The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Episode 94 finds us hunting presenters on the run... in 1923 and in 2023.  But first, the tale of July 1923 in British broadcasting, which includes a pop-up non-BBC station in Plymouth (5DJ), the first BBC film critic G.A. Atkinson, a comedian asks an orchestra to laugh for him, the BBC's first Sunday afternoon radio concert, new nicknames for 'listeners-in' ('ethonians', anyone?), and my favourite of all... The Wireless Manhunt. Here to tell us more, our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker, and Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam Dr Carolyn Birdall (whose book is 'Radiophilia'). They contrast 1923's Wireless Manhunt with 2023's uncannily similar Radio 1's Giant DJ Hunt, with Greg James searching for all of his co-presenters around Britain, and beyond. Back in 1923, Uncles Arthur, Caractacus, Jeff, and Aunt Sophie all go on the run around London, and MANY listeners spot them, track them, nearly arrest them, and much more. Oh and some lovely audio from Peter Eckersley - a song and the tale of his trip to Sheffield, where listening to the BBC was like "an insurrection in hell". Everyone's a critic.    SHOWNOTES: Buy Dr Carolyn Birdsall's book Radiophilia from https://amzn.to/4etpBe6 or wherever you get books (buy from that link, I get a few pennies, full disclosure!). Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting. This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Solo-run. So your listenership and support really matters - thanks! Next time: August 1923 on the BBC - new radio HQs in Birmingham and Manchester, developments in Scotland and Dublin, and the first radio gardener, Marion Cran. More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

June 1923 at the BBC saw the first symphony concerts on-air (with an 'augmented orchestra'), musical criticism from Percy Scholes, 2,500 voices broadcast at once, and new staff led by Admiral Charles Carpendale as Reith's deputy. Plus Scot John Logie Baird advertises for help with his 'Seeing By Wireless' invention. You may know it as television... ...Our guest is celebrating 50 years since he began in television - Stuart Prebble has made World In Action, led ITV, created Grumpy Old Men and now brings Portrait Artists to Sky Arts. He talks about his new memoir, Still Grumpy After All These Years. Buy it now! SHOWNOTES: Buy Stuart's book from stuartprebble.com or wherever you get books. We also mention Andy Walmsley's brilliant Random Radio Jottings blog. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting. This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. Solo-run. So your listenership and support really matters - thanks! Next time: July 1923 on the BBC - a wireless manhunt and a cheeky pop-up station in Plymouth.  More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 92 The First Sports Broadcasts: from 'Yachts Slowly Drifting' to MCR21   Our moment-by-moment origin story of British broadcasting reaches 6th June 1923 - and what's sometimes thought to be the BBC's first sports broadcast: author Edgar Wallace giving his 'reflections on the Derby'... ...The trouble is, it wasn't the BBC's first sports broadcast. But then... what is a sports broadcast? A live commentary? Or will a later summary do? Or how about a police radio transmission, where the Epsom Derby winner happens to be mentioned for anyone listening to hear? This episode we bring you the tales of every early landmark sports broadcast we know about, including: Special guest Nick Gilbey, trustee of the Broadcasting Television Technology Trust and one of the doer-uppers of the mighty MCR21 mobile control room van, first built in 1963, and now looking snappier than ever. The BBC's actual first sports broadcaster - forgotten for a century - Willie Clissett, on Cardiff 5WA with a weekly 'Chat on Sport of the day' from 2 April 1923. Was it rugby? Let's say yes. It was Wales. How jockey Steve Donoghue somehow became Britain's first broadcast sports champion... ion 3 occasions across 3 different years. He was on Britain's first sports broadcast, winning 1921's Epsom Derby. Edgar Wallace reported on his win at 1923's Epsom Derby. And his win was shouted on-air by a passerby, upsetting the press, at 1925's Epsom Derby. Three different horses, three landmark broadcasts, one incredible jockey. The boxing and billiards on London 2LO in 1922. Early clips of Wimbledon, the Boat Race and the Derby. And was the first sports broadcast Marconi's 1899 Morse message 'Yachts Slowly Drifting'? In which case, was the first sports broadcaster actually Guglielmo Marconi himself?! Correct us on any of the above! Seriously. Please do. We want this to be an accurate record of events! Email paul@paulkerensa.com with any feedback, suggestions, alterations or offers of big-screen adaptations. SHOWNOTES: Visit MCR21.org.uk for pics and words about the wonderful MCR21 mobile control room van. Click on their newsletter and subscribe to get info in your inbox. Watch Nick Gilbey's half-hour BBC tribute documentary on Peter Dimmock: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fw3c9c See the Marconi van used at the 1921 Epsom Derby broadcast - and the airship pics from above: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/966054144965706/ See the 1923 Derby - plus a little of the police use of wireless traffic tech - on this Pathe video: https://youtu.be/s-qnFvgJMFY?si=bedG3HWmyui1VNmj Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting. Paul's walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites returns soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via the home of the Electrophone! Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, well, the only BBC, the Company. Not with or at the behest of today's Corporation... ...Although we gladly will. Corporation - call me! Next time: Summer 1923 on the BBC - music, the first whisper of television, and a cheeky pop-up station in Plymouth.  More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 91 goes back over 130 years to the 'broadcasting' device that far predates radio broadcasting. But the same ideas were there: entertainment, religion, news even, brought to your home, sent one-to-many, live from West End churches and London's churches. Meet the Electrophone! Dr Natasha Kitcher is the Electrophone expert - she's a Research Fellow at the Science Museum, formerly PhD student to Loughborough University - and has spent years researching this unusual, largely unknown pre-radio cable streaming service, used by Queen Victoria and hundreds of homes in London and Bournemouth. Or you could visit the Electrophone HQ in Soho to listen in their saloon. (More on our walking tour that visits that exact building: birthplace of the headphones!) We also talk about what broadcasting is nowadays: does streaming count as broadcasting? What about catch-up? Does it lose something when it's not live? Join the debate from this, er, pre-recorded podcast (sorry we're not live) - email your thoughts to paul@paulkerensa.com - the same email address for any podcast correspondence, your Airwave Memories (earliest radio you recall?) or Firsthand Memories (ever see broadcasting in action?)   We also move on our chronological tale of British broadcasting history into June 1923, with feedback from the first BBC Shakespeare and the sad demise of the first broadcast singer, Edward Cooper. Next time? The First Sports Broadcast on the BBC... or was it? Nick Gilbey joins us - expert on outside broadcasts, Peter Dimmock, and the BBC van...    SHOWNOTES: Dr Natasha Kitcher's articles on the Electrophone include this Science Museum blog and Museum Crush. There are some marvellous old pics of the Electrophone, its HQ and its flyers on the British Telephones site. Watch Paul Kerensa on BBC1's Songs of Praise (while it's on iPlayer!) on 1922's first religious broadcast... er, via radio. Not including the Electrophone, obvs. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi. Paul's walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites returns soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via the home of the Electrophone! Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Is this the first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC I see before me? Yes it is. And the first radio comedy personality, in John Henry.  We're in late May 1923 - 28th to 31st to be precise - and the BBC has suffering from a boycott of theatre producers. Performers are hard to come by, so the Beeb brings drama and comedy in-house. The result? Cathleen Nesbitt (later from Upstairs Downstairs, An Affair to Remember and The Parent Trap) produces and stars in the first of many full-length Shakespeare plays, Twelfth Night on 28th May 1923. Prior to this, there had been scenes and Shakespeare nights. But this was a chance to broadcast the longest and most ambitious play of this new medium. Illuminating us on this, the return of Dr Andrea Smith of the University of Suffolk - the expert on the BBC and Shakespeare. She'll tell us all about the legacy of Auntie and Shakey, including the only one of his plays that to date has still not been adapted for BBC radio. And three days after that first Shakespeare, another BBC debut: comedian John Henry, set to become broadcasting's first comedy personality. His comic monologues, often surreal and downbeat, evolved into tales of his family life, then a dialogue with his beloved Blossom... while off-air, their domestic life became more tragedy than comedy. Comedy historian Alan Stafford tells all. It's quite a tale. John Henry surely deserves mention in the history books... ...on which, both Andrea and Alan have books out soon. See below shownotes for details - and we'll mention more of them on the podcast and on our social mediums when they're published.     SHOWNOTES: Look out for Dr Andrea Smith's book 'Shakespeare on the Radio: A Century of BBC Plays', published by Edinburgh University Press in 2025. Look out for Alan Stafford's book 'Bigamy Killed the Radio Star - John Henry: BBC Comedy Pioneer', published by Fantom Publications in late 2024. Clips are generally so old they're beyond copyright, or rights may be owned by, er, someone. If that's you, let us know. We can talk. We're friendly. We're just to inform, educate and entertain.  Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi. Paul's book Auntie and Uncles is coming soon too. A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites is coming soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. NEXT TIME: The Electrophone: Queen Victoria's Streaming Device of the 1890s.  There may be some delay between episodes at the moment, due to summer holidays, and life throwing things at us. More soon, ASAP. Thanks for bearing with us. More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Vote The British Broadcasting Century!  Episode 89 is our Election Night Special special, covering Britain's 28 general election results broadcasts over 102 years.  