the big 6 wireless firms, an agreement is struck.

• ...You may wonder where Reith is in all this. Wasn’t he meant to be the fella who started the thing!? He arrives when the BBC is one month old. For now, he’s leaving a factory management job in Scotland, settling down with his new wife, having moved on from a possibly gay affair with his best friend Charlie... and he’s about to try a career in politics. He’s never heard of broadcasting at this stage. But for those who have, in the summer of 1922, Parliament announces there will be one broadcasting company, funded by a licence fee.....

• One British Broadcasting Company. Marconi, MetroVick, Western Electric, General Electric and so on... each will have one representative on the board of this BBC, and then broadcasting can continue, they’ll all sell wireless radio sets, and to fund the operation, there’ll be a licence fee.

• The name ‘BBCo’ is coined by one of the wireless manufacturer bosses in one of those meetings, Frank Gill, who notes in a memo before the name ‘broadcasting company’, the word ‘British’. A few lines down, he’s the first to write the word ‘pirates’ regarding those broadcasting without a licence.

• But there’s one more hurdle to conquer – news. That takes some time to iron out with the press, and finally it’s agreed that us broadcasters will lease the news from them, for a fee, and no daytime news, to ensure readers still bought papers.

• The press and the broadcasters still have an uneasy relationship, so whenever you see the newspapers having a pop at the BBC, know that the Daily Mail sponsored the first ever broadcast with Dame Melba, they were turned down for a radio station when they applied, and for years they were annoyed this radio upstart was trying to steal their readers.

• With the starting pistol sounded, Arthur Burrows gets his dream: he’s convinced his employer, the Marconi Company that radio isn’t just about sending messages to individuals, it’s about reaching many listeners... or better still, it’s still about reaching individuals, just lots of them. Flash forward to Terry Wogan’s sad goodbye from his Radio 2 Breakfast Show. “Thank you for being my friend.” Singular. Radio – even podcasts like this – still speak to one listener at a time. I make a connection with you. Arthur Burrows and Peter Eckersley, were among the first to realise that.

• But which of them would launch or join the BBC? The wild unpredictable Eckersley, who created demand for radio, and was still mocking Burrows in his field hut in an Essex village? Or the straight-laced Arthur Burrows, who’s prophesied broadcasting for years?

• I think we know the answer to that. Playing it safe, The Marconi Company kept 2LO as part of this new British Broadcasting Company, as well as 2ZY Manchester under MetroVick, and a new station in Birmingham, 5IT, run by Western Electric. Marconi’s would also build new stations, in Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow, and more, growing in reach and ambition.

• But it starts in London, on November 14th 1922, with a souped-up transmitter, rebuilt by good old Captain Round, the Marconi whizz who helped start it all. Arthur Burrows is before the mic, achieving his dream, to see broadcasting come to fruition. There are no recordings of that first broadcast, but we recreated it...

• The next day, the Birmingham station 5IT launches – they quickly bring in the first regular children’s presenters, Uncle Edgar and Uncle Tom. An hour after they launch, Manchester 2ZY starts under the BBC banner, with more children’s programming there, plus an early home for an in-house BBC orchestra.

• When the jobs go out for the this new BBC, bizarrely after it’s actually launched, there are just 4 employees hired before the end of the year, and Burrows is first, a shoo-in for Director of Programmes. John Reith applies for General Managership, having tried a bit of politics, but been pointed towards the BBC advert by his MP boss. On arriving, one of the first things he says is: ‘So what is broadcasting?’

• As for Peter Eckersley, he continues at 2MT Writtle, every Tuesday evening into January 1923. The only non-BBC station to share the airwaves till commercial, pirate or... well there’s Radio Luxembourg but that’s for a future episode. But Eckersley too is ultimately convinced to join the good ship BBC. And all it takes is an opera, broadcast live from the Royal Opera House in January 1923 – one of the first outside broadcasts.

• A penny drops for Eckersley, and he realises the power and potential of this broadcasting lark. Reith convinces him to stop his frivolous Tuesday show in Essex, and offers him a job as the BBC’s first Chief Engineer. And here Eckersley prospers, giving us new technology, nationwide broadcasting, the world’s first high-power long-wave transmitter at Daventry, he brings choice to the airwaves, with a regional and national scheme. Without Burrows, without Eckersley, without Reith, British broadcasting would look very different.

