Podcast appearances and mentions of peter eckersley

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Best podcasts about peter eckersley

Latest podcast episodes about peter eckersley

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
#100 The Century! British Broadcasting's Story So Far, 1895-1923

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2025 53:49


It's The British Broadcasting Century's century! Thanks if you've joined us for the story so far, from Morse and Marconi to Reith and the Pips (before Gladys Knight took over lead vocals). This special 100th episode is for both the newcomer and the seasoned veteran - being the previous 99 episodes in summary form, BUT with lots of new bits. So this is no best-of... (alright it's a bit of a best-of) ...this is packed with new things we didn't know, old things we hadn't found yet, new perspectives on the areas we've covered previously, things we left out completely, and much more, or less, depending on how you look at it. New things include: The first song Marconi played via wireless (thanks John Hannon) New (corrected!) info on Marconi's first sports report by wireless - not 1899 in America, but 1898 in Ireland... Long clips of Britain's first DJ Gertrude Donisthorpe, Marconi engineer William Ditcham, first broadcast singer Winifred Sayer, Marconi man R.D. Bangay, and more, that we haven't played you before. News on the Melba recording (er, not good news) A 6min-long never-before-heard reminiscence by Arthur Burrows, reflecting on the first BBC broadcast, with new info - including the 2LO orchestra being accused of electoral bias because of their song choice. The first accusation of BBC on-air bias... in musical form! The opening words of the first BBC children's broadcast New info on Harry Tate's 'Broadcasting' sketch (thanks Alan Stafford) The first singer of Cardiff 5WA The Sykes Committee look into the BBC (just to keep the story moving forward, a bit) And we've been asking you for your favourite moments so far. So we re-bring you: Peter Eckersley on 2MT Writtle Tales from 2ZY Manchester and 5IT Birmingham More Peter Eckersley on 2MT Writtle Even more Peter Eckersley on... ...You get the idea. Thanks for joining us for our first 100 episodes - here's to our next 100. Do share this with people to help make that happen! . SHOWNOTES: Original music is by Will Farmer.  Our re-enactment of the first BBC broadcast is on Youtube. Dr Andrea Smith's new book is Shakespeare on the Radio, published by Edinburgh University Press. Alan Stafford's book is Bigamy Called the Radio Star, published by Fantom. Paul's latest Substack article is about Arthur Burrows (first voice of the BBC) and his link with the Eurovision. I claim there's no Eurovision with him! Find it on paulkerensa.substack.com See Paul Kerensa on tour, with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio: www.paulkerensa.com/tour. The Early Recordings Association Conference takes place at The University of Surrey, Guildford this July. I'll be presenting on 1 July. Details here: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20250701-early-recordings-association-era-conference-2025 Also catch Paul at the Religion Media Festival on Monday 9 June: https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/events/religion-media-festival-2025/ This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We try to use clips so old they're beyond copyright, but you never know. Copyright's complicated... Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com. Do like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all helps. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Next time: Episode 101: The Sykes Inquiry, and the Early Recordings Association. More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
#097 Manchester, Birmingham, Gardening, Radio Circle + a Wireless Elephant: The BBC in August 1923

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2025 34:55


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  

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
#094 Wireless Manhunts on the BBC - in 1923 and 2023

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2024 46:03


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

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Joining Gyles this week is is one of Britain's best loved actresses, Anne Reid. Anne's long career began when a teacher at school persuaded her to apply for RADA at only 16, and after a stint in weekly rep and appearances on The Benny Hill Show and Hancock's Half Hour, she became a household name as Valerie Barlow in Coronation Street in the 60s, and then as a regular performer with Victoria Wood in the 80s. But it is arguably in later life that Anne has had the most notable, and interesting, roles in series like Last Tango In Halifax, Years and Years and The Sixth Commandment, as well as in the feature film The Mother with Daniel Craig. Anne tells Gyles about her childhood, growing up in the north-east during the war, about bombing raids and ballet classes. She talks about her parents' move to India, and delights Gyles with a story of an amazing trip she took to Delhi during her school holidays. She talks about her marriage to the producer Peter Eckersley, who sadly died in 1981, and her life since then. Thank you, Anne, for sharing your wonderful stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
#088 Boycotts, Bands and The Sunday Committee: May 1923 at the BBC

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2024 38:54


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

Wright on the Nail
US Campus Protests and UK Local Elections: For How Long Can We Ignore The Young?

Wright on the Nail

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2024 56:50


In this week's News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright is joined by political commentator, Marina Purkiss, Managing Editor of Local Government Studies and Co-Convenor of the UK Political Studies Association's Specialist Group on Local Politics, Dr Peter Eckersley, Communications Officer at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Reem Ibrahim, and Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at the National University of Ireland Maynooth, John O'Brennan.Chris introduces with a scintillating monologue reflecting on the student protests in the US in the late 1960s, which he was a part of. He asks the panel whether today's re-engagement of the young through protest will translate into the polling booth across the Atlantic in the UK in the upcoming local elections and onwards.  The conversation centres on the UK local elections and how much they will indicate the general election result. They discuss Sunak's evermore controversial Rwanda rabbit hole (lately causing the migrants to escape the UK into Ireland); the practicality and the politics of the scheme. They dig back into the pro-Palestinian campus riots across the US that began at Columbia State University. Whether or not their branding by the media as anti-semitic is representative of the majority of anti-Israel protesters, and the UK's diplomatic tone compared to the US's towards Israel. They circle back to the local elections this Thursday 2nd May and whether the Tories would dare oust Rishi Sunak after what may be a disastrous result for his party.Many thanks,WOTN Team'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. © Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.Rock around the clock productions AB.www.rockaroundtheclock.coThis podcast is published by New Thinking: www.newthinking.com

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
The Pips at 100! A Brief History of Time at the BBC

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 5, 2024 15:56


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  

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Yesteryear in Parliament: The BBC vs The Government, April 1923

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2023 44:54


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

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
The BBC's News, Weather and SOS Broadcasts of March 1923

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2023 31:37


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  

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Farewell Magnet House, Hello... Laundry Baskets? + Jeffrey Holland

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2023 38:23


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

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
100 Years in 100 Minutes, part 1 (1922-54)

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2022 33:00


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

Hack és Lángos
HnL244 - A jó szomszéd

Hack és Lángos

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2022 62:40


Mai menü:Fesztivál szezon után konferencia szezonA telefon okosabb volt, mint én.COOP az új ROPAz internetes biztonság és titkosítás úttörője, Peter Eckersley 43 évesen elhunytURL-rövidítők elemzéseHackerek okoztak hatalmas dugót Moszkvában egy ride-hailing alkalmazás segítségével - The VergeA levegőben elzárt eszközök titkos morzejeleket tudnak küldeni a hálózati kártya LED-eken keresztülA Meta támadó pozíciót vesz fel az adatvédelmi vörös csapattalElérhetőségeink:TelegramTwitterInstagramFacebookMail: info@hackeslangos.show

led coop fesztiv moszkv peter eckersley
Root Causes: A PKI and Security Podcast
Root Causes 242: Let's Encrypt Founder Peter Eckersley Passes

Root Causes: A PKI and Security Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2022 7:04


Electronic Frontier Foundation member and Let's Encrypt co-founder Peter Eckersley passed away recently at a young age. In this episode we pay respect to Peter's memory and his many contributions, including ACME, Certbot, and Let's Encrypt.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
SPECIAL: Radio as Propaganda in WW2... plus Peter Eckersley & Hilda Matheson

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2022 38:32


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!)

Open Source Security Podcast
Episode 340 - Let's chat about Let's Encrypt with Josh Aas

Open Source Security Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2022 33:54


Josh and Kurt talk with Josh Aas from the Internet Security Research Group about Let's Encrypt, Prossimo, and Divvi Up. A lot has changed since the last time we spoke with Josh. Let's Encrypt won, and the ISG are working on some really cool new projects. Show Notes Josh Aas Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) Let's Encrypt Episode 87 – Chat with Let's Encrypt co-founder Josh Aas New Major Funding from the Ford Foundation ISRG annual reports Peter Eckersley

The Personal Computer Radio Show
The Personal Computer Radio Show - 09.07.22

The Personal Computer Radio Show

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2022 55:00


The Personal Computer Show Wednesday September 7, 2022 PRN.live Streaming on the Internet 6:00 PM Eastern Time IN THE NEWS o Peter Eckersley, Tech Activist, Passed Away Suddenly at 43 o Amazon Closes and Abandons Plans for Dozens of US Warehouses o Researchers Wirelessly Transmitted Power Over 98 Feet of Thin Air o U.S. Bans Chipmakers from Sending AI Training Chips to China and Russia o Japan to Change Laws That Require Use of Floppy Diskettes ITPro Series with Benjamin Rockwell o Know That Social Media Can Affect Job From the Tech Corner o Artemis I's Second Launch Attempt Scrubbed o NASA Solves Voyager 1 Data Glitch Mystery Technology Chatter with Benjamin Rockwell and Marty Winston o Tech Challenge of Sound and Radar 

Risky Business News
Risky Biz News: Encryption and privacy pioneer Peter Eckersley has died

Risky Business News

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2022


A short podcast updating listeners on the security news of the last few days, as prepared and presented by Catalin Cimpanu. You can find the newsletter version of this podcast here. Show notes Risky Biz News: Encryption and privacy pioneer Peter Eckersley has died

Buongiorno da Edo
Addio a Peter Eckersley, co-creatore di Let's Encrypt

Buongiorno da Edo

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2022 3:31


/** Links */ Peter Eckersley, co-creator of Let's Encrypt, dies at just 43 - https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2022/09/04/peter-eckersley-co-creator-of-lets-encrypt-dies-at-just-43/ Farewell to Aaron Swartz, an Extraordinary Hacker and Activist - https://pde.is/posts/selected/deeplinks-2013-01-farewell-aaron-swartz/ #petereckersley #letsencrypt #eff #ssl --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/edodusi/message

mixxio — podcast diario de tecnología
Un anillo, dos muertes y un tercer lanzamiento

mixxio — podcast diario de tecnología

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2022 12:37


Polémicas tecnológicas en Los Anillos de Poder / Mueren dos grandes: Peter Eckersley y Peter Drake / Artemisa 1 tampoco se lanzó / USB4 Version 2.0 / Cripto-robo a Bill Murray

The Nonlinear Library
EA - Peter Eckersley (1979-2022) by Gavin

The Nonlinear Library

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2022 2:34


Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Peter Eckersley (1979-2022), published by Gavin on September 3, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Security engineer, digital rights activist, AI safety and policy researcher. Beloved in these communities. Eckersley is most famous as an advocate/developer at the intersection of tech and legal activism. His work on the Let's Encrypt free certificate authority, HTTPS Everywhere, and the SSL Observatory made the internet significantly less terrible. Mizza: Let's Encrypt is something we all came to take for granted very quickly, but lots of us remember when getting an SSL certificate was an expensive and tedious process. Deprecating a billion dollar industry overnight and providing better security for internet users everywhere is a hell of a legacy to leave behind, and I hope one that will be an inspiration for generations to come. He identified "device fingerprinting" as a major privacy hole and spent a long time trying to mitigate it. His PhD thesis was a characteristic mix of software engineering, economic theory, and law. We'd call it Web3 these days. He was the 8th person ever to take the GWWC pledge. A few places say he was on the board of CEA US at some point. Around 2017 he went into AI risk. His work bridged AI ethics and AI safety, covering recidivism prediction, self-driving cars, security against ML hacking, and military AI but also big-brain topics like impossibility theorems in social choice and ML, the cybersecurity implications of emulated minds, and the queer theory of human alignment. At the end, he was running the AI Objectives Institute (notable for mobilising people already concerned about corporate maximisation) and mentoring for PIBBSS. He was on many of the big "technical AI policy" papers of the last few years. The Alignment Problem is dedicated to him, after he convinced his friend Brian Christian of it. During covid he worked intensely on private contact tracing algorithms. He received a cancer diagnosis a week before his death. A minor consolation of dying in the present age is people telling beautiful stories about you for strangers and for posterity. So you can know that he was fluent in French, that he organised guerilla meetups, that he was an avid cyclist, that he was a memorable remedial teacher of programming. This is an Eckersley quotes account. Similarly, I can tell you he was writing code until one month before his death. He lived sans LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
SPECIAL: Auntie's War - with Edward Stourton

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2022 33:39


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!