Broadcasting in both USA and UK have both launched were pretty much launched with election results. On 2 November 1920, KDKA Pittsburgh launched regular commercial broadcasting with the presidential election results, giving listeners-in the latest at the same time as journalists. Revolutionary! On 15 November 1922, the BBC went national with London, Birmingham and Manchester announcing the election results and Bonar Law as PM.  Joining us to tell the tale from here, dropping in at every election night special in Britain since, we have Gary Rodger (author of Swing: A Brief History of British General Election Night Broadcasting) and Harry White (host of The Modern British History Podcast). ...Hear first female liberal MP Margaret Wintringham on her gramophone election message... ...Discover the only person to have announced election results AND served as an MP... ...Find out how black-and-white TV converted the blues, reds and yellows of parties to the small screen... ...Meet pioneering producer Grace Wyndham Goldie, who created the TV election night special... ...Discover the origins of the swingometer... ...Oh and Dimblebys. There are many Dimblebys. Vote with your ears by listening to this podcast - and vote with your vote by voting.   SHOWNOTES: Buy Gary Rodger's book Swing: A Brief History of British General Election Night Broadcasting.  Listen to Harry White's Modern British History Podcast. The clips used are, we believe, beyond copyright due to age - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi. A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites is coming this summer - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. NEXT TIME: The first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC - and comedian John Henry.  More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

100 years ago the weekend of this podcast, the Cello and the Nightingale became one of the most cherished broadcasts in radio history. It first took place on 19 May 1924, live from the Surrey garden of cellist Beatrice Harrison. In this centenary special, we celebrate the musician, the muse and the microphone that made this incredible feat possible: the first major outside broadcast of nature. The renowned cellist petitioned the BBC for some time to broadcast this unusual duet, and while John Reith at first thought it wouldn't work, new microphones developed by Captain H.J. Round ensured that the birdsong would carry... so long as they sang. Did they sing? (Yes.) Was it faked? (No.) Was it the first broadcast birdsong? (Not quite.) All of this and more will be answered and delved into this episode, with an interview with Patricia Cleveland-Peck, author of The Cello and the Nightingales: The Life of Beatrice Harrison - new edition just released. We look at the scandalous rumours of fakery, the technical developments that meant the BBC's first fading, the Cardiff broadcast that just beat them to it, the bleak wartime duet between The Nightingale and the Bomber, and even John Reith's odd nightingale impersonation, the very same day he first heard radio in 1917.   SHOWNOTES: Iain Baird's excellent article on the technology and legacy of The Cello and the Nightingale is at https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/song-of-the-nightingale/ Buy The Cello and the Nightingales: The Life of Beatrice Harrison by Patricia Cleveland-Peck (NB: I get several pence commission if you click that affiliate link! I ambitously expect to retire on this money) More on Patricia's books and career on her website: https://patriciaclevelandpeck.com/ A video version of Paul's interview with Patricia can be seen here on Youtube: https://youtu.be/CjaNILDlmZ0?si=Dp6fbbLbS-gZKVJu We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi Walking tours of BBC's London sites coming this summer. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. NEXT TIME: We're back in May 1923 for bands and boycotts on the early BBC. More info on this radio history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

On the previous episode we explored the only 1920s BBC recording (that we know of), recorded off-air by Mr Jones of Croydon.  This time on episode 86, we encounter the only other off-air radio recordings of the interwar years (that I know of): the 1932 recordings by Mr F.O. Brown of Greenbank. His grandson Alex cleared out the family attic as recently as 2016, discovering these bizarre metal discs with no idea what they contained, or how to listen to them. Alex consulted the British Sound Library, the internet, and wherever else he could find knowhow on playing these records to preserve the sounds. What he found was several dozen 1930s recordings, from BBC jazz bands to radio royalty, from George Bernard Shaw to his own grandfather giving a spoof tour of Edinburgh.  This episode we chat to Alex about his painstaking work preserving these recordings, and we hear a few. Enjoy Henry Hall opening Broadcasting House, extracts from the 1932 Royal Command Performance, and Reginald Foort and his big organ (stop it). Then head to http://greenbank-records.com/1930s-recordings#/samples/ to hear the rest! You'll also find Alex's illuminating blog at http://greenbank-records.com/blog 1932 was the year the BBC started recording themselves, but only very sparingly. Most of these recordings are the only surviving copy of each broadcast - and there aren't many more pre-WW2 recorded broadcasts at all. Thanks to Alex for sharing his story and the recordings, and thanks to F.O. Brown for using his EKCO Radiocorder to do what so many of us have done over the years: in my case, push the record and play buttons on a cassette recorder while Steve Wright was on Radio 1... or in my children's case, recording themselves playing Radio 2 jingles on the Wise Buddah website... but in this case, assembling a recording device from scratch to preserve monarchs and music on disc, so we can still hear them today.   SHOWNOTES: Head to Greenbank Records for the full works. We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - any near you? NEXT TIME: The Centenary of the Cello and the Nightingale More info on this radio history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

