Mystery of BBC Radio's First Broadcasts Revealed 100 Years On 13
The BBC is celebrating the centenary of its first official broadcast - a news bulletin that included a court report from the Old Bailey, details of London fog disruption, and billiards scores. From a report: It was broadcast by London station 2LO, but new research shows many early BBC moments came from northern England. Manchester station 2ZY aired the first children's show and introduced the first regular weather forecast. Birmingham's 5IT station broadcast the first "official concert" The BBC that began broadcasting at 6pm on 14 November 1922 was not the British Broadcasting Corporation of today. It was in fact the British Broadcasting Company and was made up of separate stations around the country operated by different companies. London 2LO was run by the Marconi company. Manchester's station was operated by Metropolitan-Vickers. However, in these early days few records were kept of what was broadcast.
But new research on the BBC's very early days has been carried out by Steve Arnold, a self-confessed Radio Times obsessive. His tricky task was to try to piece together the BBC's schedules before the Radio Times - so named as it listed the times that the new medium's shows were being broadcast - was first published in September 1923. He explained he found information in "gossip columns [in regional newspapers] mainly, people saying we listened to this last night and this is the only record of some of these things". Now, using sources from archive documents and newspapers, Steve has begun to piece together a picture of what the early BBC was doing. He says the Manchester station, which operated out of Trafford Park, seems to have been the best organised. "It looks as though the Manchester station is probably the origins of the BBC as much as the Marconi 2LO station (in London)," he said. "They seem to have had a far more professional approach. There's a lot more documentation and it seems they knew their onions. I'd love to know more."
But new research on the BBC's very early days has been carried out by Steve Arnold, a self-confessed Radio Times obsessive. His tricky task was to try to piece together the BBC's schedules before the Radio Times - so named as it listed the times that the new medium's shows were being broadcast - was first published in September 1923. He explained he found information in "gossip columns [in regional newspapers] mainly, people saying we listened to this last night and this is the only record of some of these things". Now, using sources from archive documents and newspapers, Steve has begun to piece together a picture of what the early BBC was doing. He says the Manchester station, which operated out of Trafford Park, seems to have been the best organised. "It looks as though the Manchester station is probably the origins of the BBC as much as the Marconi 2LO station (in London)," he said. "They seem to have had a far more professional approach. There's a lot more documentation and it seems they knew their onions. I'd love to know more."
Re: Scary (Score:2)
Re:Scary (Score:4, Informative)
London fog was pretty serious before the Clean Air Act of 1956. In 1952's Great Smog [wikipedia.org] there were "1,000 tonnes of smoke particles, 140 tonnes of hydrochloric acid, 14 tonnes of fluorine compounds and 370 tonnes of sulphur dioxide" emitted every day by coal burning, etc., which made the fog pretty lethal.
Re: (Score:2)
London fog was pretty serious before the Clean Air Act of 1956. In 1952's Great Smog [wikipedia.org] there were "1,000 tonnes of smoke particles, 140 tonnes of hydrochloric acid, 14 tonnes of fluorine compounds and 370 tonnes of sulphur dioxide" emitted every day by coal burning, etc., which made the fog pretty lethal.
It's a bit of an old trope now, as you say. I lived in London for a fair part of my life but only seen a really thick fog a few times.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pm... [tvtropes.org]
Cricket (Score:2)
Smith comes in and bowls a fullish length, just outside off stump, Baker plays it down to mid-off and they run one, Hampshire are now 127 for 3...
is the sort of thing that a cricket fan can picture in their mind, and listen to while painting the fence or whatever.
It helped make radio a very popular medium.
Re: (Score:2)
Very true!
Also, Dick Barton, Special Agent. Wow, the pictures were much better in those days when they were created in your own head!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I heard a very interesting piece about the early BBC, and one of the very early broadcasts was of cricket, which is a game that really suits radio.
Smith comes in and bowls a fullish length, just outside off stump, Baker plays it down to mid-off and they run one, Hampshire are now 127 for 3...
is the sort of thing that a cricket fan can picture in their mind, and listen to while painting the fence or whatever.
It helped make radio a very popular medium.
I don't want to hear anyone make any snide comments about American football ever again after reading that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Cricket (Score:4, Interesting)
Also led to the possibly apocryphal but still entertaining commentator line: "for those of you watching black and white, the pink is the one just behind the blue".
Fun Fact (Score:4, Interesting)
In the very early, pre-BBC days of radio, it was illegal to own a radio receiver in the UK without a special license. There were no public broadcasts yet, and the only entities using radio were wire services. So, if you had a radio you could easily listen in on other people's telegrams, hence they were illegal to own unless you were a wire or telegraph service.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, that would be hard to regulate, given that you can make a small, primitive radio from a coil of wire, a razor blade, and a pencil.
https://youtu.be/skKmwT0EccE [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/_AI2Jixj5Bs [youtu.be]
Re: (Score:2)
Back then some people found the very concept of wireless broadcasts creepy. Somehow they were coming into your house without a wire or an open window.