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
It's That Man Again! Peter Eckersley - 1st BBC Chief Engineer

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2022 46:38


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

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Daimler, 5MG and 2BP: The In-Car Radios of 1923

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2022 38:27


"There's not a lot written about 2BP," says our guest Tony Currie, radio historian, author and presenter. And yet for episode 48, we've wrung a whole 40mins out of it! In January 1923, the BBC had sole right to broadcast in Britain, and yet a couple of experimental radio stations existed in Glasgow. 5MG had been on the air since October, operated by shop-owners Frank Milligan and George Garscadden, just to sell some wireless sets. And Daimler wanted to sell something too - in-car radios. So they set up a temporary station, 2BP, at the Glasgow Motor Show. Pull over and hear all about it. Plus from Scotland to Somerset: hear Neil Wilson's tour of his wonderful Radio Museum in Watchet. See the full 20mins Radio Museum tour here: https://youtu.be/ZjDXKQ63RaI Visit the Radio Museum in Watchet - details here: https://www.radiomuseum.uk Come and see my show The First Broadcast, in Watchet, in conjunction with the Radio Museum - or in Ludlow, Bedford, Tunbridge Walls, Guildford, Salford, Chelmsford, London, Isle of Wight... paulkerensa.com/tour Thanks Tony Currie for the expert knowledge and loan of his documentary on Scotland's Radio. Tony's books include The Radio Times Story - and his radio station is Radio Six: https://www.radiosix.com Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/bbcentury Or Facebook: Facebook.com/bbcentury Help us on Patreon - thanks if you do! patreon.com/paulkerensa  Thanks to Will Farmer for the original music. We're nothing to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely a solo-run operation. Archive clips are either public domain due to age, or some rights may belong to owners we know not whom. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Subscribe, share, rate, review us - it all helps! Next time: Peter Eckersley joins the BBC as its first Chief Engineer... and Professor David Hendy joins us for a chat. paulkerensa.com

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
”Hark, The Engine's Failing”: The Closedown of 2MT Writtle

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2022 38:14


January 17th 1923: 2MT Writtle, Britain's first regular broadcasting station, closes down for the last time. Its chief voice, director of programmes, Lord of Misrule Peter Pendleton Eckersley toasts its listeners with a glass of water, upgraded to champagne via the use of a pop gun - innovating to the last with one of radio's first ever sound effects. Then Eckersley, the first BBC-basher, switched sides and promptly joined the BBC, as its first Chief Engineer. On episode 47, we've reached the moment where the BBC's peculiar airwaves rival finally shuffles off the ether, having somehow given birth to Auntie Beeb, but outserved its purpose. We tell the full story of how, why, whereupon and whomsoever led to the 2MT closedown, plus we review nearly a year of Writtle broadcasts, including the first radio quiz, first radio play and first radio mockery of a different radio station's chimes. You'll hear the voices of (and we're indebted to) original radio pioneers Peter Eckersley, Noel Ashbridge and Rolls Wynn, and present-day experts and fans Tim Wander, Jim Salmon, CRH News, and granddaughters of PPE, Caroline and Alison Eckersley - they chatted to CRH News, who've kindly loaned us their audio.   FURTHER READING/LISTENING/VIEWING: Tim Wander's new book is 2MT Writtle 1922-2022: The Centenary of British Radio Broadcasting, and is available at https://2mtwrittle100.co.uk Tim's other books are at https://marconibooks.co.uk Thanks to CRH News for the loan of their audio of their video interview with Caroline and Alison Eckersley. Watch the full video at https://youtu.be/AMFKrsRVd5c - and see the rest of the CRH News Youtube channel for more videos, inc of Tim Wander's book launch. The video of the walk I did with Jim Salmon, from Writtle hut to Writtle pub, is a free post for all on https://www.patreon.com/posts/66447373 The video of the Radio Museum tour (in Watchet, Somerset) is also a free post for all on https://www.patreon.com/posts/65666411 ...Most videos I keep for Patreon supporters only - so, become one? It all supports the podcast, which otherwise, I'm doing for £nowt. Chip in at patreon.com/paulkerensa - starting at £5/mth. It helps keep the podcast going, AND you get behind-the-scenes vids etc in return. The tour? The First Broadcast: The Battle for the Beeb in 1922 heads to Kettering, Worthing, Ludlow, Watchet (pop into the Radio Museum while there?), Tunbridge Wells, St Albans, Salford, Guildford, Isle of Wight, Cheltenham (pop to Writtle while there?) - details of all paulkerensa.com/tour - say 'Hullo, hullo" if you come! Thanks to Andrew Barker our Newspaper Detective, Will Farmer our composer of original music, the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham, and the team effort of above names who've made this episode possible. Archive clips are either public domain due to age, or some rights may belong to owners we know not whom. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. We're nothing to do with the present-day BBC whatsoever - just a solo operation. Find us on Twitter, follow our Facebook page, and join our Facebook group. Please share what we do online - it all helps find us new listeners and grow this lil' project into something bigger. Linktree.com/paulkerensa has Paul's mailing list and details of his books, including Hark! The Biography of Christmas, on the history of Christmas. Coming soon: Auntie and Uncles, the novel on this here broadcasting origin story...   NEXT TIME: The only other legal rival to the BBC on the air in 1923: The Daimler in-car radio broadcasts... Thanks for listening! paulkerensa.com  

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Justin Webb on Leonard Crocombe... and January 1923

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2022 41:11


For episode 46 we're joined by one of today's (and Today's) top broadcasters: Justin Webb. Justin's new book 'The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and Other Train Wrecks' chronicles his lifelong partnership with radio, from an unusual childhood improved by the arrival of an ITT Tiny Super radio, to anchoring the Radio 4's Today programme. But he's just the latest of 3 generations of broadcaster in his family. Justin's grandfather Leonard Crocombe was not only the first Radio Times editor, but also briefly a broadcaster in 1923 - something which even Justin didn't know. Hear Leonard Crocombe tell a tale or two... Plus we continue to tell our own tale, of the broadcasting in January 1923 - from reactions to the first OBs to the Veterans of Variety, via Burns Night, Dame Nellie Melba reading to the children on Australia Day, and the BBC finally getting its licence.   NOTES: Justin's book is available in all places that sell books, eg here. Hear more of Leonard Crocombe on this marvellous gramophone record, courtesy of AusRadioHistorian on Youtube: https://youtu.be/6N1-hGjP_2M In the podcast I talk about my visit to The Radio Museum in Watchet, Somerset. Here's a video tour given to me by owner Neil Wilson. Watchet! I mean, watch it. Then visit it. In Watchet. I also mention George Robey and Alma Adair's comedy broadcast (thanks Alan Stafford!) - a pic of that moment is here. Thanks too to Andrew Barker, our Newspaper Detective, for details of the newspaper articles. The Pause for Thought slot I mention is now on the BBC Sounds app here and there's more on the history of Pause for Thought on Andy Walmsley's great blog: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2020/04/pause-for-thought.html My tour of The First Broadcast: The Battle for the Beeb in 1922 continues! See paulkerensa.com/tour for details Find us on Facebook and Twitter - @bbcentury Thanks to Will Farmer for the original music My mailing list is at linktree.com/paulkerensa  Support the show at patreon.com/paulkerensa - inc behind-the-scenes video tours etc! All tiers get all videos from now on (but not historic videos - they're for £10/mth-ers - but going forward, everyone gets everything new I post - levelling the playing field! Do join.) We're nothing to do with the BBC, y'hear!  Thanks for listening. Next time: The end of 2MT, and Peter Eckersley joins the BBC... paulkerensa.com 

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
The First Outside Broadcast: A Night at the Opera!

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2022 41:50


On January 8th 1923, British broadcasting left the studio for the first time. William Crampton had the idea, Arthur Burrows seized on it, John Reith approved it, Cecil Lewis kept interrupting it with stage directions and synopses... Hear all about it here on episode 43, with the voices of Peter Eckersley, Harold Bishop, Arthur Burrows, A.E. Thompson and Percy Edgar. Plus Dr Kate Murphy tells us about the first radio 'aunt', Aunt Sophie/Cecil Dixon. And what John Reith did for the first time on January 6th. You won't believe it... This episode is drawn from over a dozen books and the like, including research at the marvellous BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham. What a place! What a team. Cecil Lewis' book Broadcasting from Within is quoted from extensively, and I'm reading it IN ITS ENTIRETY for our matrons and patrons on Patreon.com/paulkerensa at the 'superhero' level. If you sign up, even for one month and cancel, you're helping keep this podcast afloat, so thank you. BUT I'm making part 5 of my reading of it available to EVERYONE. This is the except that's all about this first outside broadcast, so if you'd like to hear me read it and talk about it, it's all here for you, whether you're a Patreon subscriber or not: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63268433 - Enjoy! My play The First Broadcast is touring the land - details at https://www.paulkerensa.com/tour - or get in touch to book it in for your venue.  Find us on social media at www.twitter.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury And do subscribe, share, rate and review us. It all helps spread this little project, which is NOTHING to do with the BBC - it's just a one-man band. OTHER THINGS: Original music is by Will Farmer. Many of our archive clips are old enough to be public domain. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. This podcast is 100% unofficial and NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa. Be on the show! Email me a written ‘Firsthand Memory' (FM) about a time you've seen radio or TV in action. Or record a voice memo of your ‘Airwave Memories' (AM), 1-2mins of your earliest memories of radio/TV. Get in touch! Next time: The Birmingham and Holland stations. Yes, Holland... Happy listening!

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Episode 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything, which in this case is: microphones. Or more specifically, the new microphones the BBC brought in, of Captain Round's design, in January 1923. In this episode, new mics, old callsigns, ambitious plans, the lack of an on-air interval: it all adds up to the start of professional broadcasting, as the two-month-old BBC moves away from its radio ham roots...  ...Not that there's anything wrong with being a radio ham! As will be revealed by our guest Jim Salmon, aka 2E0RMI. He's got plans for a celebration of the centenary of 2MT Writtle, on February 14th 2022. Full details of 2MT's 100th birthday online do at https://www.emmatoc.org/2mtcelebration. You can watch Jim's livestream (on the day only) at https://www.mixcloud.com/live/RadioEmmaToc/ - bring your own G&T and fish and chip supper to your screens! Or if you can get to Writtle in Essex itself, they've got celebrations on Feb 11th, Feb 14th and May 17th-22nd - https://writtle-pc.gov.uk/latest-news/writtle-celebrates-marconi-in-2022/ - maybe see you there on that weekend in May! All year, my play The First Broadcast is touring the land - details at https://www.paulkerensa.com/tour - or get in touch to book it in for your venue. It travels light! It's only me, playing Arthur Burrows and Peter Eckersley. Support the show at www.patreon.com/paulkerensa - thanks if you do! Find us on social media at www.twitter.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/bbcentury or www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury And do subscribe, share, rate and review us. It all helps spread this little project, which is NOTHING to do with the BBC - it's just a one-man band. Next time: The first outside broadcast! A night at the opera... Happy listening!

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
SPECIAL: The Prehistory of the BBC (extended cut)