On 23 April 1924, a landmark broadcast took place - the biggest so far. And on day of podcast release, it's the centenary! 100 years ago at time of writing, King George V opened the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, becoming the first monarch to broadcast. It also stands as the oldest surviving recording of a BBC broadcast - and the only excerpt of the BBC from the 1920s.  The BBC couldn't record anything until 1932, when the Blattnerphone came along. So how did this 1924 broadcast manage to be retained? For decades, it wasn't. A 1964 episode of Desert Island Discs tells the tale, of how their 1936/1955 Scrapbook for 1924 programme aired without the recording, but with a sad admission that there was none... till a listener got in touch. Dorothy Jones' husband had recorded the king off-air via a home-made device. Thanks to him, and her, and Scrapbook producer Leslie Baily, we have this sole recording of the 20s' Beeb. It's quite a tale. The broadcast alone was revolutionary - with 10 million people listening via loudspeakers on street corners, brand new radio sets for their homes... even Downton Abbey hired in its first wireless set (but will Lord Grantham keep it? Oh go on then...) Hear all about the momentous exhibition, the broadcast, the recording, and a rundown of royals who ruled the airwaves - and it goes back further than you might think. Hear too of brand new research into an unheralded royal radio encounter from 1906 - before even 'the world's first broadcast' took place, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (Palace) were enjoying a 'radio' whistling solo and a personalised greeting. Thanks for listening. Do share, rate, review, rant, rave, tell people about the podcast. It's a solo operation - not made by the BBC, just by comedian & writer Paul Kerensa. So thanks!   SHOWNOTES: If you enjoyed this, make sure you've listened to our episode on The History of Coronation Broadcasts and A Brief History of the BBC Archives. Listen to the 1924 recording of the Prince of Wales and King George V. Listen to the 1923 gramophone record of King George V and Queen Mary. Listen to the 1923 recording of President Woodrow Wilson - the world's earliest recording of broadcast radio. See the picture of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra encounter 'the talking arc' via our Facebook group or on Twitter. (search for 'talking arc') We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and gain bonus videos and writings in return - we're reading the first book on radio, Cecil Lewis' Broadcasting from Within, for example. Hear all instalments read to you: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901 ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, summer 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio could be playing in your town. If not (likely), book it! Details: www.paulkerensa.com/tour More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio

When Dr Kate Murphy became a BBC's Woman's Hour producer in 1993, the received wisdom was that women's programming began in 1946, when Woman's Hour launched.  Kate did some digging in the archives, and discovered the long lost tale of the early BBC's Women's Hour (rather than Woman's Hour), which ran from 1923-24. Why so brief? What impact did it make? Which listeners did it cater for? She's here to tell us everything. Hear the topics, the tales, some of the voices, how the regional stations nipped in first, how Men's Talk didn't last quite as long, and how it Women's Hour had one of the first examples of listener feedback.  Next time: The earliest BBC recording, as we leap forward a year for one episode, for the centenary of King George V's landmark broadcast - plus the bizarre tale of how we now get to hear it.    SHOWNOTES: Dr Kate Murphy's books are a must if you're interested in this area (and if you're reading this, sorry to break it to you, but you're interested). Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC and Hilda Matheson: A Life of Secrets and Broadcasts. Buy them both - I did.  This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and bonus bits include this video meander around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901 ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when. These recently uploaded plans of Savoy Hill show you everything from Reith's Thames view to the office of Women's Hour boss Ella Fitzgerald: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/932696548301466/   Catch Paul on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - for where/when, see www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks! More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio Thanks for listening (-in).