• There’s one other name, among many, I’m particularly enthusiastic about: Hilda Matheson. An ex-spy who becomes the first Director of Talks, who reinvents talk radio and gives us the basis for Radio 4 and speech radio and indeed podcasting, you could argue, as we know it. She’s a fascinating character – part of a gay love triangle with the poet Vita Sackville West and Virginia Woolf. She’s the only BBC employee allowed to bring a dog to work.

• And so much more, we’ll unpack on the British Broadcasting Century podcast, plus the Pips, the Proms, the Radio Times, and everything else you know and love, tolerate or loathe about British broadcasting today.

We bring you all this - including the voice of Rev Fleming himself, along with Reith, some newspaper cuttings of the day, and everything you never knew you needed to know about December 31st 1922 on the air.

Plus a guest! BBC producer and presenter Paul Hayes has written a new book on the birth of the modern Doctor Who. We talk about The Long Game - 1996-2003: The Inside Story of How the BBC Brought Back Doctor Who. Get your copy by clicking that link, from Ten Acre Films publishing. Paul also tells us about his radio documentaries, Eric Maschwitz, John Snagge, Emperor Rosko (who you can hear on our early episodes) and lots more.

A huge thanks to Andrew Barker for being our Newspaper Detective again and finding the listings in this episode.

This may be the end of season 2, but the specials begin very soon, then very soon we'll be embarking on 1923: the year that made the BBC. So stay subscribed for more of this, and see below for transcript and shownotes.

Thanks for listening!

SHOWNOTES:

• This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and corralled by Paul Kerensa, who you can email if you want to add something to the show on radio history. Your contributions are welcome.
• My new one-man play The First Broadcast is now booking for dates in 2022. Got a venue? Book me for your place. Here's one - The Museum of Comedy. Join me, in April or in November on the very date of the BBC's 100th birthday!
• Thanks for joining us on Patreon if you do - or if you might! It supports the show, keeps it running, keeps me in books, which I then devour and add it all to the mixing-pot of research for this podcast. In return, I give you video, audio, advance writings, an occasional reading from C.A. Lewis' 1924 book Broadcasting From Within etc.
• Thanks if you've ever bought me a coffee at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Again, it all helps keep us afloat.
• We talk about the Doctor Who memos on the podcast this time. The reports in 1962 on a possible sci-fi show. Want to read them? Here they are! Five reports - just scroll down to 'Doctor Who'. Fascinating reading.
• We post more interesting links like that in our British Broadcasting Century Facebook group. Join us there!
• I post similar things on Twitter too - The British Broadcasting Century Twitter profile is here. Do follow.
• My other podcast of interviews is A Paul Kerensa Podcast. Have a listen!
• Please rate and review this podcast where you found it... and keep liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online. It all helps others find us. 
• My mailing list is here - sign up for updates on all I do, writing, teaching writing, stand-up, radio etc.
• My books are available here or orderable from bookshops, inc Hark! The Biography of Christmas. Coming in 2022: a novel on all this radio malarkey.
• And don't forget Paul Hayes' book The Long Game - 1996-2003: The Inside Story of How the BBC Brought Back Doctor Who is available now.
• Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

APPROXIMATE TRANSCRIPT:

Previously on the podcast...

• 1922, what a year! In January, PostGen Mr Kellaway announces he’ll allow 15min of speech and music alongside 15min of Morse, from just one station, and only to calibrate wireless sets.
• In February, 2MT Writtle goes on the air, with that weekly 30min transmission, again, just for calibration purposes. Yeah right.
• In March, Peter Eckersley seizes the mic on 2MT Writtle, and wins over the hearts and minds, but mainly ears of the nation
• In April, Reith leaves Scotland for London to find work.
• In May, Marconi’s begins a second station, 2LO London, and MetroVick began 2ZY Manchester.
• In June, the PostGen insists the companies get together and thrash out how to get along!
• In July, the companies decide to form not two companies, but one.
• In August, the BBC is formed – when govt tell them to get a move on.
• In September, a big wireless exhibition, to sell radios to the masses.
• In October, the press problem is hammered out.
• In November, the BBC launches!
• In December, the first four staff are hired.
• What a year!