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2021 46:22


It's the BBC's 99th birthday! Well it was on the day this episode landed. So for episode 37, here's the podcast's story so far...   Between season 2 (covering the BBC in 1922) and season 3 (the BBC in 1923), we're on a run of specials. So here we summarise EVERYTHING we've learned so far. 36 episodes condensed into one.   Condensed, yet also extended - because we recorded a shorter version of this episode for The History of England Podcast. So to lure in folks who've heard that already, I've added a ton of new stuff, including some brand new bits. By which I mean, very old bits. As well as hearing the voices of: First teenager to listen to the radio in his bedroom GuglielmoMarconi First major broadcast engineer Captain HJ Round First voice of the BBC Arthur Burrows First regular broadcaster Peter Eckersley First slightly terrifying boss John Reith …You'll now also hear from: First broadcast singer Winifred Sayer First BBC pianist Maurice Cole (the most wonderful accent, “off" = "orff") First BBC singer Leonard Hawke (although WE know from episode 28 that the Birmingham and Manchester stations broadcast music the day before - but the BBC didn't know that) That's a lot of firsts. Plus more recent voices - hear from these marvellous experts: Professor Gabriele Balbi of USI Switzerland Marconi historian Tim Wander (buy his book From Marconi to Melba) Radio historian Gordon Bathgate (buy his book Radio Broadcasting: A History of the Airwaves)   SHOWNOTES: This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and dogsbodied by Paul Kerensa You can email me to add something to the show. eg. Send your ‘Firsthand Memories' - in text form, a time you've seen radio or TV being broadcast before your eyes: a studio, an outside broadcast - what were your behind-the-scenes insights? Or record your ‘Airwave Memories' (AM) - a voice memo of 1-2mins of your earliest memories hearing/seeing radio/TV. Be on the podcast! My new one-man play The First Broadcast is now booking for dates in 2022. Got a venue? Book me for your place. Here's one - The Museum of Comedy. Join me, in April or in November on the very date of the BBC's 100th birthday! Thanks for joining us on Patreon if you do - or if you might! It supports the show, keeps it running, keeps me in books, which I then devour and add it all to the mixing-pot of research for this podcast. In return, I give you video, audio, advance writings, an occasional reading from C.A. Lewis' 1924 book Broadcasting From Within etc. Thanks if you've ever bought me a coffee at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Again, it all helps keep us afloat. Like our British Broadcasting Facebook page, or better still, join our British Broadcasting Century Facebook group where you can share your favourite old broadcasting things. Follow us on Twitter  if you're on the ol' Twits. I have another podcast of interviews, A Paul Kerensa Podcast, inc Miranda Hart, Tim Vine, Rev Richard Coles and many more. Give us a listen! Please rate and review this podcast where you found it... and keep liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online. It all helps others find us.  My mailing list is here - sign up for updates on all I do, writing, teaching writing, stand-up, radio etc. My books are available here or orderable from bookshops, inc Hark! The Biography of Christmas. Coming in 2022: a novel on all this radio malarkey. Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Oh yes they are. Next time: What Marconi Thought of Broadcasting - plus 1920s adverts, voiced by listeners...       APPROX TRANSCRIPT:   Marconi himself appeared on the BBC in 1936, playing himself in a reconstruction of when he first sent Morse code across the Atlantic in 1901...   Those are Marconi's last recorded words before he died, there with his assistants Pagett and Kemp, though Kemp was played by an actor. They're recreating the moment when they sent Morse Code from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland, 2000+ miles away. Prior to that 255 miles was the wireless record.   Marconi was always outdoing himself. As a teenager he'd sent radiowaves across his bedroom – a transmitter and receiver ringing a bell. Then outside, asking his assistant across a field to fire a gunshot if the wireless signal reached him. Then over water. Then... in 1896 the 21yr old Marconi came to England. The Italian army weren't interested in his new invention, so he thought he'd try the influential engineers of London. I think it's that decision that set London and the BBC as the beating heart of broadcasting a couple of decades later.   There was a magical moment where Marconi strode into Toynbee Hall in East London, with two boxes. They communicated, wirelessly, and he simply said: “My name is Gooly-elmo Marconi, and I have just invented wireless.” That's a drop mic moment. If they had a mic to drop.   Others played with this technology. In December 1906, Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden managed to make a very faint speech broadcast for ships near Brant Rock Massachusetts – making the first entertainment show for radio. He played a record, Handel's Largo, played O Holy Night on violin, and read from Luke's gospel, chapter 2. Well it was Christmas Eve.   This was actually my way in to this whole radio story. I wrote a book on the history of Christmas, called Hark! The b of C. So I researched Fesseden's Christmas entertainment first... and also the first BBC Christmas of 1922. When I read that the Beeb had 35,000 listeners at that point, but 4 employees, I had to know who these 4 employees were! I started digging. When I discovered that 2 of those people had an on-air feud, one of them was John Reith, an arguably immoral moralist, and the 4th was soon sacked by him... I thought, there's a book in this. So as I research and write that, I'm podcasting as I go on the BBCentury. I love that this medium of podcasting owes so much to those early pioneers... and I'm no engineer. For me, it's all about the characters. We'll get to the BBC pioneers soon enough, but Marconi, he was one of those characters.   Through the 1910s, business was booming for Marconi, but he still saw radio as a two-way thing – we ‘radio' for help. Marconi took the credit for radio's use in catching criminals – Dr Crippen, who'd escaped on a ship across the ocean. And saving lives, onboard Titanic. Soon every major vessel carried radios and a Marconi operator – for a fee of course. He made his money in sending messages, the world over, between two people. The broadcast aspect was an accident – a pitfall of radio being too ‘leaky'. So the first listeners were actually called ‘listeners-in' – the messages weren't intended for them.   So it was at a more amateur level – the radio hams – who'd be experimenting with ‘broadcasting'. Britain's first DJ, technically, was a woman called Gertrude Donisthorpe in WWI. Her husband Horace was the eager experimenter, an army wireless trainer by day, and at night the couple would cycle to a field near Worcester, he'd set up one side, her on the other, and she'd play records and recite rhymes just for her audience of 1 – her husband, to see if it worked. She'd cycle across the field to see if it had, often finding he'd cycled off to tell her via a different route. As they progressed, they started transmitting limited wireless concerts for some local troops. And they were popular. Radio amateurs enjoyed what they heard, when they could hear it. There was demand for wireless entertainment... just not much supply.   But the engineers like those at the Marconi Company, were continually strengthening and improving the technology. Marconi's right-hand man Captain Round for example...   No fan of red tape... this Churchill lookalike, round face, cigars and no-nonsense... joined 1902, genius... designed radios... especially for aircraft... Jutland direction-finding... But Captain Round is a name to watch.   After the war, 1919, just months from the birth of broadcasting, The Marconi Company still had no real interest in radio as an artform or entertainment or anything other than point to point messaging. Apart from one person, their Head of Publicity, Arthur Burrows...   In 1918 Burrows wrote: “There appears to be no serious reason why, before we are many years older, politicians speaking, say, in Parliament, should not be heard simultaneously by wireless in the reporting room of every newspaper office in the United Kingdom. . . . The field of wireless telephone, however, is by no means restricted to newspaper work. The same idea might be extended to make possible the correct reproduction in all private residences of Albert Hall or Queen's Hall concerts or the important recitals at the lesser rendezvous of the musical world. . . . There would be no technical difficulty in the way of an enterprising advertisement agency arranging for the interval in the musical programme to be filled with audible advertisements, pathetic or forcible appeals—in appropriate tones—on behalf of somebody's soap or tomato ketchup.” We'll come back to Arthur Burrows.   Around the same time in America, future radio mogul David Sarnoff sent a memo referring to a “radio music box”, that could “listeners-in” could have in their homes, playing the music broadcast by wireless stations, that were cropping up, especially in America, and a steadily increasing rate.   In Britain, Captain Round of the Marconi Company continued to experiment. Rightly medalled after the war, he switched his attention from using radio to find enemy ships, to using radio to transmit the human voice further and stronger than ever before. This meant tests.   Now the nature of radio, the quirk of it, is that it's not private. You can't experiment without anyone with a set listening in – and since the war there were more and more ex wireless operators and amateur radio “hams”. So as Round experimented, in Chelmsford at the end of 1919, with his assistant William Ditcham, across Britain and even into Europe, people heard him. Ditcham had to read out something into his microphone – just the candlestick part of an old telephone. Ditcham would begin by addressing those listening – the ‘leaky' nature of these radio experiments meant the engineers actually used those cheekly listening in to find their range and signal strength. So Ditcham would begin: “MZX calling, MZX calling! This is the Marconi valve transmitter in Chelmsford, England, testing on a wavelength of 2750metres. How are our signals coming in today? Can you hear us clearly? I will now recite to you my usual collection of British railway stations for test purposes... ...The Great Northern Railway starts Kings cross, London, and the North Western Railway starts from Euston. The Midland railway starts from St Pancras. The Great Western Railway starts from...”   Railway timetables! And they were a hit. Mr Ditcham became an expert is this new art of broadcasting, before the word was even invented. He noted: “Distinct enunciation is essential and it's desirable to speak in as loud a tone as possible!”   Word spread. Letters to newspapers said how much radio amateurs were enjoying Ditcham and Round's wireless experiments... but the content could do with being a bit more exciting. How about a newspaper?   So in January 1920, William Ditcham became our first broadcast newsreader, literally reading the news, from a paper he'd bought that morning. Well, he'd sit on it a day, and read yesterday's paper... The press might have a problem with their copyrighted news being given away for free. And thus begins the rocky relp between broadcasters and the press. It's worth keeping them on side...   In Jan 1920, there are 2 weeks of ‘Ditcham's News Service' – that's Britain's first programme title. That gains over 200 reports from listeners-in, as far as Spain, Portgula, Norway... up to 1500 mi away. So the transmitter is replaced, from 6kw to 15kw. Ditcham ups his game too. Throws in a gramophone record or two. 15mins of news, 15mins of music. A half hour in total – that seems a good length for a programme – really it was what the licence allowed, but it's clearly stuck – at least till Netflix and the like mean programme length has becoame a little more variable, a century later.   Then in Feb, there's live music – just a few fellow staff at the Marconi Works in Chelmsford, including Mr White on piano, Mr Beeton on oboe and Mr Higby on woodwind.   At Marconi HQ, Arthur Burrows, that publicity director who wrote of possible wireless concerts and ketchup sponsors, he gets behind this in a big way. He heads to Chelmsford, supports Ditcham and Round, and even joins the band. And you know who else joins the band...   ...from the neighbouring works building – Hoffman's Ball Bearings - a singer, Miss Winifred Sayer. Now as she's not a Marconi employee, she needs to be paid... so she's radio's first professional   Previous broadcasts had been a little luck of the draw, but this one, well it would be nice to tell people it's going to happen. So Captain Round sends out the first listings – the pre Radio Times, radio... times... you can hear Winifred Sayer and the band: 11am and 8pm, Feb 23rd till March 6th That memo goes out to all the Marconi land stations and ships at sea. The first song Winifred sang was called Absent – she later called it a “punch and judy show”, and enjoyed her ten shillings a show. As she left, the MD of Marconi's said to her: “You've just made history.”   So, we have radio, right? Not so fast! The fun is just beginning...   The press, you see, were worth keeping on side. The Daily Mail got wind of this. Arthur Burrows, that publicity chap and radio prophet, he became friends in the war with Tom Clarke, now editor of the Daily Mail. And the Mail loved a novelty. They'd sponsor air races and car dashes and design-a-top-hat competitions. Radio was right up their fleet street.   But they'd need a bigger singer than Winifred Sayer from Hoffman's Ball Bearings. They wanted to see how big an audience there'd be for broadcasting – a word just coming into use, a farming term, about how you spread seed, far and wide, scattershot, never quite knowing how far it reaches, and whether it will be well received and grow into something. So the Daily Mail fund one of the world's biggest singers: Dame Nellie Melba – of Peach Melba fame. She was over in England at the Albert Hall doing some shows, so for a thousand pounds – enough to buy a house – she came to Chelmsford. Outside broadcasts didn't exist at the time, given the size of the kit. Ditcham and Round prepared the Chelmsford Works building, although that involved a small fire, a carpet Melba rolled away as soon as she saw it, and a microphone made from an old cigar box and a hat rack. Arthur Burrows gave Madame Melba a tour when they weren't quite ready... She took one look at the 450ft radio mast and said “Young man if you think I'm going to climb up there, you are greatly mistaken.”   She broadcasts on June 15th 1920, and it's a huge hit, despite a shutdown just before finishing her last song. Captain Round makes her do it again, without telling her of the shutdown, by simply asking for an encore.   Arthur Burrows gives the opening and closing announcements, instead of William Ditcham, because this has been Burrows' dream. Broadcast radio concerts. So what next? It spanned Britain, reached Madrid, parts of the Middle East...   But it's too successful. The Air Ministry finds planes couldn't land during the concert. It dominated the airwaves. So despite a few extra professional concerts from Chelmsford that summer – opera stars like Lauritz Melchior, and Dame Clara Butt – the govt step in and shut all radio experiments down.   Arthur Burrows finds himself at sea, literally, that summer, demonstrating radio to the press on the way to an interionational press event... but without govt backing, journalists now see radio as maybe a means to communicate newsroom to newsroom. Ditcham's news and Melba's music seem to be all that broadcasting amounted to.   For 18 months, nothing. Radio amateurs, and indeed Arthur Burrows at Marconi, petition the PostmasterGeneral to reconsider. And finally... it worked.   Because while the ether had fallen silent in Britain, it continued in Holland, a bit in France, and in America radio is booming. Not wanting to be left behind, the British govt say ok, you can have one radio station. The Marconi Company is granted a permit. But much to Burrows dismay... the job lands on the desk of another person I want to introduce you to... Peter Eckersley   Eckersley was with the Designs Dept of the Aircraft Section of Marconi's. His team had helped create air traffic control; Eckersley had been there in the war for the first ground to air wireless communication, and now in their spare team, his team in a muddy field in the village of Writtle in Essex, not far from Chelmsford, would have to fit this broadcasting malarkey in in their spare time, for an extra pound a show, not much.   It was odd. Radio amateurs wanted it. Burrows the Marconi publicity guy wanted it. Eckersley and his team couldn't give two hoots about it – in fact they celebrated when the govt banned radio 18 months earlier, as finally the airwaves were clear for them and their serious work, instead of constant blinking opera from Chelmsford.   But it's Eckersley's job, to start Britain's first regular radio station: 2MT Writtle. And from Feb 14th 1920, for the first few weeks it sounds pretty normal. They play gramophone records, chosen by Arthur Burrows at head office. Burrows has arranged a sponsorship deal – not with ketchup with a gramophone company, who provide a player so long as it's mentioned on air. Peter Eckersley's team of boffins break the gramophone player. There was a live singer – the first song on the first regular broadcast radio show was the Floral Dance, though the Times called it only “faintly audible”. It is not a hit. For 5 weeks this continues, bland introductions to records, a live singer or two. And Peter Eckersley, the man in charge, goes home each night to hear the show his crew put out on the wireless. Until week 6, when he stays, for a pre-show gin and fish and chips and more gin at the pub. Then he... runs down the lane to the hut and reaches the microphone first! And he starts talking......   Eckersley talks and talks and mimics and carouses... He plays the fool, plays the gramophone records, off-centre, or covered in jam...   ...the strict licence meant closing down for 3mins in every 10, to listen for govt messages, in case they have to stop broadcasting. Eckersley doesn't shut down for 3mins. The licence limited them to half an hour. Not Eckersley. Over an hour later, he stops. And sleeps it off. Next day, his team gather round and tell him what he said.   Our man Arthur Burrows gets in touch. A stern admonishment! Burrows' dream of broadcasting, had been dashed on the rocks by Eckersley, a man drinking, on the rocks. But accompanying Burrows' angry missive came a postbag of listener fanmail. “We loved it” they said. “Do it again.” Burrows was a lone voice against Eckersley's antics, so the following Tuesday, and every Tuesday in 1922, Peter Eckersley seized the mic again and again.   Demand for radio sets boomed. Ports stopped receiving ships when Peter Eckersley was on. Parliament even closed their sessions early to hear him. He was our first radio star. And he helped spawn an industry.   Burrows is still fuming, but there is no greater demand for radio. So he applies for a 2nd licence, for a London station – let's do this radio thing properly. 2LO in London is granted that licence, and Burrows isn't taking any chances – HE will be the primary broadcaster.   Poetry readings, sports commentary, opening night boxing match. Later in the summer, garden party concerts. And as Burrows is a publicity and demonstration man, many of these broadcast concerts are for private institutions, charity events, a chance to show what broadcasting can do.   Other wireless manufacturers other than Marconi's express an interest, they ask the PMG for a licence to broadcast too. MetroVick in Manchester, they want in, so the PMG says fine. Kenneth Wright is the engineer at MetroVick who gets the job of launching in Manchester.   Wright continues in Manchester... Eck continues in Writtle in Essex... Burrows continues in London...   But Eckersley mocks Burrows. In fact people write to Arthur Burrows saying how much they enjoy his broadcasts on 2LO London, but could he stop broadcasting every Tuesday evening for the half hour Eckersley's on, cos listeners want to hear Eckersley lampoon Burrows. For instance, Burrows played the Westminster chimes in the studio – this is 18mths before Big Ben's chimes would be heard on the BBC. So Eckersley outdoes Burrows by finding all the pots, pans, bottles and scrap metal he can, and bashing it all with sticks. Messy chaos! He loved it.   He's another, retold by Eckersley and Burrows themselves, some 20 years apart... You see, both would close their broadcasts with a poem.   All through the spring and summer of 1922, each broadcast is still experimental. Official broadcasting hasn't quite yet begun – because no one knows if there's a future in this. In fact the Marconi Company largely thought all this was one big advert to show consumers how easy wireless communication is, and how they should all pay Marconi's to help them send point-to-point messages.   But the bug grows. The press want in. The Daily Mail apply for a licence for to set up a radio station. They're turned down – it would be too powerful for a a newspaper to have a radio station. It only took Times Radio 100 years...   In Westminster, the PostGen is inundated by applications for pop-up radio stations. He can't just keep licensing all of them. What is this, America?! Arthur Burrows...   In May 1922, the PostGen says to the wireless manufacturers, look. I can't have all of you setting up rival radio stations. But I will licence one or maybe two of you. Get together, chat it through, work out how you can work together.   For a while, it looks like there will be two british Broadcasting companies – a north and a south. Kenneth Wright...   ...but after weeks, even months of meetings, primareily with the big 6 wireless firms, an agreement is struck.   ...You may wonder where Reith is in all this. Wasn't he meant to be the fella who started the thing!? He arrives when the BBC is one month old. For now, he's leaving a factory management job in Scotland, settling down with his new wife, having moved on from a possibly gay affair with his best friend Charlie... and he's about to try a career in politics. He's never heard of broadcasting at this stage. But for those who have, in the summer of 1922, Parliament announces there will be one broadcasting company, funded by a licence fee.....   One British Broadcasting Company. Marconi, MetroVick, Western Electric, General Electric and so on... each will have one representative on the board of this BBC, and then broadcasting can continue, they'll all sell wireless radio sets, and to fund the operation, there'll be a licence fee.   The name ‘BBCo' is coined by one of the wireless manufacturer bosses in one of those meetings, Frank Gill, who notes in a memo before the name ‘broadcasting company', the word ‘British'. A few lines down, he's the first to write the word ‘pirates' regarding those broadcasting without a licence.   But there's one more hurdle to conquer – news. That takes some time to iron out with the press, and finally it's agreed that us broadcasters will lease the news from them, for a fee, and no daytime news, to ensure readers still bought papers.   The press and the broadcasters still have an uneasy relationship, so whenever you see the newspapers having a pop at the BBC, know that the Daily Mail sponsored the first ever broadcast with Dame Melba, they were turned down for a radio station when they applied, and for years they were annoyed this radio upstart was trying to steal their readers.   With the starting pistol sounded, Arthur Burrows gets his dream: he's convinced his employer, the Marconi Company that radio isn't just about sending messages to individuals, it's about reaching many listeners... or better still, it's still about reaching individuals, just lots of them. Flash forward to Terry Wogan's sad goodbye from his Radio 2 Breakfast Show. “Thank you for being my friend.” Singular. Radio – even podcasts like this – still speak to one listener at a time. I make a connection with you. Arthur Burrows and Peter Eckersley, were among the first to realise that.   But which of them would launch or join the BBC? The wild unpredictable Eckersley, who created demand for radio, and was still mocking Burrows in his field hut in an Essex village? Or the straight-laced Arthur Burrows, who's prophesied broadcasting for years?   I think we know the answer to that. Playing it safe, The Marconi Company kept 2LO as part of this new British Broadcasting Company, as well as 2ZY Manchester under MetroVick, and a new station in Birmingham, 5IT, run by Western Electric. Marconi's would also build new stations, in Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow, and more, growing in reach and ambition.   But it starts in London, on November 14th 1922, with a souped-up transmitter, rebuilt by good old Captain Round, the Marconi whizz who helped start it all. Arthur Burrows is before the mic, achieving his dream, to see broadcasting come to fruition. There are no recordings of that first broadcast, but we recreated it...   The next day, the Birmingham station 5IT launches – they quickly bring in the first regular children's presenters, Uncle Edgar and Uncle Tom. An hour after they launch, Manchester 2ZY starts under the BBC banner, with more children's programming there, plus an early home for an in-house BBC orchestra.   When the jobs go out for the this new BBC, bizarrely after it's actually launched, there are just 4 employees hired before the end of the year, and Burrows is first, a shoo-in for Director of Programmes. John Reith applies for General Managership, having tried a bit of politics, but been pointed towards the BBC advert by his MP boss. On arriving, one of the first things he says is: ‘So what is broadcasting?'   As for Peter Eckersley, he continues at 2MT Writtle, every Tuesday evening into January 1923. The only non-BBC station to share the airwaves till commercial, pirate or... well there's Radio Luxembourg but that's for a future episode. But Eckersley too is ultimately convinced to join the good ship BBC. And all it takes is an opera, broadcast live from the Royal Opera House in January 1923 – one of the first outside broadcasts.   A penny drops for Eckersley, and he realises the power and potential of this broadcasting lark. Reith convinces him to stop his frivolous Tuesday show in Essex, and offers him a job as the BBC's first Chief Engineer. And here Eckersley prospers, giving us new technology, nationwide broadcasting, the world's first high-power long-wave transmitter at Daventry, he brings choice to the airwaves, with a regional and national scheme. Without Burrows, without Eckersley, without Reith, British broadcasting would look very different.   There's one other name, among many, I'm particularly enthusiastic about: Hilda Matheson. An ex-spy who becomes the first Director of Talks, who reinvents talk radio and gives us the basis for Radio 4 and speech radio and indeed podcasting, you could argue, as we know it. She's a fascinating character – part of a gay love triangle with the poet Vita Sackville West and Virginia Woolf. She's the only BBC employee allowed to bring a dog to work.   And so much more, we'll unpack on the British Broadcasting Century podcast, plus the Pips, the Proms, the Radio Times, and everything else you know and love, tolerate or loathe about British broadcasting today.  