Welcome to the Savoy Hill era of the BBC! Episode 83 opens the doors to the first permanent home of Auntie Beeb, with a grand launch night on 1 May 1923. I think it's one of the most crucial - and funniest - 24 hours in the BBC's history.  So we recreate as much as we can of that one day: A last-minute dress code sees senior management in far-too-big suits... John Reith's tee-total buffet goes terribly wrong.... The closing speaker goes missing - and is found, sozzled. Will Reith let the drunken lord on the air, and will he string a sentence together?  All will be revealed, plus the music, the speeches (from Lord Gainford, Sir William Bull and Lord Birkenhead), the first Men's Talk (next time, it's Women's Hour, the next day) and the launch of the Sykes Inquiry - just that minor thing of the govt and the press loathing the BBC. A reminder: this was 1923.  Our guest too covers more recent years of broadcasting - Charles Huff, producer of Tomorrow's World and The Great Egg Race, tell us about radio days of his youth, from Educating Archie to Eastern Bloc jamming.  Next time: Dr Kate Murphy joins us to talk about the first Women's Hour progamme, as well as other 1920s women's broadcasting - and why it stopped.   SHOWNOTES: This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC. Original music by Will Farmer. We're hugely grateful to the BBC Written Archives Centre for access and permission to recreate the Savoy Hill launch speeches. BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Books consulted include Sir John Reith by Garry Allighan, The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain by Brian Hennessey, Savoy Hill by Brian Hennessey, and Never Look Back by Cecil Lewis. Among others. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and bonus bits include this video meander around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901 ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when. Paul's on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - for where/when, see www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks! More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Welcome to season 6 of The British Broadcasting Century Podcast - and our 82nd episode. Back in our podcast timeline, telling the moment-by-moment origin story of British broadcasting, we reach a bittersweet moment: the BBC moves out of its first studios, the temporary studio on the top floor of Marconi House. We pay tribute with a look at the Beeb's final day at MH, 30 April 1923 - a broadcast promoting Women's Hour (by a man) and Hawaiian guitar music (hear it here!). And we spend much of the episode re-examining Auntie's first day at Marconi House - indeed BBC Day 1 - as I've just discovered a 1942 memoir from Arthur Burrows, first voice of the BBC. And he says some things I've never read anywhere else before. Was there music on the BBC's first day? He thinks so... ..but we don't! And by 'we', I mean our invited guests: Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker and The Great Collector Dr Steve Arnold. We look at the evidence, from newspapers to the archives to best guesses, and try to piece together the jigsaw of the BBC's first 3 days. Also some more recent BBC memories, as Radio 2 leaves Wogan House, Paul reflects on his memories of broadcasting from there - and working briefly with Steve Wright - a tribute to the great DJ, now Jockin' in the Big Show in the sky.   SHOWNOTES: This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter. Original music by Will Farmer. BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Al rights reserved. Huge thanks to the BBC Written Archive Centre for help and permission regarding the memoir in this episode - and to the Burrows family... if you're out there, I'd love to say hi! Listen to the Burrows memoir without interruption here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/audio-first-bbc-96829718 Some Patreon links for patrons only (do join! £5/mth, cancel whenever)... Steve Wright - a video of my waffling away about him a little aimlessly, and walking between Broadcasting House and Wogan House: https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-steve-wright-98460958?cid=129996334 I mention on the podcasat a Patreon video of my walk around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: https://www.patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901 ...and the walk from Magnet House (first BBC HQ) to Marconi House (first studio): https://www.patreon.com/posts/magnet-house-to-68777192 ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when. My Radio 2 Pause for Thought in tribute to Steve Wright: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0hbpwgr Paul Gambaccini's moving tribute to Steve Wright/Wogan House: https://twitter.com/airchecks/status/1759491760827351416 I also mention my son's Minecraft version of Marconi House. It's got quite a few inaccuracies - but it was made by a 10-year-old with little-to-no knowledge of the Marconi House history - just access to a few plans. So admire the effort if not the accuracy! It's here, if you'd like: https://youtu.be/TatzKmF1z3k Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos. Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks! Next time: We've closed Marconi House, so let's open Savoy Hill! More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Pip pip pip pip pip piiiiiiiiip! Is that the time? It must be 100 years (to the day, as I release this episode) since six baby pips were born onto the airwaves.  As the Greenwich Time Signal - aka The Pips - turns 100, we look back at their origin story, thanks to horologist Frank Hope-Jones and also his overlooked contribution to broadcasting itself. Plus Big Ben's bongs, heard by Manchester listeners days before London's listeners. We explain how... but also why Manchester's time signal was often a little approximate, thanks to too many double doors.  