The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

#014 1922's British Wireless Exhibition: Tomorrow's World

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, getting to know their first radio sets in Sept/Oct 1922, at the First All-British Wireless Exhibition and Convention (FABWEAC, for short).
So this time, hear the sights, smell the sounds and meet the artistes, such as singer and future radio boss Rex Faithful, first pianist of the BBC Maurice Cole and first broadcast royal, the Prince of Wales (before he regenerated into Edward VIII).
Oh and the BBC is formed. No biggie.
But did you know that Hotpoint and Siemens had their bosses on the first board of BBC directors? No, me neither. Radio's just another household appliance to some people... but come on, how many podcasts devoted to dishwashers? [checks] Wow, loads.
Plus an Airwave Memory from Philip Rowe of the History of European Theatre Podcast - give 'em a listen!
There are pics to go with this episode on our Facebook and Twitter pages, including a fuller line-up of FABWEAC's artistes.
There's also a nice silent video of 1922's King's Cup Air Race, that we mention in this episode, here.
Support the show at ko-fi.com/paulkerensa or patreon.com/paulkerensa for perks and things - thanks!
More details on Paul's next Writing Course here or on Paul's mailing list.
Paul's Tuesday evening Facebook Live show is called PK's Uplift Live. Do join. Occasionally he talks about broadcasting history there too.
Thanks to Will Farmer for the original music.
Older music is either public domain or private domain but we're not sure whose. If you have any copyright issues with the attached audio, do let us know and we'll remove if you'd rather. We're just here to inform, educate and entertain - thanks for helping us do so.
(Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC. Never heard of them.)

#013 Inform, Educate, Entertain: Have I Got News For You?

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, and not easily.
- The Reithian values arrive - 'to inform, educate & entertain' - except somehow they're knocking about before John Reith's even heard of broadcasting.
Our guest is Andrew Barker, a former BBC producer and radio history enthusiast, who's been delving into the newspaper archives to bring us fascinating clippings from 1922.
Hear how the Manchester Guardian told its readers what a radio tuner was... how Caruso, Gilbert & Sullivan and a racist song all came to the wireless that summer... and how impatient the listeners were getting for the Postmaster General to pull his finger out and press 'go' on the BBC.
Plus an excerpt from a 1937 Radio Pictorial magazine courtesy of Stewart Henderson.
See many such excerpts in photo form, shared to our @bbcentury pages on Facebook and Twitter.
Support the show at patreon.com/paulkerensa and get advance bits of Paul's writing - thanks!
Paul's running a Writing Course (on Zoom) this Sept-Nov. Do join, if you want to write anything and want to include things like 'a story' or 'character'. More details here.
Hear Paul on BBC Radios Sussex & Surrey here, and on BBC Radio 2's Pause For Thought here (find his face, like Guess Who).
Hurrah for Will Farmer's original music.
Buy Paul's Books; join his Mailing list.
This podcast is unaffiliated to the BBC. We're talking about them, not with them. 

#012 The Pre-BBC 6/Music, part 2: 1 BBC

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 (BBC).
Hear the voices of those who weren't just there - they were pushing the buttons. This episode includes:
- How we got the licence fee!
- Garden party demonstrations
- Elstree
- the arrival of Cecil Lewis
Plus an Airwave Memory from Pete Hawkins (twitter.com/fictoids1) and Firsthand Memories from covering I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and the World Service.
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This podcast is unaffiliated to the mighty BBC. We just like talking about them.
Support the show at patreon.com/paulkerensa or ko-fi.com/paulkerensa - thanks!
Thanks Will Farmer for the original music.
We're on Facebook and Twitter - do join us there.
Paul on BBC Radios Sussex & Surrey can be heard here.
Paul's appearances on BBC Radio 2's Pause For Thought can be heard here (with others).
Paul's Mailing list
Paul's Books 
Closedown (Please stand for the National Anthem)

