The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

On the day of episode 99's release, it's exactly 100 years since the death on 17 April 1925 of Godfrey Isaacs - Managing Director of the Marconi Company. 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  

14 August 1923: Ireland's first licensed radio station takes to the air...  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  

Episode 97 finds the BBC in August 1923... 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  

We're back! Season 7 begins with a Books Special - plus a visit to a special exhibition at Oxford's magnificent Bodleian Library - 'Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home'. 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 and Dublin, and the first radio gardener, Marion Cran.   More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 95 is our Christmas special for 2024 - looking back to five vintage BBC Christmases of 1922-42. 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

Episode 94 finds us hunting presenters on the run... in 1923 and in 2023.  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

June 1923 at the BBC saw the first symphony concerts on-air (with an 'augmented orchestra'), musical criticism from Percy Scholes, 2,500 voices broadcast at once, and new staff led by Admiral Charles Carpendale as Reith's deputy. Plus Scot John Logie Baird advertises for help with his 'Seeing By Wireless' invention. You may know it as television... ...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

Episode 92 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

Episode 91 goes back over 130 years to the 'broadcasting' device that far predates radio broadcasting. But the same ideas were there: entertainment, religion, news even, brought to your home, sent one-to-many, live from West End churches and London's churches. 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

Is this the first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC I see before me? Yes it is. And the first radio comedy personality, in John Henry.  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

Vote The British Broadcasting Century!  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

On episode 88, it's May 1923, and the six-month-old BBC is settling into its new home at Savoy Hill. But it's not all plain sailing. 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

100 years ago the weekend of this podcast, the Cello and the Nightingale became one of the most cherished broadcasts in radio history. 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: 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  

On the previous episode we explored the only 1920s BBC recording (that we know of), recorded off-air by Mr Jones of Croydon.  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

On 23 April 1924, a landmark broadcast took place - the biggest so far. And on day of podcast release, it's the centenary! 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

When Dr Kate Murphy became a BBC's Woman's Hour producer in 1993, the received wisdom was that women's programming began in 1946, when Woman's Hour launched.  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).

Welcome to the Savoy Hill era of the BBC! 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  

Welcome to season 6 of The British Broadcasting Century Podcast - and our 82nd episode. 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  

Pip pip pip pip pip piiiiiiiiip! 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  

Welcome to 2023's Christmas special/2024's Epiphany special. (Come on, what podcast doesn't have an Epiphany special?) 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...  

Episode 79 is our second special of three authors - whose books you may wish to put on your Christmas wish list - especially if you're fans of Doctor Who, religion on radio, and/or ye olde Radio 1.  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  

You need more books in your life. So here are three authors to shout about theirs and enthuse about their research.    This time we have three academics. (Next time we'll have three presenters/producers, covering music radio, Radio 4's Sunday and Doctor Who...)   But this is a different episode of The Three Doctors. And they are…    DR CAROLYN BIRDSALL, Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam + author of Radiophilia (Bloomsbury, 2023): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/radiophilia-9781501374968/ She tells us about the love of radio, 'wireless-itis', and the early days of radio fandom.   DR MARTIN COOPER, Assistant Subject Leader Emeritus at the University of Huddersfield + author of Radio's Legacy in Popular Culture: The Sounds of British Broadcasting over the Decades (Bloomsbury, 2023): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/radios-legacy-in-popular-culture-9781501388231/ He tells us about some of the books, films and songs that feature radio, from Death at Broadcasting House fo James Joyce to Bob the Builder.   DR JOSH SHEPPERD, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder + author of Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (University of Illinois Press, 2023): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780252087257 He tells us about the origin story of education & public radio in the US, from the first WWI university broadcasts to ex-BBC emigre Charles Siepmann (who worked under BBC Talks Director Hilda Matheson in the 1920s - it all links back...).     In telling these tales chronologically, we mix and match between these three wise doctors. So expect a story of rural reach, radio hams and Professor Branestawm as we dovetail in and out of our experts. It's a bit like retuning and cruising up and down that dial...    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. paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Episode 77 is a surprise pop-up episode, with nuggets spanning 1920, 1922 and 1980, from the mid-Atlantic to Glasgow, and from music to horse-racing. We had a few too many tales to tell, so couldn't wait. We're meant to be on a break. Whoops.  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 