SHOWNOTES: Original music by Will Farmer. Thanks to our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker. Voices include: Harold Bishop, Peter Eckersley, Sir Noel Ashbridge, Kenneth Wright, Frank Hope-Jones... and probably more. We try to only use recordings out of copyright. If you have been affected by rights issues involved in this, do let me know. Everything's editable.  This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter. I mention Charlie Connelly's excellent podcast about 100 years of the Shipping Forecase. Hear here: https://audioboom.com/posts/8423037-100-years-of-the-shipping-forecast Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos. Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks! Next time: Season 6 continues with a celebration of Marconi House - its last day as a BBC studio, and its first. More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Welcome to 2023's Christmas special/2024's Epiphany special. (Come on, what podcast doesn't have an Epiphany special?) It's all just a chance to turn episode 80 into a re-enactment of this remarkable untold tale of Britain's first religious broadcast. Contrary to what some records say, it wasn't the BBC who began religious broadcasting in Britain - it was lone Peckham pioneer preacher Dr James Ebenezer Boon, on 30 July 1922. Thankfully he wrote everything down - from the words of his sermon to the gramophone record hymns he played, to the feedback received from listeners, to his thoughts on the opportunities of future religious broadcasting. We'll also tell you about America's first religious broadcast (1921) and the first non-radio religious broadcasts - via the Electrophone (in the 1890s!). And we'll propel forward to look at the BBC's first church service on 6th January 1924 (and why it wasn't quite the first after all), with its centenary round about now-ish. We discover too the BBC's first Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist broadcasters. Have a guess now roughly when each debuted on air? Then find out in this episode. (It was surprisingly early...) Whether your religion is religion or radio, I'm sure you'll enjoy this episode. It's different to others we've done, as at its centre is a full re-enactment, so expect a 15min sermon, and hymns - sung along to by the live audience (including several religious broadcasters of note) at Christ Church Evangelical, McDermott Road, Peckham. This was Dr Boon's church, that he wired up back in summer 1922, then left to broadcast INTO it from five miles away - but reaching Coventry and the east coast (who offered to send in a collection, bless 'em). Huge thanks to Christ Church Evangelical, especially Adrian Holloway, for allowing us access (I even went to see the roof, where Dr Boon put his aerial!) for that rare thing - recreating a landmark broadcast where it occurred. Thanks too to Dr Jim Harris and Andy Mabbett for their help in bringing the story to life. Branden Braganza and Riley King recorded it (a video will appear on Youtube soon - details here when that happens). Will Farmer composed the original music. Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC. Make sure you've also heard our other episode spinning through a century of 'God on the air' - episode 60: A History of Religious Broadcasting. And if you'd like to read along to the sermon, or read Boon's full notes, you can, on Wikisource. (Thanks Andy Mabbett) Thanks for listening. More info on this project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio, and find me on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at paulkerensa.com/tour. Or book it for your place? Support the show on patreon.com/paulkerensa - where videos and writings await for you £5/mth (cancel whenever, I'll never know). It all helps support the podcast. Or support it for free by sharing on your social medias, or with your pals and acquaintances. Bless you for listening.   NEXT TIME: Season 6 begins! With the BBC leaving Marconi House for Savoy Hill. More re-enactments are coming...  

Episode 79 is our second special of three authors - whose books you may wish to put on your Christmas wish list - especially if you're fans of Doctor Who, religion on radio, and/or ye olde Radio 1.  Last time we had three doctors; this time our first guest is definitely someone who's seen The Three Doctors... PAUL HAYES' book is Pull to Open: 1962-1963: The Inside Story of How the BBC Created and Launched Doctor Who https://tenacrefilms.bigcartel.com/product/pull-to-open-1962-1963 AMANDA HANCOX's book is Sunday: A History of Religious Affairs through 50 Years of Conversations and Controversies https://amzn.to/3TlSz8Q DAVID HAMILTON's books are The Golden Days of Radio One and Commercial Radio Daze http://ashwaterpress.co.uk/DavidHamiltonbooks.html BEN BAKER's book is The Dreams We Had As Children: Children's ITV and Me https://linktr.ee/BenBakerBooks PAUL KERENSA's book is Hark! The Biography of Christmas - in paperback and audiobook https://amzn.to/486DrA6 You'll also hear BBC Radio Sussex/Surrey's (now Kent's as well) Mark Carter - who to my knowledge doesn't have a book (yet) but is, in David Hamilton's words "a great radio man". Original music by Will Farmer. This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter. Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos. Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast, or shouting from the rooftops, are most welcome. It's run by just one person, with zero advertising or PR, so that's where you step in! I'll measure you up for a sandwich-board, yeah? Thanks! Next time: our Christmas/Epiphany special will be the FULL re-enactment of Britain's First Religious Broadcast from July 1922. A rarely-known story - you'll sometimes see the BBC credited as first religious broadcaster, 24 Dec 1922. But no, there was one preacher who five months earlier... More next time! Religious or not, if you like radio, you'll love this tale. Merry Nearly Christmas, or if you're reading this in the rest of year, a simple hello will suffice. Hello. paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

