SHOWNOTES:

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

Back in 1923, between SB and RT - that's 'Simultaneous Broadcasting' (networking nationally via landline) and The Radio Times (the BBC listings mag still had the 'The' back then), a month went by...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

On 29 August 1923, the BBC officially launched SB: Simultaneous Broadcasting. 

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

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

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

Episode 101 finds us in late August 1923... 

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

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:

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

...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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

Episode 97 finds the BBC in August 1923...

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

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

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

We're back! Season 7 begins with a Books Special - plus a visit to a special exhibition at Oxford's magnificent Bodleian Library - 'Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home'.

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

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

We bring you:

- Original music is by Will Farmer.

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

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

- This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC.

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

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

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