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Out with the Old: The First BBC New Year's Eve

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2021 34:52


1922 (and season 2 of the podcast) closes with, you guessed it, New Year's Eve. But this one's special. For the first time, Brits don't need to go out to celebrate. They can stay home and listen to the wireless: concerts, dance music, no Big Ben's bongs yet (the only BBC New Year without them)... and a preach from Rev Archibald Fleming. We bring you all this - including the voice of Rev Fleming himself, along with Reith, some newspaper cuttings of the day, and everything you never knew you needed to know about December 31st 1922 on the air. Plus a guest! BBC producer and presenter Paul Hayes has written a new book on the birth of the modern Doctor Who. We talk about The Long Game - 1996-2003: The Inside Story of How the BBC Brought Back Doctor Who. Get your copy by clicking that link, from Ten Acre Films publishing. Paul also tells us about his radio documentaries, Eric Maschwitz, John Snagge, Emperor Rosko (who you can hear on our early episodes) and lots more. A huge thanks to Andrew Barker for being our Newspaper Detective again and finding the listings in this episode. This may be the end of season 2, but the specials begin very soon, then very soon we'll be embarking on 1923: the year that made the BBC. So stay subscribed for more of this, and see below for transcript and shownotes. Thanks for listening!   SHOWNOTES: This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and corralled by Paul Kerensa, who you can email if you want to add something to the show on radio history. Your contributions are welcome. My new one-man play The First Broadcast is now booking for dates in 2022. Got a venue? Book me for your place. Here's one - The Museum of Comedy. Join me, in April or in November on the very date of the BBC's 100th birthday! Thanks for joining us on Patreon if you do - or if you might! It supports the show, keeps it running, keeps me in books, which I then devour and add it all to the mixing-pot of research for this podcast. In return, I give you video, audio, advance writings, an occasional reading from C.A. Lewis' 1924 book Broadcasting From Within etc. Thanks if you've ever bought me a coffee at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Again, it all helps keep us afloat. We talk about the Doctor Who memos on the podcast this time. The reports in 1962 on a possible sci-fi show. Want to read them? Here they are! Five reports - just scroll down to 'Doctor Who'. Fascinating reading. We post more interesting links like that in our British Broadcasting Century Facebook group. Join us there! I post similar things on Twitter too - The British Broadcasting Century Twitter profile is here. Do follow. My other podcast of interviews is A Paul Kerensa Podcast. Have a listen! Please rate and review this podcast where you found it... and keep liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online. It all helps others find us.  My mailing list is here - sign up for updates on all I do, writing, teaching writing, stand-up, radio etc. My books are available here or orderable from bookshops, inc Hark! The Biography of Christmas. Coming in 2022: a novel on all this radio malarkey. And don't forget Paul Hayes' book The Long Game - 1996-2003: The Inside Story of How the BBC Brought Back Doctor Who is available now. Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.   APPROXIMATE TRANSCRIPT: Previously on the podcast... 1922, what a year! In January, PostGen Mr Kellaway announces he'll allow 15min of speech and music alongside 15min of Morse, from just one station, and only to calibrate wireless sets. In February, 2MT Writtle goes on the air, with that weekly 30min transmission, again, just for calibration purposes. Yeah right. In March, Peter Eckersley seizes the mic on 2MT Writtle, and wins over the hearts and minds, but mainly ears of the nation In April, Reith leaves Scotland for London to find work. In May, Marconi's begins a second station, 2LO London, and MetroVick began 2ZY Manchester. In June, the PostGen insists the companies get together and thrash out how to get along! In July, the companies decide to form not two companies, but one. In August, the BBC is formed – when govt tell them to get a move on. In September, a big wireless exhibition, to sell radios to the masses. In October, the press problem is hammered out. In November, the BBC launches! In December, the first four staff are hired. What a year!   This time, year's end – the sun sets on British broadcasting's birth year. We'll bring you the programming for the first BBC New Year's Eve, including the voices of those who rang the year out.   No Big Ben's bongs just yet. Just the end of the beginning, and the end of season 2, pretty much.   Plus our special guest, BBC Radio Norfolk's Paul Hayes, with tell of his new book on Doctor Who.   This is the last episode of Season 2. See, my original plan was to call it season 2 all the way to end of 1923. But now we've reached the end of 1922, it does feel, a change is coming in the fledgeling British Broadcasting of the early 20s.   For 10 or so episodes, we've covered the pre-Reith BBC. The pre-Magnet House BBC. The make it up as you go along BBC.   So I feel we should mark the move to the Reith era with a new season. Season 3! A line in the sand, as they cross the threshold into the New Year, and into Magnet House.   Here's the plan – you'll recall we had a few specials on the podcast between seasons 1 and 2. Well I think let's have at least one special, next time, and we've got one ready and waiting.   So after New Year this ep, next ep will be the special episode we recorded for The History of England podcast. It's essentially the entire podcast so far told in half an hour. Some clips you'll have heard her, some you won't have. If you've heard The H of E podcast special, you'll have heard most of next time's episode, but a) it's nice to have it all in one place, and b) I'll add some new bits.   Meanwhile, one more episode of season 2 then – this one, on the first BBC New Year.   Dec 30th: John Reith's first day of work.   Well one thing we didn't mention last time is he ended his first day in charge by writing a letter, to his former best friend, and perhaps one-time lover, Charlie Bowser. See episode 15: John Reith Mastermind for details of Charlie.   He was Reith's best friend and then some. Reith was always finding Charlie deputy roles in every job Reith worked in – from the army to Beardsmore's Glasgow factory. Reith wanted Charlie Bowser by his side. Until, that is, they had a massive falling out, over, you guessed it, women. They both got married, and maybe they were never destined to. Reith's wife Muriel seemed to fit in ok – though both John and Charlie loved her – John Reith even thought Charlie loved Muriel more than he did, and he was married to her.   But when Charlie married a woman Reith nicknamed ‘Jezebel', it drove a wedge between the two men.   Still, Reith always wrote to Charlie on his birthday. So he did in late 1922, and got a rather blunt reply from Charlie.   “Smug little cad” wrote Reith in his diary after his first day of work. “Of course if only things had been otherwise, he could have been Assistant General Manager of this new concern.”   He had left Charlie behind.   If they hadn't had such a falling out, I've no doubt Charlie would have been Deputy DG, and Reith-era BBC would have been somewhat different – possibly more relaxed.   Instead, the no2 job of the BBC, would ultimately go, in 1923, to Admiral Charles Carpendale – a man who came to see each BBC building as a ship, with decks, and crewmates. And some say Broadcasting House was even constructed that way. You see NBH today, it still looks like a small ocean liner. With a Starbucks.   But Charlie was not to be part of it – and Reith gloated about that fact.   But on a more optimistic note, the BBC was booming, with demand for licences sky-rocketing.   By Dec 31st, 1922: 35,774 licences issued by GPO... With just 4 employees What 2LO London had for their first New Year's broadcast: For the kids, Baden-Powell gave a message to the Scouts. Then the original listings say that NYE closed after a concert, bedtime at 10:30pm.   As NY grew nearer though, a plan formed to stay up late.   But it was a Sunday, so forget dance music, Reith knew what he wanted.   Dec 31: ‘I had told Burrows – my first order to him – that we would observe Sundays and that we should ask Dr Fleming of Pont Street to give a short religious address tonight.'   Yes, the first order of Reith's reign! To engage an End of Year Watchnight religious talk from Rev Dr Archibald Fleming, of the Church of Scotland, London branch.   Just before midnight, the hymn was sung solo: O God Our Help in Ages Past. Then there were no Big Ben chimes – but there were Burrows' tubular bells in the studio.   Popular Wireless magazine: “2LO's chimes sounded the hour and then gave a lifelike imitation of the local belfry in full swing. The peals came out excellently on a loudspeaker, and the bagpipe solo must have been a joy to any Scotsman listening-in.”   Oh yes, there were bagpipes, from Mr R Marshall, an actual piper in the studio, alongside a Mr Kenneth Ellis who sang Auld Lang Syne.   2LO's Musical Director Stanton Jefferies announced in the New Year, then Burrows said: “Hullo everybody! 2LO, the London Broadcasting station speaking. We hope you have enjoyed our little concert. I expect this is the most original way of passing watchnight you have ever experienced. 2LO wishes you a happy and prosperous New Year. May you have the best of luck! Goodbye everybody. Goodbye and the best of luck!”   Next time: The specials! Beginning with The Story So Far... So stay subscribed, tell others, and join us then. Next episode released on the 99th birthday of the BBC...