You need more books in your life. So here are three authors to shout about theirs and enthuse about their research.    This time we have three academics. (Next time we'll have three presenters/producers, covering music radio, Radio 4’s Sunday and Doctor Who...)   But this is a different episode of The Three Doctors. And they are…    DR CAROLYN BIRDSALL, Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam + author of Radiophilia (Bloomsbury, 2023): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/radiophilia-9781501374968/ She tells us about the love of radio, 'wireless-itis', and the early days of radio fandom.   DR MARTIN COOPER, Assistant Subject Leader Emeritus at the University of Huddersfield + author of Radio's Legacy in Popular Culture: The Sounds of British Broadcasting over the Decades (Bloomsbury, 2023): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/radios-legacy-in-popular-culture-9781501388231/ He tells us about some of the books, films and songs that feature radio, from Death at Broadcasting House fo James Joyce to Bob the Builder.   DR JOSH SHEPPERD, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder + author of Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (University of Illinois Press, 2023): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780252087257 He tells us about the origin story of education & public radio in the US, from the first WWI university broadcasts to ex-BBC emigre Charles Siepmann (who worked under BBC Talks Director Hilda Matheson in the 1920s - it all links back...).     In telling these tales chronologically, we mix and match between these three wise doctors. So expect a story of rural reach, radio hams and Professor Branestawm as we dovetail in and out of our experts. It's a bit like retuning and cruising up and down that dial...    Original music by Will Farmer. This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC or anyone else for that matter. Details of Paul's tour of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio at www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa, from £5/mth, and get written updates and videos... ...such as this video (free for all) - in which I read my 1923 copy of the Radio Times, exactly 100 years on from when it was on news-stands: https://youtu.be/kbtEhWg7fUY?si=h6nQToLhaVlkIQxY If you can rate/review the podcast nicely somewhere, maybe where you get podcasts normally, I'll be hugely appreciative. This is a one-man band of a show, so your amplification of it is the only thing getting it out there. THANKS! Next time? Three more authors. Then it's our Christmas special: The First Religious Broadcast: Re-staged where it began. Stay tuned. paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 77 is a surprise pop-up episode, with nuggets spanning 1920, 1922 and 1980, from the mid-Atlantic to Glasgow, and from music to horse-racing. We had a few too many tales to tell, so couldn't wait. We're meant to be on a break. Whoops.  Like our previous 'Loose Ends' episode, we've a few threads to pull on: The tale of Arthur Burrows on SS Victorian, breaking records and playing records in July 1920 - an eyewitness account, from 'Wireless at Sea: The First Fifty Years' by H.E. Hancock. Read along here if you like: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Technology/Technology-Early-Radio/Wireless-at-Sea-Hancock-1950.pdf (p.110) An interview between Frank Clive Milligan and his father Andrew Milligan about Andrew's father Frank Milligan, the pioneer behind 5MG from October 1922. Thanks Eddie Bohan for the link-up! Read Eddie's great blog about Frank Milligan here: https://ibhof.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-irishman-who-shaped-scottish-radio.html. We told of Frank Milligan/5MG on episode 48: https://pod.fo/e/12bf51 My findings at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham - and thanks to them as ever! Including some 'new' info from Burrows' reminiscence, about whether day 1 of the BBC had music. Bob Richardson, prop rescuer extraordinaire, on some of a Tardis and the horse racing hexagonal drum. Info on The First Religious Broadcast: Re-staged where it began, in Peckham. If you're reading this before 10 Nov 2023, come and see! It's free. tiny.cc/1st-rb We're nothing to do with the BBC, y'hear? Original music is by Will Farmer. Join us on Facebook or Twitter. Join us on Patreon.com/paulkerensa to support the show for £5/mth. Get audio/video/writings in return. Join soon and get an old book in the post too! More soon. Next time: Authors' special. Aren't they? paulkerensa.com/oldradio 

