Jan 22nd, 2021
Loose Ends (with Gareth Jones)
Ending season 1, here's episode 21 to tie up some loose ends, correct some clarifications and clarify some corrections from our previous 20 episodes on the prehistory of the BBC, r...
Jan 22nd, 2021
Ending season 1, here's episode 21 to tie up some loose ends, correct some clarifications and clarify some corrections from our previous 20 episodes on the prehistory of the BBC, r...
Dec 16th, 2020
Merry listening! Now, do you hear what I hear? Join our sleigh ride back to Christmas 1922, and delve deep into our pod-sack to discover what the BBC was broadcasting in its first ...
Dec 7th, 2020
...and the Midlands, as Birmingham and Manchester join the party. We revisit the second day of the BBC: November 15th 1922. Also, how Manchester launched the first BBC children's p...
Nov 14th, 2020
"You know, this broadcasting is going to be jolly good fun." ...That adlib ended the very first BBC broadcast, given by Arthur Burrows on November 14th, 1922 - and re-enacted on th...
Nov 6th, 2020
We're nearly there! Episode 17 zooms in on the pre-BBC fortnight. You'd have thought everything's in place by now, right? Not quite - just the tiny non-controversial matters of the...
Oct 29th, 2020
The first drama, the first comedian... Journey with us to October 1922 for the rarely told tale radio's first play (Cyrano de Bergerac, courtesy of Peter Eckersley) and British bro...
Oct 9th, 2020
For ep 15, our story of broadcasting reaches one John Reith, who spots a job advertisement in the Morning Post. He's never heard of broadcasting. But what led him to that point? Re...
Sep 22nd, 2020
We're back, and we're a little muffled. (I'll be hitting my microphone with hammers, promise.) As I struggle with 2020 tech, the Great British public were struggling with theirs, g...
Sep 10th, 2020
In episode 13, we're in August/Sept 1922, which means: - Manchester's first broadcast concert - The pre-BBC battles the printed press. Has the BBC got news for us? Erm... Not yet, ...
Aug 31st, 2020
Part 2 of the pre-BBC's summer of music covers June and July 1922. As The Spice Girls once nearly sang, tonight (this episode) is the night (the episode) when 2 (BBCs) become 1 (BB...
Aug 23rd, 2020
Two British Broadcasting Companies! That's the result of the negotiations of summer 1922. Part one of this two-parter brings us two parallel storylines: boardroom debates (a la The...
Jul 29th, 2020
In episode 10, we journey through the round window... 2ZY Manchester arrives in mid-May 1922, then children's broadcasting in mid-November: Kiddies Corner, as part of a night of Ge...
Jul 20th, 2020
Episode 9 brings us to the famous '2LO': London is calling the world, on our journey towards the BBC's birth. Hear the voices that launched broadcasting in the UK, plus rivalry and...
Jul 13th, 2020
Feb 14th, 1922: Britain finally gets a regular broadcast service. Only it's a little dry. Till Peter Eckersley gives his engineers gin and tonics (also dry), runs to the mic, and b...