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

December 29th-30th 1922: General Manager John Reith begins work! The good ship Broadcasting finally gets its captain. On Episode 35 of The British Broadcasting Century, we bring you the complete tale of not only Reith's first day - the liftsman, the lone office, the "Dr Livingstone, I presume" moment - but also his commute to work, from Scotland to London via Newcastle. Here he investigates/interviews/interrogates poor Tom Payne, director of Newcastle 5NO, a BBC station that's only five days old, temporarily running from the back of a lorry in a stable-yard. We'll hear from Reith, Payne (who claims to be the only person to bank-roll a British radio station), Birmingham director Percy Edgar, early BBC governor Mary Agnes Hamitlon. Plus we'll hear from Mark Carter of BBC Radio Sussex, BBC Radio Surrey, Susy Radio, Wey Valley Radio, across which he's been presenter, producer and now Executive Editor. There's also a treasure trove of radio memoribilia including 'the green book' of what you can and can't say on the radio - in 1948 - courtesy of the collection of former BBC Head of Heritage Justin Phillips. We're ever so grateful to his family for sharing that with us.   SHOWNOTES: This episode leans on several books, the chief of which is probably Garry Alligan's 1938 book Sir John Reith, but also Asa Briggs' various books, Brian Hennessy's The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain, and The Reith Diaries edited by Charles Stuart. Plus about a dozen others.  Join us on Patreon for a tour of my radio history bookshelf, plus extras, audio, video, an occasional reading from C.A. Lewis' 1924 book Broadcasting From Within, plus the glowing feeling of supporting this podcast. Thanks to all who support us there and keep us ticking over. For a one-off contribution, you could buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Thanks! It all helps keep us afloat. This podcast is NOTHING to do with the present-day BBC - it's entirely run, researched, presented and corralled by Paul Kerensa, who you can email if you want to add something to the show on radio history. Your contributions are welcome. The British Broadcasting Century Facebook page is here. Join us there. The British Broadcasting Century Facebook group is here. Join us there too. The British Broadcasting Century Twitter profile is here. Join us there three. My other podcast of interviews is A Paul Kerensa Podcast. Have a listen! My mailing list is here - sign up for updates on all I do, writing, teaching writing, stand-up, radio etc. My books are available here or orderable from bookshops, inc Hark! The Biography of Christmas. Coming in 2022: a novel on all this radio malarkey. Archive clips are either public domain or used with kind permission from the BBC, copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Please rate and review this podcast where you found it... and keep liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online. It all helps others find us.      APPROXIMATE TRANSCRIPT: Previously on the BBCentury...   The 6-week-old BBC now has 4 plucky stations! Yes, the Geordies have joined the Cockneys the Brummies and the Mancunians... Except 5NO Newcastle has had a few teething troubles. No one there's run a radio station before! So on Christmas Eve Eve 1922, their first is broadcast from the back of a lorry in a stableyard.   But fear not, with Christmas behind us, Head Office are on the case! And the BBC's first and only General Manager John Reith is well-rested, he's even asked a friend what broadcasting is, and he reckons he's ok to take control. He's always liked fishing. That's what broadcasting is... isn't it?   THIS TIME... Still puzzling out what his job is, John Reith begins work! We've got all the info on his legendary first day, his ‘Dr Livingstone I presume' moment... and his first task of running the Beeb: fixing Newcastle. He seeks to inform, educate and entertain, but first troubleshoot.   Plus bang up to date, we'll hear from a man with radio in his very fibre... local radio executive editor and presenter, from BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey, and Susy Radio, and Wey Valley Radio... Mark Carter   As we mark the start of the Reith era, buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Here on the BBCentury   TITLES   Hullo, hullo...   We've seen a few eps ago, how Reith, and Burrows, and Anderson and Lewis were all hired as the first 4 founding fathers at the BBC. But they start work at New Year. Of course, we know that those of them who were broadcasters, Burrows and Lewis – they were already workig super-hard, planning and presenting almost 7 days a week, even through Christmas.   But the start of the BBC's new era, with a head office at Magnet House, till Savoy Hill opened, all of this happens after Christmas 1922, going into New Year 1923.   So this ep, I'll tell you about Reith's first day, Dec 29th. Next episode, we'll round off with a rather sweet New Year's Eve bit of programming. Then I think we'll have a bit of a recap and a breather, before starting 1923 proper, when the BBC exploded into life, with a booming staff, the first proper live concerts from the royal opera house, and so much more.   What a tale! What an era! I wish I was there. I can't be, so next best thing, I'll spend a pandemic researching and recording this... The BBCe, now with the first day of work from John Reith!   STING   But before he starts in London, we're going super-geeky, super0detailed, and I'll actually tell you about Reith's JOURNEY to London. Because that's really notable too.   Having been appointed, and spent a day or two with Burrows and co, scouting for offices, puzzling out what broadcasting is, Reith has spent Christmas in Scotland, staying with his mum...   “I told her that I wanted her to live to see me a knight anyhow. I feel if this job succeeds and I am given grace to succeed in it, I might nt be so far off this. I do want a title for dear mother's sake, and Muriel's...”    That from Reith's diary, Dec 28th 1922. So he's keen on this job, for the authoritative position it gives him, it seems, to begin with, at least. He's turned down good deputy jobs before this point. He wanted to lead something. Anything. Even a thing he doesn't understand.   Here's a snapshot what Reith would have been completely unaware was on that Christmas, on each of the BBC's stations:   We told you all about the London Christmas last time, but from Boxing Day, you'd hear more from the brand new 2LO Orchestra, and a triumphant Boxing Day Peter Pan, Uncle Jeff and Uncle Arthur holding the fort, rewarded with many gifts from the listeners. Demand for radio sets outstripped supply. The radio boom was booming. In Brum: Percy Edgar gives his Dickens, artistes don't turn up. Callout on air. Frederick Warrander turned up, with his pianist! Manc: Christmas stories for kids, then grownups, Handel's Messiah, ghost stories Newcastle: Hawaiian band   Then there's 2MT Writtle, who've had the week off for Christmas – that's not a BBC station, but they've done the groundwork earlier in the year, and now Peter Eckersley is there pondering whether he should keep going, in this Marconi station out in Essex, now that proper broadcasting has begun – and the big boss is on his way to start work.   So Friday 29th December, Reith says bye mum, I'll come back when I'm knighted, and leaves Dunardoch for London – raring to start work the next day, a Saturday, but he wanted to get in before his small staff turns up after the weekend.   But, his Director of Progs Arthur Burrows, who knows more than almost anyone about how all this runs, he's asked his boss to make a stopover en route to Magnet House in London. Burrows wants Reith to get off the train at Newcastle, and check in on the baby station, 5NO. We talked about their launch last time – so at this point it's only 5 days old, and it's the first BBC station to be built from scratch.   Burrows has his doubts about the Newcastle staff. New station director Payne is out on a limb, setting up this new station in the northeast – with the smallest, most abandoned staff.... Probably adding to Burrows' doubts were Tom Payne's announcing habits: he kept repeating the callsign over and over: ‘This is 5NO calling, this is 5NO calling, this is 5NO calling...”   Payne was popular locally already in amateur radio circles – but would he have the chops to broadcast nationally, on radio? To fit in, with what Burrows had set in motion?   Reith's a bit reluctant to break his journey in Newcastle. Doesn't quite see why. Doesn't quite know what a radio station is. But he's quite keen to see one in action – although Newcastle's version is a stableyard, so not really your typical radio station...   ‘Newcastle at 12:30. Here I really began my BBC responsibility. Saw transmitting station and studio place and landlords. It was very interesting. Away at 4:28, London at 10:10, bed at 12:00. I am trying to keep in close touch with Christ in all I do and I pray he may keep close to me. I have a great work to do.'   Reith is dumbfounded. He's got off the train, and found Tom Payne alternating between announcing what's on the radio, playing some live musical instruments, and trying to shut up a howling dog in a nearby kennel. So did he let Mr Payne off the hook?   “As the temporary Station Director knew more than I did, as he had produced programmes of some kind or another for 5 days already... I rather naturally left him in possession for the time being.”   As for the tech setup in Newcastle, that doesn't improve too quickly. Reith will be shocked in the New Year of '23 to discover their new control room is in fact a standard public phone box installed in the middle of the studio. Forget the engineer through the glass. This was an engineer in the glass, in a glass box, closed in from before the programme started till after it finished, no ventilation, no seat, no dignity.   Come January, Reith would personally seek new premises for those provincial stations that were lacking. Eventually.   For now though, on Dec 29th, Reith leaves Newcastle, after a stopover of less than 4hrs, and continues to London.   So Reith has arrived in London, slept off his train journey, and awoken ready for his first day at the BBC. London at 10:10, bed at 12:00. I am trying to keep in close touch with Christ in all I do and I pray he may keep close to me. I have a great work to do.' At 9am that Saturday, Reith arrives at the GEC offices in Kingsway, London. “where I had been informed temporary accommodation had been at our disposal.” This is Magnet House., first offices of the BBC.   He has doubts what he'll find, but is pleased to see a large notice in the foyer: “Brit Broad Company, 2nd floor”   “This was rather reassuring. One was therefore not altogether unexpected and there really was such a thing as the BBC. Before I was permitted to enter the elevator, an enquiry was naturally made regarding my business. ‘BBC', I said deliberately. “Nobody there yet, sir,” he replied. So I told him that this was it, or part of it, one quarter approximately.”   How delightfully drole, of both Reith and the liftsman.   “A room about 30fr by 15, furnished with 3 long tables and some chairs. A door at one end invited examination: a tiny compartment 6ft sq, here a table and a chair, also a telephone. ‘This,' I thought, ‘is the general manager's office'. The door swung to behind me. I wedged it open; sat down, surveyed the emptiness of the outer office. Though various papers had accumulated in the past fortnight, I had read them all before. No point in pretending to be busy with no one to see.”   It's an unusual start for Reith then, still a little clueless as to what's required of him. He needs his staff to arrive before he can quite figure out what to do, how to run this BBC. So he picks up the phone, a bit like Manuel when he briefly takes charge of Fawlty Towers. “Manuel Towers! How are you today!” Or Alan Partridge picking up the hotel phone to find he's reached reception.   In Reith's case, he's delighted a female voice answers. Yes? “Having been unexpectedly answered, I trued hurriedly to think of a number which at 9:15am I might be properly expected to call up, on BBC business. Naturally without success. As there was no BBC business to anything with. So I enquired, somewhat fatuously, and with some embarrassment, if she had had any intrusctions about calls for the BBC or from them, and that if so, the BBC was there.” Now. Just.     This receptionist would connect many calls to R over the coming months, and years, Miss Isobel Shields.   Reith was a fan of Mr Gamage of the GEC. He was not a fan of Major Anderson, his new, brief secretary.     1/2hr later, Major Anderson, Sec, arrived 9:30am, “with some manifestation of authority”.  Silk hat, two attache cases, legal-looking books under his arm. Reith described it as a bit “Livingstone and Stanley”, each presumed the other was the Secretary or General Manager.  ‘I hadn't seen him before. It was an awful shock. I saw at once that he would never do... Conversation was not brisk...”   Then Mr Gamage, Secretary of the GEC, lovely welcoming fella. For 10 weeks, Gamage sees to their every need, and refuses all offer of payment for the room, lunch, tea, phone calls. GEC's guest.   That night Major Anderson the Sec goes home to type a letter, to invite Miss Isobel Shields to stop working for General Electric, be poached by the BBC, and become one of the first six staff members, and the first female employee.   Next time: New Year 1922!