This time, year’s end – the sun sets on British broadcasting’s birth year. We’ll bring you the programming for the first BBC New Year’s Eve, including the voices of those who rang the year out.

No Big Ben’s bongs just yet. Just the end of the beginning, and the end of season 2, pretty much.

Plus our special guest, BBC Radio Norfolk’s Paul Hayes, with tell of his new book on Doctor Who.

This is the last episode of Season 2. See, my original plan was to call it season 2 all the way to end of 1923. But now we’ve reached the end of 1922, it does feel, a change is coming in the fledgeling British Broadcasting of the early 20s.

For 10 or so episodes, we’ve covered the pre-Reith BBC. The pre-Magnet House BBC. The make it up as you go along BBC.

So I feel we should mark the move to the Reith era with a new season. Season 3! A line in the sand, as they cross the threshold into the New Year, and into Magnet House.

Here’s the plan – you’ll recall we had a few specials on the podcast between seasons 1 and 2. Well I think let’s have at least one special, next time, and we’ve got one ready and waiting.

So after New Year this ep, next ep will be the special episode we recorded for The History of England podcast. It’s essentially the entire podcast so far told in half an hour. Some clips you’ll have heard her, some you won’t have. If you’ve heard The H of E podcast special, you’ll have heard most of next time’s episode, but a) it’s nice to have it all in one place, and b) I’ll add some new bits.

Meanwhile, one more episode of season 2 then – this one, on the first BBC New Year.

Dec 30th: John Reith’s first day of work.

Well one thing we didn’t mention last time is he ended his first day in charge by writing a letter, to his former best friend, and perhaps one-time lover, Charlie Bowser. See episode 15: John Reith Mastermind for details of Charlie.

He was Reith’s best friend and then some. Reith was always finding Charlie deputy roles in every job Reith worked in – from the army to Beardsmore’s Glasgow factory. Reith wanted Charlie Bowser by his side. Until, that is, they had a massive falling out, over, you guessed it, women. They both got married, and maybe they were never destined to. Reith’s wife Muriel seemed to fit in ok – though both John and Charlie loved her – John Reith even thought Charlie loved Muriel more than he did, and he was married to her.

But when Charlie married a woman Reith nicknamed ‘Jezebel’, it drove a wedge between the two men.

Still, Reith always wrote to Charlie on his birthday. So he did in late 1922, and got a rather blunt reply from Charlie.

“Smug little cad” wrote Reith in his diary after his first day of work. “Of course if only things had been otherwise, he could have been Assistant General Manager of this new concern.”

He had left Charlie behind.

If they hadn’t had such a falling out, I’ve no doubt Charlie would have been Deputy DG, and Reith-era BBC would have been somewhat different – possibly more relaxed.

Instead, the no2 job of the BBC, would ultimately go, in 1923, to Admiral Charles Carpendale – a man who came to see each BBC building as a ship, with decks, and crewmates. And some say Broadcasting House was even constructed that way. You see NBH today, it still looks like a small ocean liner. With a Starbucks.

But Charlie was not to be part of it – and Reith gloated about that fact.

But on a more optimistic note, the BBC was booming, with demand for licences sky-rocketing.

By Dec 31st, 1922: 35,774 licences issued by GPO...

With just 4 employees

What 2LO London had for their first New Year’s broadcast:

For the kids, Baden-Powell gave a message to the Scouts.

Then the original listings say that NYE closed after a concert, bedtime at 10:30pm.

As NY grew nearer though, a plan formed to stay up late.

But it was a Sunday, so forget dance music, Reith knew what he wanted.

Dec 31: ‘I had told Burrows – my first order to him – that we would observe Sundays and that we should ask Dr Fleming of Pont Street to give a short religious address tonight.’

Yes, the first order of Reith’s reign! To engage an End of Year Watchnight religious talk from Rev Dr Archibald Fleming, of the Church of Scotland, London branch.

Just before midnight, the hymn was sung solo: O God Our Help in Ages Past. Then there were no Big Ben chimes – but there were Burrows’ tubular bells in the studio.

