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

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

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

You'll hear:

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

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

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

- 1932 – The first royal Christmas message from George V

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

- 1936 – A Cornish Christmas Carol by the BBC Chorus

- 1936 – The Wassail Song by the BBC Chorus

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Original music is by Will Farmer.

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

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

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

- This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

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

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES:

• Buy Stuart's book from stuartprebble.com or wherever you get books.

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

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