Privacy is the New Celebrity
Ep 2 - Peter Eckersley on AI Ethics, Encrypting the Internet and What's at Stake

Privacy is the New Celebrity

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2021 55:07 Transcription Available


In episode 2, MobileCoin's Chief Product Officer Henry Holtzman interviews Peter Eckersley, a leading thinker on AI ethics. Peter and Henry discuss the challenges in shifting from machine learning algorithms that purely serve the interests of capitalism to AI and tech that benefits the user and society at large. Peter explains why he's optimistic about the future of AI but a bit of a grump on cryptocurrency. He also thinks that if privacy is a celebrity, it's a dead one.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
The First BBC Staff: Reith, Burrows, Lewis, Anderson, White (+ David Hamilton)

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2021 38:08


"I had little idea what broadcasting was." So said John Reith after his job interview to become General Manager of the brand new BBC. On this exciting episode, meet your first General Manager (Reith), Director of Programmes (Arthur Burrows v Cecil Lewis - who'll get the job?), Secretary (Major Anderson beats 245 others to it, but doesn't last six months) and Chief Engineer (R.H. White - nothing to do with the lemonade - he's appointed but doesn't last the weekend...). Spanning December 7th-16th 1922, we've got the nerves, the prayers, the interviews, the winks, the nudges, the near-misses (discover who turned down the top job before it was offered to Reith - how different it could have been...) and the programmes. You'll hear Charles Penrose's The Laughing Policeman, Peter Eckersley spoofing the chimes, A.E. Thompson literally nailing down where the police band sit... plus complaints, correspondence and memos about the broadcasts one month into the BBC's being. Our special guest is 'Diddy' David Hamilton (who was not one of the first staff, to clarify our episode title). David's a delight, and brings tales of playing Elvis to Elvis, introducing the Beatles and the Stones, and his latest radio home, Boom Radio.   LINKS FOR YOUR CLICKING PLEASURE: Watch the full David Hamilton interview, including his face, my face + audio from a future episode, here on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/47583443. You'll need to sign up to our Patreon, but a) you only need sign up to the minimum level to watch the video, b) you can cancel any time, and c) it all helps support this podcast and keeps us in web-hosting and books. Books like... David Hamilton's fab radio books are The Golden Days of Radio 1 and Commercial Radio Daze - recommended. I guest-presented an episode for The History of England podcast. Hear it here! It's essentially the entire first season of this podcast, squidged into half an hour. (If it vanishes from their feed, we'll be posting it as a special episode on this podcast in a few months' time). 30,000 people have heard that episode now - 100 times the listenership of our episodes here! So welcome if you've joined us from there... The Britishbroadcastingchallenge.com is on a mission to open up the future of public service broadcasting Want to hear the full version of Charles Penrose's The Laughing Policeman? Course you do... The British Broadcasting Century Facebook page is here. Do like. I post things there. The British Broadcasting Century Facebook group is here. Do join. You post things there. The British Broadcasting Century Twitter profile is here. Do follow. My other podcast of interviews, from Rev Richard Coles, Miranda Hart, Milton Jones and more is called A Paul Kerensa Podcast - and I'm adding more interviews all the time. Do listen.  My mailing list is here - do subscribe to keep up with things. My books are available here or orderable from bookshops. Support us at patreon.com/paulkerensa or paypal.me/paulkerensa - Thanks to those who do/have/will! We're nothing to do with today's BBC - we're talking about the BBCompany, not made by or anything to with the BBCorporation. But they have loaned us the memo we read out - so that's BBC copyright content, reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation, all rights reserved. Archive clips are either public domain or someone's domain and we don't know whose. But we thank them and reiterate that all copyright belongs to them, whoever they are... Do please rate and review this podcast where you found it... and keep liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online. It all helps others find us. We are a one-man band. I mean, I am. Not we. I. Email the podcast here. Your comments are always welcome. Next time: Burrows' broadcasting company vs Marconi's messaging company. Who'll win? Both!  Subscribe to get the podcast in your in-tray. Thanks for listening! Now stand for the National Anthem.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
The First BBC Entertainers... and Lee Mack

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2021 36:12


Season 2 begins! So please welcome to the microphone: entertainment! The very first. Journey back to November 16th 1922 - Day 3 of the BBC - to meet Auntie's first entertainers. But history being history, nothing's easy... Discover why the BBC's first entertainers weren't the first after all, whether London, Birmingham or Manchester brought us the BBC's first entertainment concert - and why each of them has a claim to it. Our fabulous guest is comedian, actor, writer and professional liar Lee Mack, with tales from Not Going Out, Would I Lie To You and his earliest memories of broadcast comedy (who remembers Wait Till Your Father Gets Home?). You'll also hear rare clips of the original broadcasters (there are hardly any recordings from 1920s' broadcasts, so these are clips looking back), including Percy Edgar, Peter Eckersley, Hugh Bell, Leonard Hawke, Helena Millais, Ernie Mayne, Tommy Lorne and the Ziegeld Follies. Plus BBC Radio Norfolk's Paul Hayes brings us a follow-up from the previous Percy Edgar special, with tales of Barrie Edgar, footballing firsts and archive clips of Jimmy Jewell and Richard Dimbleby. From Billy Beer to Bobby Ball, via the first BBC song (Drake Goes West - or was it?), the first song about the BBC (Auntie Aggie of the BBC), the world's first radio song (List'ning on Some Radio) and the earliest live British TV football coverage still available (from 1949), we've compiled everything that kickstarted British broadcast entertainment.   SHOWNOTES: Read more of Billy Beer, the BBC's first comedian, written by his descendant Bill Beer. Lee Mack joined us as part of a fundraiser for a young woman called Jenny. Read more and donate here. Your host Paul contributed a guest episode to The History of England podcast - a summary of our season 1 on half an hour, via some new (old) clips. It sums up the story so far - you can hear that here from summer 2021. Paul Hayes' documentary The Lost Voice of Football can be heard here. Paul Kerensa's other podcast of interviews, from Miranda Hart, Sally Phillips and Tim Vine (scroll way back for those) to the full Gareth Jones interview, can be found here - do subscribe. The British Broadcasting Century Facebook page is here. Do like. The British Broadcasting Century Facebook group is here. Do join. The British Broadcasting Century Twitter profile is here. Do follow. Paul's mailing list is here. Do subscribe. Paul's books are available here or orderable from bookshops.   We're a lone operator, unconnected to the BBC - we're talking about the BBCompany, not made by the BBCorporation. We're just one person really, who you can help with the podcast via tips at paypal.me/paulkerensa... or via monthly shrapnel in exchange for extra audio/video/writings on patreon.com/paulkerensa... or via rating and reviewing this podcast where you found it... or via liking/sharing/commenting on what we do online - it all helps bump us up the social medias. Email the podcast here. Your comments are always welcome. Next time: the first listings - nearly a year before the Radio Times. Subscribe to make sure you get the podcast in your in-tray. Thanks for listening!

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
SPECIAL: Part 1 of 1922‘s Parliamentary Broadcasting Debates

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2021 27:33


Westminster, 1922: Parliament learns a new word, 'Broadcasting'. And they LOVE to argue about new words. In this special, our cast of 20 brings to life EVERY broadcasting debate from 1922, no matter how big or small. No editing here. On our specials we outstay our welcome and we dig a little deeper. So approach this episode as if you're tuning into the BBC Parliament channel, only it's a century ago and they're deciding if and how there should be a BBC. Some parts may be an easier listen than others. You may need to tune your ears to their 'old-fashioned Parliament' setting. But listen closely and your ears will be rewarded with never-before-heard insights into how and why we've ended up with today's broadcasting landscape: how the licence fee, protectionism, public service broadcasting, innovation, French weather reports, and so much more all jostled for attention a hundred years ago. MPs' decisions then affect us now. While the engineers and broadcasters were pioneering this new tech, Postmaster-General Frederick Kellaway adopted a strict approach. You'll hear how the chaos of America was to be avoided, but how MPs differed on whether the PMG was taking too firm a line on this fledgeling invention. We have eight debates of varying sizes to bring you - too many for one podcast, so part 2 will pick up the tale. We're grateful to our cast; in this episode you'll hear: Paul Hayes - Sir Douglas Newton Mike Simmonds - Lt Col Murray Paul Stubbs - Mr Kennedy Wayne Clarke - The Speaker of the House James Maidment-Fullard - Mr Malone Andrea Smith - Lt Comm Kenworthy Adam Hawkins - Capt Guest Paul Kerensa - Postmaster-General Mr Kellaway + Sir Henry Norman The text is all courtesy of Hansard; this episode contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0 (https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright-parliament/open-parliament-licence/). You'll hear the following moments: The first written mention of 'broadcasting' in Parliament, April 3rd 1922, ten days after Peter Eckersley seized the mic of 2MT Writtle, starting a broadcasting craze in Britain: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1922-04-03/debates/5fa46744-068c-45f7-be31-daef38c64cc6/WirelessTelephony?highlight=broadcasting#contribution-54b7ff39-2321-4503-8114-4a0625d01fc4 May 4th, the first verbal mention of 'broadcasting' in Parliament: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1922/may/04/wireless-messages-broadcasting May 23rd, a fob-off answer while the 'big six' wireless manufacturers meet to thrash it all out, settling on one British broadcasting company: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1922-05-23/debates/f6abd513-b5f3-41e3-902a-0a07404868dd/WirelessBroadcasting  June 16th, a reading of the Wireless Telegraphy and Signalling Bill is seen by some to be a power-grab by the Postmaster-General, but by others as a necessary part of the development broadcasting, something many MPs in the house, like Sir Douglas Newton, were keenly interested in: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1922-06-16/debates/4a1e7b29-0c59-4681-b86f-7acdd98a06e1/WirelessTelegraphyAndSignallingBill?highlight=broadcasting#contribution-71376b97-ca94-4d9d-938b-f6b2a727a4d6   June 28th, Parliament started looking across the Channel for what radio could do next: Weather Reports... https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1922-06-28/debates/d34b1736-e64e-4547-8e75-e6bfcb5bf117/WirelessTelephony(WeatherBulletin)?highlight=broadcasting#contribution-2d1571f4-9a60-45e6-b820-c3ef39ce450b July 26th, the PMG wants to keep British broadcasting British: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1922-07-26/debates/14a1dd4a-2a48-4602-87aa-450aeb2c89e1/WirelessBroadcasting?highlight=broadcasting#contribution-f77d3eb0-a4cc-4db4-8c98-2b6cf61a94e8 Part 2 will pick up the story. Elsewhere in this episode we mention the Irish Broadcasting Hall of Fame blog, re May 16th 1922's first Irish singer of the wireless: Isolde O'Farrell. Do have a read of their marvellous blog and support their work. You can support our work at patreon.com/paulkerensa, where you'll currently find our full unedited video interview with Diddy David Hamilton - we'll extract some audio nuggets of David's interview for future podcast episodes, but the full version will only be viewable on Patreon (after all, this is audio, that's video). THANK YOU if you support us there... It helps keep us in web-hosting and research books. We don't turn a profit on this podcast - it's just for the love of it, so thanks for keeping us afloat! For a one-off tip, there's also paypal.me/paulkerensa, and I thank you. We also mention Shaun Jacques' Tell Me A Bit About Yourself podcast (which includes an interview with Paul, host of this podcast) and Jack Shaw's Wrong Term Memory podcast. Have a listen. We're on Twitter and have a Facebook page and a Facebook group. Do join/follow/like. + Subscribe to get all of these podcasts in your podtray. Next time, the Parliamentary debates continue! Please do rate/review us too. It really helps get us out there, and this podcast is just a one-man band, run by me, Paul Kerensa. We're nothing to do with the BBC, BTW, FWIW, ICYMI. Thanks for listening, if you did. And well done. More soon.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
The Eve of the BBC: A Partly Political Broadcast