Popular Wireless magazine: “2LO’s chimes sounded the hour and then gave a lifelike imitation of the local belfry in full swing. The peals came out excellently on a loudspeaker, and the bagpipe solo must have been a joy to any Scotsman listening-in.”

Oh yes, there were bagpipes, from Mr R Marshall, an actual piper in the studio, alongside a Mr Kenneth Ellis who sang Auld Lang Syne.

2LO’s Musical Director Stanton Jefferies announced in the New Year, then Burrows said: “Hullo everybody! 2LO, the London Broadcasting station speaking. We hope you have enjoyed our little concert. I expect this is the most original way of passing watchnight you have ever experienced. 2LO wishes you a happy and prosperous New Year. May you have the best of luck! Goodbye everybody. Goodbye and the best of luck!”

Next time: The specials! Beginning with The Story So Far... So stay subscribed, tell others, and join us then.

Next episode released on the 99th birthday of the BBC...

On Episode 35 of The British Broadcasting Century, we bring you the complete tale of not only Reith's first day - the liftsman, the lone office, the "Dr Livingstone, I presume" moment - but also his commute to work, from Scotland to London via Newcastle. Here he investigates/interviews/interrogates poor Tom Payne, director of Newcastle 5NO, a BBC station that's only five days old, temporarily running from the back of a lorry in a stable-yard.

We'll hear from Reith, Payne (who claims to be the only person to bank-roll a British radio station), Birmingham director Percy Edgar, early BBC governor Mary Agnes Hamitlon.

Plus we'll hear from Mark Carter of BBC Radio Sussex, BBC Radio Surrey, Susy Radio, Wey Valley Radio, across which he's been presenter, producer and now Executive Editor.

There's also a treasure trove of radio memoribilia including 'the green book' of what you can and can't say on the radio - in 1948 - courtesy of the collection of former BBC Head of Heritage Justin Phillips. We're ever so grateful to his family for sharing that with us.

SHOWNOTES:

• This episode leans on several books, the chief of which is probably Garry Alligan's 1938 book Sir John Reith, but also Asa Briggs' various books, Brian Hennessy's The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain, and The Reith Diaries edited by Charles Stuart. Plus about a dozen others. 
• Join us on Patreon for a tour of my radio history bookshelf, plus extras, audio, video, an occasional reading from C.A. Lewis' 1924 book Broadcasting From Within, plus the glowing feeling of supporting this podcast. Thanks to all who support us there and keep us ticking over.
• For a one-off contribution, you could buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Thanks! It all helps keep us afloat.
• This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and corralled by Paul Kerensa, who you can email if you want to add something to the show on radio history. Your contributions are welcome.
• The British Broadcasting Century Facebook page is here. Join us there.
• The British Broadcasting Century Facebook group is here. Join us there too.
• The British Broadcasting Century Twitter profile is here. Join us there three.
• My other podcast of interviews is A Paul Kerensa Podcast. Have a listen!
• My mailing list is here - sign up for updates on all I do, writing, teaching writing, stand-up, radio etc.
• My books are available here or orderable from bookshops, inc Hark! The Biography of Christmas. Coming in 2022: a novel on all this radio malarkey.
• Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Please rate and review this podcast where you found it... and keep liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online. It all helps others find us. 

APPROXIMATE TRANSCRIPT:

Previously on the BBCentury...

The 6-week-old BBC now has 4 plucky stations! Yes, the Geordies have joined the Cockneys the Brummies and the Mancunians... Except 5NO Newcastle has had a few teething troubles. No one there’s run a radio station before! So on Christmas Eve Eve 1922, their first is broadcast from the back of a lorry in a stableyard.

But fear not, with Christmas behind us, Head Office are on the case! And the BBC’s first and only General Manager John Reith is well-rested, he’s even asked a friend what broadcasting is, and he reckons he’s ok to take control. He’s always liked fishing. That’s what broadcasting is... isn’t it?

THIS TIME...

Still puzzling out what his job is, John Reith begins work! We’ve got all the info on his legendary first day, his ‘Dr Livingstone I presume’ moment... and his first task of running the Beeb: fixing Newcastle. He seeks to inform, educate and entertain, but first troubleshoot.

