The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

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