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2020 33:44


We're nearly there! Episode 17 zooms in on the pre-BBC fortnight. You'd have thought everything's in place by now, right? Not quite - just the tiny non-controversial matters of the licence fee and allegations of bias to deal with first. Good job they're all sorted now... We've got archive reminiscences from pioneer Peter Eckersley and the return of Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker, who also gives us an Airwave Memory (email a clip of yours for next season: paul@paulkerensa.com) We mention CenturiesofSound.com - try their 1922 mix for starters. We also mention Tim Wander's search for Melba's voice - read the Times article here. We're on Facebook and Twitter, with lots more supporting pics and links there. Support the show at patreon.com/paulkerensa has regular perks, advance things - not all to do with the podcast, but some. There's also advance writing and videos from Paul. ...or support the show by sharing/rating/reviewing the show. Thanks! Join Paul's mailing list for updates on his writing, gigs, podcasts, videos etc. Paul's festive history book Hark! The Biography of Christmas is now in audiobook form. Get it for free via an Audible free trial here if you've not had one before. Thanks to Will Farmer for composing the original music. Archive clips are either public domain or private domain from long enough ago... but if you own a clip, say and we'll remove it. We're just here to inform, educate and entertain. This podcast is in no way affiliated with the BBC. You knew that. We say it every time. Next time, the launch of the BBC! Including a re-enactment of the very first broadcast. It'll land on November 14th, the 98th anniversary of the BBC, so listen on the day of release. The day of the podcast's release, that is, not the day of your release. Although this episode's recorded during a lockdown, so... anyway, happy listening. www.paulkerensa.com

christmas bbc audible archive biography hark peter eckersley partly political broadcast
The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Live at the Apo2LO: Our 1st Broadcast Comedian

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2020 30:39


The first drama, the first comedian... Journey with us to October 1922 for the rarely told tale radio's first play (Cyrano de Bergerac, courtesy of Peter Eckersley) and British broadcasting's first comedian. Helena Millais played Cockney character Our Lizzie - and you'll even hear a bit of her act. We'll look at the few before her too - entertainers and storytellers - and those who came after. Cultural historian and comedy writer Alan Stafford is your guide, and his fab books It's Friday, It's Crackerjack and Wilson, Keppel and Betty: Too Naked for the Nazis are available now. Also available is Lorne Clark's book Shareholders of the British Broadcasting Company, plus explore his amazing Early Wireless museum - and he's sent us a marvellous clip of his wax cylinder: recorded in 1890, trumpeter Martin Lanfried plays the bugle he sounded at The Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854. Wow. That makes the 1920s sound modern. You'll also hear our regular broadcasting historian Tim Wander, and his fab books include the brilliant From Marconi to Melba. Find us on Facebook and Twitter, and please support the show if you can via ko-fi.com/paulkerensa for one-off £, or patreon.com/paulkerensa for regular perks - including advance writing and things from Paul. Your host Paul Kerensa's mailing list has monthly updates of his writing, gigs, podcasts, etc. Sign up! Paul's festive history book Hark! The Biography of Christmas is now in audiobook form. There's an Audible free trial here if you've not had one before - so you can get Hark! for free, then cancel, and pay nowt. Paul's Facebook Live show is at PK's Uplift Live, every Tuesday from 8pm.  Thanks to Will Farmer for composing the original music. Archive clips are either public domain or we don't know whose domain. If you think a clip is yours, apologies/thanks - everything's takedownable. We're unaffiliated with the BBC... ...but Paul is writing a TV drama script (and novel) based on all this, so if you're a drama producer or commissioner... Well don't you look lovely today? Email me. Let's make the BBC history. So to speak.

Digital Village Radio
Episode 29: CA Prop 24 & 25 - Herd Immunity

Digital Village Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2020 26:16


On this week's episode of Digital Village, Leilani Albano interviews USC Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Dr. Paula Cannon to talk about concerns with herd immunity as a primary strategy for tackling the coronavirus pandemicFirst, it’s not just the presidential election that matters, here in California, we have quite a few propositions on the ballot - a lot of which are pretty confusing. I am joined by AI and privacy policy researcher Peter Eckersley to talk about Prop 24, which makes some amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act, and Prop 25, which is a referendum on law that replaced money bail with system based on public safety and flight risk.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
The Pre-BBC 6/Music, part 1: 2 BBCs

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 23, 2020 25:52


Two British Broadcasting Companies! That's the result of the negotiations of summer 1922. Part one of this two-parter brings us two parallel storylines: boardroom debates (a la The Apprentice) and studio sing-songs (a la Top of the Pops). In this exciting episode, hear the voices and reminiscences of John Reith, Peter Eckersley, Arthur Burrows, Lord Gainford - those who were there as the BBC finally got its name. ====== This podcast is unaffiliated to the mighty BBC. We just like talking about them, and how they came into being. ...So your licence fee is not supporting this project! If you'd like to help keep us on air: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa chips in £3 or patreon.com/paulkerensa at £5+/mth gets you exclusive benefits and things. Thanks those who've joined! Thanks Will Farmer for the original music. Thanks for sharing us and liking us on Facebook and Twitter, and for rating & reviewing us. It's been all 5 stars so far and we love you for it - it helps get more ears on the podcast. Get your voice on the podcast by emailing a clip of your AM - Airwave Memories - 1-2min of you telling us your favourite early broadcasting memories. Or email us some words some FM - First-hand Memories - of times you saw radio or TV in action. What surprised you about it? Do tell. On this ep we mentioned Eddie Bohan's book: 'Rebel Radio: Ireland's First International Radio Station 1916'. More info on the book here. Your host Paul is on Facebook Live every Tuesday 8pm for PK's Uplift Live: a show of fun and games, unrelated to this podcast, but often with a broadcast history reading, because he can't resist. Paul on BBC Radios Sussex & Surrey can be heard here. Paul's appearances on BBC Radio 2's Pause For Thought can be heard here (find Paul's face. He has glasses. It's a bit like playing Guess Who...) Paul's Mailing list Paul's Books  Pip pip

Digital Village Radio
Episode 22: Cloaking Your Photos with Fawkes - Language Models

Digital Village Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2020 25:53


In the first part of the show, we talk to Shawn Shan, a PhD student at University of Chicago, who works in privacy and security specifically in emerging technology. Shawn is one of the researchers behind Fawkes, which is software that makes subtle changes to images to make it harder for machines to recognize images as the same, even if to the human eye they appear identical. In the second half of the show, Dr. Peter Eckersley is back to talk about Language Models. Back in July, Open AI, the AI research and deployment company based in San Francisco, released the 3rd generation of their language model, GPT-3. This version has garnered a lot of excitement. There’s been people who have used it to generate conversations between computing pioneers Claude Shannon and Alan Turing or having it generate entire stories with just a one sentence prompt.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Episode 9 brings us to the famous '2LO': London is calling the world, on our journey towards the BBC's birth. Hear the voices that launched broadcasting in the UK, plus rivalry and pranks, including Arthur Burrows and Peter Eckersley recreating a 1922 moment via clips from 1938 and 1960. (It looks weird written down, but trust me.) This episode's 'AM' (Airwave Memories) comes from radio producer Chris Byland. Send yours by recording a 1-2min audio clip of you reminiscing about your earliest memories of radio/TV. Your 'FM' (First-hand Memories) are welcome too - a new feature of emailed-in observations of when YOU saw radio in action. Email me here. A reminder: we're unaffiliated with the BBC. We're just fascinated by how they got under way - and maybe it'll tell us more about today's world of broadcaster v government v press... - We air a few seconds of rare audio of radio pioneer Captain HJ Round... Hear the full 15mins here on Youtube.  Support the podcast! I've got books and gramophone records in my sights that'll improve the podcast no end. Help us afford them?...  - ko-fi.com/paulkerensa chips in £3 - patreon.com/paulkerensa starts at £5/mth and you get benefits - 5 of you have joined us in the last fortnight. THANK YOU! Please do share, rate, review, the podcast. It helps a heap. We're on Facebook and Twitter with relevant pics & chat.  Original music is by Will Farmer. Hire him now! Your host Paul also presents PK's Uplift Live: a Facebook Live each Tue 8pm, of fun and games. ...and he's available for socially-distanced outdoor stand-up gigs. Very bookable. Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 

Digital Village Radio
Episode 19: COVID-19 Update - Jaleesa Trapp - Flaws in Facial Recognition

Digital Village Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2020 27:40


(01:19) In the first part of the show, Dr. Jun Axup is back to give us a COVID-19 best practices update - hint - wear. a. mask.(5:26) On Digital Village, we love to highlight people who are doing amazing work in technology. One of those people is Jaleesa Trapp, a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab in the Lifelong Kindergarten group. We talk about her hero's journey and what she's doing to make her STEM more equitable. (20:44) In the last part of the show, Dr. Peter Eckersley is here to talk about the incident in Detroit where Robert Williams, a Black man, was wrongfully arrested due to a mistaken identity from facial recognition software used by the police department and what we need to do to make sure this stops happening.

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Peter Eckersley: The Chris Evans of 1922

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2020 29:25


Thank Eckersley for the BBC! It's almost entirely down to him. Never heard of him? Then listen on, to the original PPE... We chat to broadcasting historian Tim Wander (who knows more about Eckersley than anyone on the planet). Plus hear clips from Captain Eckersley himself, both in wild action on air, and looking back over his amazing career as first BBC Chief Engineer, first regular voice on British radio, and pioneer of air traffic control. Oh yes, he also built an airport. And he was a spy in WW2. What a tale! It's all here on this unaffiliated-to-the-BBC-we-have-to-make-that-clear podcast. Support the podcast:  - ko-fi.com/paulkerensa buys me a coffee - patreon.com/paulkerensa has tiers and benefits - thanks to Mel, Chris and Andrew who've joined up this month! - and thank you for sharing, rating, reviewing, tweeting + talking about this podcast. It really helps. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for extra bits and pieces.  Original music is by Will Farmer - wrangler of notes. Your host Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 

HealthCall LIVE
95: Contact Tracing Privacy - Dr. Peter Eckersley - Privacy Advocate

HealthCall LIVE

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2020 11:30


Digital Village Radio
Episode 11: Contact Tracing - Mirakind - Invest in Innovation

Digital Village Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2020 27:10


Dr. Peter Eckersley is back. He’s an AI, ethics, and privacy researcher, who is the convener of the stop-covid.tech group to talk to us about contact tracing and how important it is in slowing down the spread of SARS-CoV-2.Loretta Whitesides, about her citizen volunteer work with Mirakind who are working to test essential workers in Los Angeles for COVID-19.In the last part of the show, Brittney is joined by Dr. Addison Killean Stark to talk about his op-ed for Scientific American where he makes the case for investing in innovation to help with pandemic recovery.

Digital Village Radio
Episode 05: Slamdance - 5G - AI In Criminal Justice System

Digital Village Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2020 27:44


Ric Allan talks the awesome Slamdance Film Festival with Paul Rachman.Leilani Albano is joined by Danny O’Brien of the EFF, about security concerns around 5G - particularly around Chinese tech giant Huawei and US concerns that they are undermining national security.AI expert Peter Eckersley is back to talk about AI Risk Assessment Tools and how they may be in use in California and around the country before they have been adequately tested. We also touch on issues with California's SB-10.