Episode 76:  On RT centenary day itself, part 2 of our back-story of back issues, as Radio Times turns 100. Catch part 1 if you haven't already: https://pod.fo/e/1f20d1 - there we journeyed from 1923 to 1991, when the monopoly was ended and the British government opened up the TV listings market. In part 2, we're joined again by today's Radio Times co-editor Shem Law and RT enthusiast, collector, historian and BBC Genome contributor Dr Steve Arnold - plus the author of The Radio Times Story Tony Currie. How come part 2 covers just a few decades then? Well, Shem Law told us aplenty about RT present and future too. It's a real treat that certainly made me re-assess the state of the industry in a number of ways: from what we consume, to how we choose what to consume, to how we hear about what we choose what to consume. With me? Great. Listen on. Listen in. If it's on Radio Times, it's in this episode.   SHOWNOTES: Steve Arnold's website: radiotimesarchive.com  The Radio Times Story by Tony Currie: https://amzn.to/3t0TCQc The Radio Times Cover Story book, edited by Shem Law & co: https://amzn.to/3ES4YZv The Gift of a Radio by Justin Webb: https://amzn.to/45c3GDo Paul Kerensa's books: https://amzn.to/3LEGOWd We are nothing to do with the BBC - this is a solo independent operation. Support us at Patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/mth gets you extra video, audio & writings. Paul's on tour this with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio AND The First Religious Broadcast: Re-Staged - come see: paulkerensa.com/tour. Music by Will Farmer, apart from Radio Times by Henry Hall. Subscribe, Rate, Review, Thanks! NEXT TIME: We'll be having a break for a month or so, partly to delineate the seasons (partly to do more researching). Up next, an authors' special, navigating approx 150 years of wireless, radio, TV and more via half a dozen or so notable writers and academics with books that you-yes-you can buy, read, and grow your brain. Thanks for listening (in). And happy centenary, Radio Times! paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Happy 100th to (The) Radio Times!  (The 'the' vanished in 1937)  Britain's favourite magazine is a century old this very week, at time of recording. So it's a bumper edition - not dissimilar to the fat two-weeker that lands on your doorstep or falls off supermarket shelves due to weight and gravity every festive season. This is a two-parter, paying tribute to a century of the 'Official Organ of the British Broadcasting Company' as it was once subtitled. If it's on, it's in, and it's in this podcast.  Part 1 brings us from 1923-1991 - with two tour guides: Shem Law is one of today's two Radio Times editors, and he invited me to RT HQ for a chat, a cuppa, and a browse of his favourite covers. (See link below for a link to our Facebook page, to see the covers he picks at as favourites - or least favourite). Dr Steve Arnold is a RT enthusiast, collector and broadcast historian. If it's on Radio Times history, it's in his brain.  Also this episode, Radio 4's Justin Webb on his grandfather Leonard Crocombe - the first RT editor. Or was he? Steve Arnold has more on that.  This is only part 1. Part 2 will follow in a couple of days, with more from Shem and Steve as well as Tony Currie, author of The Radio Times Story.  SHOWNOTES: The pics of those covers, and other visual talking points (the WW2 map, my oldest RT etc): https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/828907702013685/ Steve Arnold's website: radiotimesarchive.com  The Radio Times Story by Tony Currie: https://amzn.to/3t0TCQc The Radio Times Cover Story book, edited by Shem Law & co: https://amzn.to/3ES4YZv The Gift of a Radio by Justin Webb: https://amzn.to/45c3GDo Paul Kerensa's books: https://amzn.to/3LEGOWd We are nothing to do with the BBC - this is a solo independent operation. Support us at Patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/mth gets you videos galore. Paul's on tour this Autumn with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio AND The First Religious Broadcast: Re-Staged - paulkerensa.com/tour. Music by Will Farmer. Subscribe, Rate, Review, Thanks! NEXT TIME: Part two of the Radio Times back story! paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 73: Comedy tonight! And comedy back then, particularly 26 April 1923... It's a royal wedding so the BBC celebrate in style, with a gala concert, sponsored by Harrods (yes, sponsorship on the BBC!), given by The Co-Optimists, the legendary interwar comedy troupe. The cast includes Stanley Holloway (later of My Fair Lady) and, weirdly, the ex of the prince getting married. Whoops. We also explore a landmark pre-BBC broadcast by The Co-Optimists, in the summer of 1921. It's London's first broadcast, and pretty much the only legal broadcast of 1921. We'll explain why, and you'll hear them in full flow. Plus, for those who prefer their comedy more recent, we've got comedy writers James Cary and Simon Dunn, as well as Hi-De-Hi's Jeffrey Holland, telling us about later BBC comedy from The Goons to Bottom, via Steptoe, Dad's Army and Roy Clarke's ovens. It's a lot to pack in, so it's a longer episode than we usually go for, but we trust you'll be entertained, or at least informed about being entertained, or educated about being informed about being entertained...   SHOWNOTES: Simon Dunn's books include Proctology: A Bottom Examination. James Cary's books include The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer. Paul Kerensa's books include Hark! The Biography of Christmas - also available as an audiobook. Hear The Co-Optimists via this Youtube channel. Alan Stafford's article on John Henry and the first BBC topical comedy.  A photo of 'Listening to the Gala Concert at Harrods' (thanks Andrew Barker!) - 26 April 1923. A photo of the Beaver Hut, Strand (the site of the later Bush House) - Summer 1921. Sidney Nicholson's wedding anthem - Beloved Let Us Love One Another - hosted by the English Heritage Music Series at University of Minnesota. We are nothing to do with the BBC - this is a solo independent operation. Support us at Patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/mth gets you videos galore. Paul's on tour this Sept/Oct with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - paulkerensa.com/tour. Music by Will Farmer. Subscribe, Rate, Review, Thanks! NEXT TIME: Music! With Percy Pitt in 1923 and ex Radio 1 boss Johnny Beerling in the present day, reflecting on 1967+. paulkerensa.com/oldradio