Episode 76:  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

Happy 100th to (The) Radio Times!  (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

The genesis of music on the BBC for episode 74...  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: The last episode 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 

Episode 73: Comedy tonight! And comedy back then, particularly 26 April 1923... 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

Britain's first writer for radio was Phyllis M Twigg. An unusual name, and yet... she seemed to pretty much vanish after her debut broadcast play, 'The Truth About Father Christmas' on 24th December 1922. 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

Sometimes we get nerdy. Sometimes we get very nerdy. 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: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1923-04-19/debates/8b3a8bd2-60c2-4c76-9e51-27c86098693f/BroadcastingLicences?highlight=experimental#contribution-276dc9d5-9f73-4623-867f-57e71dd74a1e   April 24th 1923: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1923-04-24/debates/9eb32788-f7a5-4f00-b2e5-a3207e5713bf/WirelessBroadcasting?highlight=experimental#contribution-7d5744c5-1c76-49d8-848e-858b0f275df7   OTHER LINKS: 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!) 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

Episode 70 is a biggie. 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  

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin...   Episode 69 of our deep dive into British broadcasting's back-story brings us to 5th April 1923, and the hiring of Ella Fitzgerald (not that one), to organise and centralise Children's Hour.   That leads us to a packed episode with both academic insight and tales from those who were there, whether listening or programme-making.   We have more guests than you could fit on Auntie Bronwen's magic carpet - including authors and academics: Dr Amy Holdsworth (author of On Living with Television) Dr Kate Murphy (author of Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC) Graham Stewart (author of Scotland On Air) 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) And early uncles and aunts:  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) We cover programmes including Children's Hour, Watch with Mother, Playschool, Wide Awake Club, Sooty, Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, Old Jack's Boat, Bedtime Hour, and many more.     FURTHER READING, LINKS ETC: 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  

Episode 68 and STILL in March 1923 - March 26th to be precise, as Major Arthur Corbett-Smith is hired to be the 5th Cardiff station director in about as many weeks. It's not going well there... ...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  

Episode 67 is a special: 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

Here is the news. And the weather. And the SOS messages... 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.   SHOWNOTES: 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  

Episode 65 welcomes the BBC's only ever Sound Archivist (the title changed a few times), Simon Rooks. For 33 years he was lost in the archives and now he's found his way out, he's here to tell us the way. 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

Episode 64 dwells in 1st-16th March 1923: the last days of the first BBC HQ of Magnet House. 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

On episode 63, we've reached 6th March 1923: Glasgow 5SC launches - the BBC's first station in Scotland. 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  

On 22 February 1923, the BBC tried something new: the first broadcast political debate. What could possibly go wrong? Let's find out! 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

Welcome to Season 5! 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

In the beginning... religious broadcasts were there ever since Marconi said, "Let there be sound!" (He never said that.) 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  

Episode 59 is the final part of our trilogy of info-dashes through the first British Broadcasting Century. Here we span 1988-2022: the digital years. 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: 1980s: Johnny Beerling, Jeffrey Holland, Simon Dunn   1990s: Jon Dear, Steve Legg*, James Cary, Tim Vine*, Dave Thompson*, my son, Dr Andrea Smith   2000s: Paul Hayes, Chris Jarvis, Stevyn Colgan*, Alan Stafford, Richard Woods*, Milton Jones*, Lee Mack, my wife Zoë*, Dr Amy Holdsworth, Alan Stafford, Miranda Hart*   2010s: David Whitney*, Rev Kate Bottley*, Tim Reid*   2020s: Mark Carter, Roger Bolton, Justin Webb, Prof David Hendy, my daughter, Joe Lycett*, Peter Eckersley   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 March 2023: Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC, 1919-23: https://amzn.to/3hxe4lX 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 2 of our mad dash through the British Broadcasting Century, spanning 1955-87 - the competition years. 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: 1950s: John Reith, Fanny Cradock, Paul Hayes, Justin Webb, Dr Amy Holdsworth, my daughter, Alan Stafford, David Hamilton   1960s: Michael Wakelin, Simon Dunn, Charles Huff, Gareth Jones, Johnny Beerling, Roger Moffat, David Dunhill, Emperor Rosko, Cindy Kent, James Cary, Jeffrey Holland, Reeta Chakrabarti, Alec Reid   1970s: Maurice Blisson, Norman Green, Belinda Campbell, Andrew Barker, Roger Bolton   1980s: Neil Jackson, Bob Richardson     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 February 2023: Auntie and Uncles - details here: https://amzn.to/3hxe4lX   In 2023 we'll continue examining the broadcasting century the slow way. Next time though, to conclude our end of centenary year, join us for part 3 (1988-2022). paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

