#101 The Sykes Report + Early Recordings Association

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:

• Original music is by Will Farmer. 
• Early Recordings Association - join! https://www.surrey.ac.uk/early-recordings-association
• Early Recordings Association Conference - come! https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20250701-early-recordings-association-era-conference-2025
• The album 'Austro-German Revivals: (Re)constructing Acoustic Recordings' by Inja Stanović & David Milsom - listen for free! https://unipress.hud.ac.uk/plugins/books/30/
• Paul Kerensa on Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
• Paul Kerensa at Camden Fringe with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio, in August 2025 - come! https://camdenfringe.com/events/an-evening-of-very-old-radio/
• Paul Kerensa on elsewhere on tour: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
• Paul's walking tour of old BBC sites, 9 Aug and 6 Sept 2025 - come! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pks-walking-tour-of-old-bbc-and-pre-bbc-buildings-pwyw-tickets-1401875560539  
• 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.
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• ...Latest Patreon video is an even deeper dive into the Sykes Report - we read the lot (well, most of it): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-1923s-sykes-132182661

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

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