Plus bang up to date, we’ll hear from a man with radio in his very fibre... local radio executive editor and presenter, from BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey, and Susy Radio, and Wey Valley Radio... Mark Carter

As we mark the start of the Reith era, buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Here on the BBCentury

TITLES

Hullo, hullo...

We’ve seen a few eps ago, how Reith, and Burrows, and Anderson and Lewis were all hired as the first 4 founding fathers at the BBC. But they start work at New Year. Of course, we know that those of them who were broadcasters, Burrows and Lewis – they were already workig super-hard, planning and presenting almost 7 days a week, even through Christmas.

But the start of the BBC’s new era, with a head office at Magnet House, till Savoy Hill opened, all of this happens after Christmas 1922, going into New Year 1923.

So this ep, I’ll tell you about Reith’s first day, Dec 29th. Next episode, we’ll round off with a rather sweet New Year’s Eve bit of programming. Then I think we’ll have a bit of a recap and a breather, before starting 1923 proper, when the BBC exploded into life, with a booming staff, the first proper live concerts from the royal opera house, and so much more.

What a tale! What an era! I wish I was there. I can’t be, so next best thing, I’ll spend a pandemic researching and recording this... The BBCe, now with the first day of work from John Reith!

STING

But before he starts in London, we’re going super-geeky, super0detailed, and I’ll actually tell you about Reith’s JOURNEY to London. Because that’s really notable too.

Having been appointed, and spent a day or two with Burrows and co, scouting for offices, puzzling out what broadcasting is, Reith has spent Christmas in Scotland, staying with his mum...

“I told her that I wanted her to live to see me a knight anyhow. I feel if this job succeeds and I am given grace to succeed in it, I might nt be so far off this. I do want a title for dear mother’s sake, and Muriel’s...” 

That from Reith’s diary, Dec 28th 1922. So he’s keen on this job, for the authoritative position it gives him, it seems, to begin with, at least. He’s turned down good deputy jobs before this point. He wanted to lead something. Anything. Even a thing he doesn’t understand.

Here’s a snapshot what Reith would have been completely unaware was on that Christmas, on each of the BBC’s stations:

• We told you all about the London Christmas last time, but from Boxing Day, you’d hear more from the brand new 2LO Orchestra, and a triumphant Boxing Day Peter Pan, Uncle Jeff and Uncle Arthur holding the fort, rewarded with many gifts from the listeners. Demand for radio sets outstripped supply. The radio boom was booming.
• In Brum: Percy Edgar gives his Dickens, artistes don’t turn up. Callout on air. Frederick Warrander turned up, with his pianist!
• Manc: Christmas stories for kids, then grownups, Handel’s Messiah, ghost stories
• Newcastle: Hawaiian band

Then there’s 2MT Writtle, who’ve had the week off for Christmas – that’s not a BBC station, but they’ve done the groundwork earlier in the year, and now Peter Eckersley is there pondering whether he should keep going, in this Marconi station out in Essex, now that proper broadcasting has begun – and the big boss is on his way to start work.

So Friday 29th December, Reith says bye mum, I’ll come back when I’m knighted, and leaves Dunardoch for London – raring to start work the next day, a Saturday, but he wanted to get in before his small staff turns up after the weekend.

But, his Director of Progs Arthur Burrows, who knows more than almost anyone about how all this runs, he’s asked his boss to make a stopover en route to Magnet House in London. Burrows wants Reith to get off the train at Newcastle, and check in on the baby station, 5NO. We talked about their launch last time – so at this point it’s only 5 days old, and it’s the first BBC station to be built from scratch.

Burrows has his doubts about the Newcastle staff. New station director Payne is out on a limb, setting up this new station in the northeast – with the smallest, most abandoned staff....

Probably adding to Burrows’ doubts were Tom Payne’s announcing habits: he kept repeating the callsign over and over: ‘This is 5NO calling, this is 5NO calling, this is 5NO calling...”

Payne was popular locally already in amateur radio circles – but would he have the chops to broadcast nationally, on radio? To fit in, with what Burrows had set in motion?

Reith’s a bit reluctant to break his journey in Newcastle. Doesn’t quite see why. Doesn’t quite know what a radio station is. But he’s quite keen to see one in action – although Newcastle’s version is a stableyard, so not really your typical radio station...