As the BBC turns 100, enjoy 100 Years in 100 Minutes! 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: 1920s: John Reith, Arthur Burrows, Kreisler's Liebesleid (first music on the BBC), A.E. Thompson, Leonard Hawke (Drake Goes West - first music from London), Charles Penrose (The Laughing Policeman), Helena Millais as Our Lizzie, Rev John Mayo, Rev Archibald Fleming, Harold Bishop, Cecil Lewis?, Peter Eckersley, Kathleen Garscadden, Lord Gainford, Dr Kate Murphy, Dr Andrea Smith, Archibald Haddon, Marion Cran, Percy Scholes?, Justin Webb, Nightingale and Cello, Rev Dick Sheppard (first broadcast service), Richard Hughes' Danger (first play), A.J. Alan, King George V, Alan Stafford, Tommy Handley, John Henry and Blossom, Dr Martin Cooper, Harry Graham, Arthur Phillips, Filson Young, H.L. Fletcher, Flotsam and Jetsam, Christopher Stone, Henry Wood, Prof David Hendy, Vita Sackville-West, Clapham and Dwyer, Mabel Constanduros, Toytown   1930s: Norman Long and Stanelli, Harold Nicolson, Simon Rooks, Val Gielgud, Gillie Potter, Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra, King George VI, Gerald Cock, Elisabeth Welch, Caroll Gibbons and the Savoy Orpheans, Lew Stone, Murgatroyd and Winterbottom, Nelson Keys, Sandy Powell, The Western Brothers, Stuart Hibberd, Charles Siepmann, King Edward VIII, Elizabeth Cowell, Tommy Woodroffe, Bandwaggon, ITMA (Mrs Mopp), Neville Chamberlain, John Snagge   1940s: J.B. Priestley, Winston Churchill, Music While You Work, Edward Stourton, Charles Gardner, Bruce Belfrage, Princess Elizabeth, C.S. Lewis, Stephen Bourne, Una Marson, Nightingale and the Bomber, Charles Huff, Lilliburlero, Romany, Richard Dimbleby, Edward R Murrow, Frank Gillard, Guy Byam, Johnny Beerling, George Elrick, Norman Shelley, Michael Standing, Paul Hayes   1950s: Jeffrey Holland, Julia Lang, Roger Bolton.   (...+ various unknown announcers)   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 February 2023: Auntie and Uncles - details here: https://amzn.to/3hxe4lX   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

Episode 56 has BBC100 recommendations (on iPlayer and BBC Sounds for a limited time), 3 poems about the early BBC/radio, and from the Beeb Watch podcast, ex-Radio 4 presenter Roger Bolton. Past, present and future, all mixed in here as Auntie Beeb turns 100 around us. 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 on February 2023: https://amzn.to/3zIY9Hq - Last tour dates of The First Broadcast are in Chelmsford and London: paulkerensa.com/tour Next time, 100 Years in 100 Minutes (part 1: 1922-54)

Landing on centenary day (well, 100 years aince the BBCompany was formed), episode 55 is the tale of the first Bard on the Beeb. 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 is now up for ebook pre-order, with paperback pre-order to follow when I can work out the buttons: 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'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!

Let Season 4 begin! 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 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  

Tying up our 'summer' specials (now autumn), part 4 of 3 (whoops) is this special on radio as propaganda in World War 2. The non-BBC story. 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!)

The BBC in WW2 is our focus for the third of our summer specials - longer-form chats with brilliant authors and their take on a century of British broadcasting. 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!

How many pre-WW2 black British broadcasters can you name? 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...  

Summer special time! 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.  

Episode 49 and that old favourite Peter Eckersley returns - he's started regular British broadcasting, helped spark a boom in radio sets, mocked the BBC, been inspired by the first OB to join Auntie Beeb... and now this episode, he's hired. 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