The All Turtles Podcast
SciFi-preneurship 5: I, Robot

The All Turtles Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2019 25:35


As technologists continue to build the future, what laws should govern the things they create? Ethical guidelines for technology are essential; Isaac Asmiov presented one version of what they may look like when he introduced the Three Laws of Robotics in his collection of short stories I, Robot. This work of science fiction inspired many, including the three guests on today's episode: Emily Dean, Peter Eckersley, and Joe Betts-LaCroix.   Show notes Intro with Phil Libin and Brittney Gallagher  Brittney Gallagher hosts Digital Culture LA, a show about future science and technology.  Snow Crash is a novel by Neal Stephenson that takes us into the Metaverse, where a computer virus also has the capacity to harm people in the physical world.   Conversation with Emily Dean Emily is a writer and director whose 2018 film Andromeda portrays an android who gains sentience.   Conversation with Peter Eckersley Peter is the Director of Research at the Partnership on AI.   Conversation with Joe Betts-LaCroix Joe is the inventor of the world's smallest computer, and his work in biophysics aims to optimize medical research priorities in the U.S.   We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

The All Turtles Podcast
SciFi-preneurship 4: Snow Crash

The All Turtles Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2019 33:25


In the Metaverse, a shared virtual reality space, a character wrestles with a computer-crashing virus that also causes harm in the real world. Thus begins Snow Crash, a Neal Stephenson novel that, when written in 1992, described futuristic systems that eventually became reality. Snow Crash's impact is so significant that this episode has a record number of guests who wanted to discuss it: Dr. Christine Corbett Moran, Veronica Belmont, Peter Eckersley, Joe Betts-LaCroix, and Sophia Brueckner.   Show notes Intro with Phil Libin and Brittney Gallagher  Brittney Gallagher hosts Digital Culture LA, a show about future science and technology.  Snow Crash is a novel by Neal Stephenson that takes us into the Metaverse, where a computer virus also has the capacity to harm people in the physical world.   Conversation with Dr. Christine Corbett Moran Dr. Moran is a cybersecurity engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.   Conversation with Veronica Belmont Veronica is a Product Manager at Adobe Spark and host of the Sword and Laser podcast.   Conversation with Peter Eckersley Peter is the Director of Research at the Partnership on AI.   Conversation with Joe Betts-LaCroix Joe is the inventor of the world's smallest computer, and his work in biophysics aims to optimize medical research priorities in the U.S.   Conversation with Sophia Brueckner Sophia is artist and computer scientist.She is also a professor at the University of Michigan where she teaches Sci-Fi Prototyping, a class on building prototypes inspired by sci-fi and technology ethics.      We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.  Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

The All Turtles Podcast
SciFi-preneurship 2: The Matrix

The All Turtles Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2019 21:23


The impact of the The Matrix on science fiction is difficult to overstate, but beyond the genre itself, it also deeply affected the viewers whose worldviews were made askew. Three of those viewers are featured in today's episode to talk about their reactions to the film and the ways in which it contributed to the work they do now: writer/director Emily Dean, Partnership on AI research director Peter Eckersley, and MIT Media Lab's Dan Novy. Show notes Intro with Phil Libin and Brittney Gallagher Brittney Gallagher hosts Digital Culture LA, a show about future science and technology. The Matrix portrays a version of the future in which the main character's version of reality is revealed to be a computer simulation powered by human bodies.   Conversation with Peter Eckersley Peter is the director of research at the Partnership on AI. Previously, Peter worked at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.   Conversation with with Dan Novy Dan is a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Media Lab.   Conversation with Emily Dean Emily is a writer and director whose 2018 film Andromeda portrays an android who gains sentience.   We want to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes. Email: hello@all-turtles.com Twitter: @allturtlesco

Rationally Speaking
Rationally Speaking #220 - Peter Eckersley on "Tough choices on privacy and artificial intelligence"

Rationally Speaking

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2018 62:54


This episode features Peter Eckersley, an expert in law and computer science, who has worked with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Partnership on AI. Peter and Julia first delve into some of the most fundamental questions about privacy: What are the risks of losing privacy? Do we have more to fear from governments or industry? Which companies do a good job of protecting their users' privacy? Are there tradeoffs between supporting privacy and supporting competitive markets? Next, they discuss Peter's work measuring recent progress in AI, and debate to what extent recent progress is cause for optimism.

Today, Explained
The Deep Fake

Today, Explained

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2018 19:06


There’s a new kind of algorithm that allows you to take a video of one person and map the face of another person onto his or her body. Not surprisingly, it’s being used to map celebrities’ faces onto the bodies of porn stars having sex. Vox’s Aja Romano tells Sean Rameswaram how “deepfakes” are spreading across the internet. Plus computer scientist Peter Eckersley explores how the same technology could tear our society apart in bigger ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DigitalCulture.LA
The Fight for Net Neutrality

DigitalCulture.LA

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2017 10:55


Right now the FCC is considering a proposal to roll back the net neutrality protections in the Open Internet Order, thereby allowing ISPs, the gatekeepers of the internet, to effectively control what you have access to and how quickly. The FCC, led by chairman Ajit Pai, released the final draft of their plan named "Restoring Internet Freedom," which would reverse a 2015 ruling that classifies ISPs as if they were telecommunication services and instead have them be classified as information services. The FCC is forbidden from imposing neutrality obligations on information services and this proposal gives significant authority back to the Federal Trade Commission and many fear that the FTC does not have the bandwidth to properly regulate. This change could allow ISPs to experiment with so-called "fast lanes" for internet traffic, where some apps and services are prioritized over others. My guest this week is Peter Eckersley, the Chief Computer Scientist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is an international non-profit digital rights group that has fought for our rights online for over 25 years. Peter was on the show back in April to discuss how to hide from your ISP and I am joined by Peter again to talk about what the FCC’s changes mean and how we can fight for net neutrality.

DEF CON 23 [Audio] Speeches from the Hacker Convention
Panel - Let's Encrypt - Minting Free Certificates to Encrypt the Entire Web

DEF CON 23 [Audio] Speeches from the Hacker Convention

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2015


Let's Encrypt - Minting Free Certificates to Encrypt the Entire Web Peter Eckersley Electronic Frontier Foundation James Kasten Electronic Frontier Foundation Yan Zhu Electronic Frontier Foundation Let's Encrypt is a new certificate authority that is being launched by EFF in collaboration with Mozilla, Cisco, Akamai, IdenTrust, and a team at the University of Michigan. It will issue certificates for free, using a new automated protocol called ACME for verification of domain control and issuance. This talk will describe the features of the CA and available clients at launch; explore the security challenges inherent in building such a system; and its effect on the security of the CA marketplace as a whole. We will also update our place on the roadmap to a Web that uses HTTPS by default. Peter Eckersley is Chief Computer Scientist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He leads a team of technologists who watch for technologies that, by accident or design, pose a risk to computer users' freedoms—and then look for ways to fix them. They write code to make the Internet more secure, more open, and safer against surveillance and censorship. They explain gadgets to lawyers and policymakers, and law and policy to gadgets. Aside from Let's Encrypt, Peter's other work at EFF has included privacy and security projects such as Panopticlick, HTTPS Everywhere, SSDI, and the SSL Observatory; helping to launch a movement for open wireless networks; fighting to keep modern computing platforms open; and running the first controlled tests to confirm that Comcast was using forged reset packets to interfere with P2P protocols. Peter holds a PhD in computer science and law from the University of Melbourne. James Kasten is a PhD candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michgan and a STIET fellow. James is also a contractor at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. His research focuses on practical network security and PKI. James has published on the state of TLS, its certificate ecosystem and its vulnerabilities. Most notably, James has helped design the protocol and launch the technology behind Let's Encrypt. Yan is a security engineer at Yahoo, mostly working on End-to-End email encryption and improving TLS usage. She is also a Technology Fellow at EFF and a core developer of Let's Encrypt, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger Firefox, and SecureDrop. Yan has held a variety of jobs in the past, ranging from hacking web apps to composing modern orchestra music. She got a B.S. from MIT in 2012 and is a proud PhD dropout from Stanford. Yan has been a speaker at HOPE, DEFCON 22, jQuerySF, Real World Crypto, SXSW, and various other human gatherings. She is @bcrypt on Twitter.

DEF CON 23 [Audio] Speeches from the Hacker Convention
Panel - Ask the EFF - The Year in Digital Civil Liberties

DEF CON 23 [Audio] Speeches from the Hacker Convention

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2015


Ask the EFF: The Year in Digital Civil Liberties Kurt Opsahl General Counsel, Electronic Frontier Foundation Nate Cardozo EFF Staff Attorney Mark Jaycox EFF Legislative Analyst Corynne McSherry EFF Legal Director Nadia Kayyali EFF Activist Peter Eckersley EFF Technology Projects Director Get the latest information about how the law is racing to catch up with technological change from staffers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the nation’s premiere digital civil liberties group fighting for freedom and privacy in the computer age. This session will include updates on current EFF issues such as surveillance online and fighting efforts to use intellectual property claims to shut down free speech and halt innovation, discussion of our technology project to protect privacy and speech online, updates on cases and legislation affecting security research, and much more. Half the session will be given over to question-and-answer, so it's your chance to ask EFF questions about the law and technology issues that are important to you. Kurt Opsahl is the Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In addition to representing clients on civil liberties, free speech and privacy law, Opsahl counsels on EFF projects and initiatives. Opsahl is the lead attorney on the Coders' Rights Project. Before joining EFF, Opsahl worked at Perkins Coie, where he represented technology clients with respect to intellectual property, privacy, defamation, and other online liability matters, including working on Kelly v. Arribasoft, MGM v. Grokster and CoStar v. LoopNet. For his work responding to government subpoenas, Opsahl is proud to have been called a "rabid dog" by the Department of Justice. Prior to Perkins, Opsahl was a research fellow to Professor Pamela Samuelson at the U.C. Berkeley School of Information Management & Systems. Opsahl received his law degree from Boalt Hall, and undergraduate degree from U.C. Santa Cruz. Opsahl co-authored "Electronic Media and Privacy Law Handbook." In 2007, Opsahl was named as one of the "Attorneys of the Year" by California Lawyer magazine for his work on the O'Grady v. Superior Court appeal. In 2014, Opsahl was elected to the USENIX Board of Directors. Nate Cardozo is a Staff Attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s digital civil liberties team. In addition to his focus on free speech and privacy litigation, Nate works on EFF's Who Has Your Back? report and Coders' Rights Project. Nate has projects involving cryptography and the law, automotive privacy, government transparency, hardware hacking rights, anonymous speech, electronic privacy law reform, Freedom of Information Act litigation, and resisting the expansion of the surveillance state. A 2009-2010 EFF Open Government Legal Fellow, Nate spent two years in private practice before returning to his senses and to EFF in 2012. Nate has a B.A. in Anthropology and Politics from U.C. Santa Cruz and a J.D. from U.C. Hastings where he has taught first-year legal writing and moot court. He brews his own beer, has been to India four times, and watches too much Bollywood. Mark Jaycox is a Legislative Analyst for EFF. His issues include user privacy, civil liberties, surveillance law, and "cybersecurity." When not reading legal or legislative documents, Mark can be found reading non-legal and legislative documents, exploring the Bay Area, and riding his bike. He was educated at Reed College, spent a year abroad at the University of Oxford (Wadham College), and concentrated in Political History. The intersection of his concentration with advancing technologies and the law was prevalent throughout his education, and Mark's excited to apply these passions to EFF. Previous to joining EFF, Mark was a Contributor to ArsTechnica, and a Legislative Research Assistant for LexisNexis. Peter Eckersley is Technology Projects Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He leads a team of technologists who watch for technologies that, by accident or design, pose a risk to computer users' freedoms—and then look for ways to fix them. They write code to make the Internet more secure, more open, and safer against surveillance and censorship. They explain gadgets to lawyers and policymakers, and law and policy to gadgets. Peter's work at EFF has included privacy and security projects such as the Let's Encrypt CA, Panopticlick, HTTPS Everywhere, SSDI, and the SSL Observatory; helping to launch a movement for open wireless networks; fighting to keep modern computing platforms open; and running the first controlled tests to confirm that Comcast was using forged reset packets to interfere with P2P protocols. Peter holds a PhD in computer science and law from the University of Melbourne; his research focused on the practicality and desirability of using alternative compensation systems to legalize P2P file sharing and similar distribution tools while still paying authors and artists for their work. He is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Nadia Kayyali is a member of EFF’s activism team. Nadia's work focuses on surveillance, national security policy, and the intersection of criminal justice, racial justice, and digital civil liberties issues. Nadia has been an activist since high school, when they participated in the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. Nadia is one of the creators of the Canary Watch website, which tracks and classifies warrant canaries. Corynne McSherry is the Legal Director at EFF, specializing in intellectual property, open access, and free speech issues. Her favorite cases involve defending online fair use, political expression, and the public domain against the assault of copyright maximalists. As a litigator, she has represented Professor Lawrence Lessig, Public.Resource.Org, the Yes Men, and a dancing baby, among others, and one of her first cases at EFF was In re Sony BMG CD Technologies Litigation (aka the "rootkit" case). Her policy work includes leading EFF’s effort to fix copyright (including the successful effort to shut down the Stop Online Privacy Act, or SOPA), promote net neutrality, and promote best practices for online expression. In 2014, she testified before Congress about problems with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Corynne comments regularly on digital rights issues and has been quoted in a variety of outlets, including NPR, CBS News, Fox News, the New York Times, Billboard, the Wall Street Journal, and Rolling Stone. Prior to joining EFF, Corynne was a civil litigator at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, LLP. Corynne has a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz, a Ph.D from the University of California at San Diego, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. While in law school, Corynne published Who Owns Academic Work?: Battling for Control of Intellectual Property (Harvard University Press, 2001). Twitter: @eff, @kurtopsahl