‘Newcastle at 12:30. Here I really began my BBC responsibility. Saw transmitting station and studio place and landlords. It was very interesting. Away at 4:28, London at 10:10, bed at 12:00. I am trying to keep in close touch with Christ in all I do and I pray he may keep close to me. I have a great work to do.’

Reith is dumbfounded. He’s got off the train, and found Tom Payne alternating between announcing what’s on the radio, playing some live musical instruments, and trying to shut up a howling dog in a nearby kennel. So did he let Mr Payne off the hook?

“As the temporary Station Director knew more than I did, as he had produced programmes of some kind or another for 5 days already... I rather naturally left him in possession for the time being.”

As for the tech setup in Newcastle, that doesn’t improve too quickly. Reith will be shocked in the New Year of ’23 to discover their new control room is in fact a standard public phone box installed in the middle of the studio. Forget the engineer through the glass. This was an engineer in the glass, in a glass box, closed in from before the programme started till after it finished, no ventilation, no seat, no dignity.

Come January, Reith would personally seek new premises for those provincial stations that were lacking. Eventually.

For now though, on Dec 29th, Reith leaves Newcastle, after a stopover of less than 4hrs, and continues to London.

So Reith has arrived in London, slept off his train journey, and awoken ready for his first day at the BBC.

London at 10:10, bed at 12:00. I am trying to keep in close touch with Christ in all I do and I pray he may keep close to me. I have a great work to do.’

At 9am that Saturday, Reith arrives at the GEC offices in Kingsway, London. “where I had been informed temporary accommodation had been at our disposal.” This is Magnet House., first offices of the BBC.

He has doubts what he’ll find, but is pleased to see a large notice in the foyer: “Brit Broad Company, 2nd floor”

“This was rather reassuring. One was therefore not altogether unexpected and there really was such a thing as the BBC. Before I was permitted to enter the elevator, an enquiry was naturally made regarding my business. ‘BBC’, I said deliberately. “Nobody there yet, sir,” he replied. So I told him that this was it, or part of it, one quarter approximately.”

How delightfully drole, of both Reith and the liftsman.

“A room about 30fr by 15, furnished with 3 long tables and some chairs. A door at one end invited examination: a tiny compartment 6ft sq, here a table and a chair, also a telephone. ‘This,’ I thought, ‘is the general manager’s office’. The door swung to behind me. I wedged it open; sat down, surveyed the emptiness of the outer office. Though various papers had accumulated in the past fortnight, I had read them all before. No point in pretending to be busy with no one to see.”

It’s an unusual start for Reith then, still a little clueless as to what’s required of him. He needs his staff to arrive before he can quite figure out what to do, how to run this BBC. So he picks up the phone, a bit like Manuel when he briefly takes charge of Fawlty Towers. “Manuel Towers! How are you today!” Or Alan Partridge picking up the hotel phone to find he’s reached reception.

In Reith’s case, he’s delighted a female voice answers. Yes? “Having been unexpectedly answered, I trued hurriedly to think of a number which at 9:15am I might be properly expected to call up, on BBC business. Naturally without success. As there was no BBC business to anything with. So I enquired, somewhat fatuously, and with some embarrassment, if she had had any intrusctions about calls for the BBC or from them, and that if so, the BBC was there.” Now. Just.

This receptionist would connect many calls to R over the coming months, and years, Miss Isobel Shields.

Reith was a fan of Mr Gamage of the GEC. He was not a fan of Major Anderson, his new, brief secretary.

1/2hr later, Major Anderson, Sec, arrived 9:30am, “with some manifestation of authority”.

 Silk hat, two attache cases, legal-looking books under his arm. Reith described it as a bit “Livingstone and Stanley”, each presumed the other was the Secretary or General Manager.

 ‘I hadn’t seen him before. It was an awful shock. I saw at once that he would never do... Conversation was not brisk...”

Then Mr Gamage, Secretary of the GEC, lovely welcoming fella. For 10 weeks, Gamage sees to their every need, and refuses all offer of payment for the room, lunch, tea, phone calls. GEC’s guest.

That night Major Anderson the Sec goes home to type a letter, to invite Miss Isobel Shields to stop working for General Electric, be poached by the BBC, and become one of the first six staff members, and the first female employee.

Next time: New Year 1922!