#011 The Pre-BBC 6/Music, part 1: 2 BBCs

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 Apprentice) and studio sing-songs (a la Top of the Pops).
In this exciting episode, hear the voices and reminiscences of John Reith, Peter Eckersley, Arthur Burrows, Lord Gainford - those who were there as the BBC finally got its name.
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This podcast is unaffiliated to the mighty BBC. We just like talking about them, and how they came into being.
...So your licence fee is not supporting this project! If you'd like to help keep us on air:
ko-fi.com/paulkerensa chips in £3
or
patreon.com/paulkerensa at £5+/mth gets you exclusive benefits and things. Thanks those who've joined!
Thanks Will Farmer for the original music.
Thanks for sharing us and liking us on Facebook and Twitter, and for rating & reviewing us. It's been all 5 stars so far and we love you for it - it helps get more ears on the podcast.
Get your voice on the podcast by emailing a clip of your AM - Airwave Memories - 1-2min of you telling us your favourite early broadcasting memories. Or email us some words some FM - First-hand Memories - of times you saw radio or TV in action. What surprised you about it? Do tell.
On this ep we mentioned Eddie Bohan's book: 'Rebel Radio: Ireland's First International Radio Station 1916'. More info on the book here.
Your host Paul is on Facebook Live every Tuesday 8pm for PK's Uplift Live: a show of fun and games, unrelated to this podcast, but often with a broadcast history reading, because he can't resist.
Paul on BBC Radios Sussex & Surrey can be heard here.
Paul's appearances on BBC Radio 2's Pause For Thought can be heard here (find Paul's face. He has glasses. It's a bit like playing Guess Who...)
Paul's Mailing list
Paul's Books 
Pip pip

#010 2ZY Manchester: Are You Sitting Comfortably? (with Chris Jarvis)

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 General Election results. Weird.
 
Hear the voices that started children's broadcasting: Kenneth Wright (aka Uncle Humpty Dumpty) and Reginald Jordan (a 10-year-old radio announcer). 
 
Back in the present day, CHRIS JARVIS (CBeebies, CBBC, Children's BBC, 'The Anorak', Show Me Show Me, Stargazing... etc etc etc) joins us for an exclusive chat about the role of children's TV and radio, right up to his brand new project, Magic Den for CBeebies Radio.
 
Expect a short break before ep11 (it's summer hols), as we stampede towards the birth of the Beeb in a few episodes' time.
 
We aren't affiliated to said Beeb in any way at all. We just like talking about them, and where they've come from, and maybe where they're going.
 
...So your licence fee is not supporting this project! If you'd like to help keep us on air:
ko-fi.com/paulkerensa chips in £3
or
patreon.com/paulkerensa at £5+/mth gets you exclusive benefits and things. Thanks those who've joined!
 
Thanks Will Farmer for the original music.
 
Thanks for sharing us and liking us on Facebook and Twitter, and for rating & reviewing us. It's been all 5 stars so far and we love you for it - it helps get more ears on the podcast.
 
Get your voice on the podcast by emailing a clip of your AM - Airwave Memories - 1-2min of you telling us your favourite early broadcasting memories. Or email us some words some FM - First-hand Memories - of times you saw radio or TV in action. What surprised you about it? Do tell.
 
Your host Paul is on Facebook Live every Tuesday 8pm for PK's Uplift Live: a show of fun and games, unrelated to this podcast, but often with a broadcast history reading, because he can't resist.
 
Paul's Mailing list
 
Paul's Books 
 
Paul's Goodbye: Goodbye.

#009 2LO London Calling

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 pranks, including Arthur Burrows and Peter Eckersley recreating a 1922 moment via clips from 1938 and 1960. (It looks weird written down, but trust me.)
This episode's 'AM' (Airwave Memories) comes from radio producer Chris Byland. Send yours by recording a 1-2min audio clip of you reminiscing about your earliest memories of radio/TV. Your 'FM' (First-hand Memories) are welcome too - a new feature of emailed-in observations of when YOU saw radio in action. Email me here.
A reminder: we're unaffiliated with the BBC. We're just fascinated by how they got under way - and maybe it'll tell us more about today's world of broadcaster v government v press...
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We air a few seconds of rare audio of radio pioneer Captain HJ Round... Hear the full 15mins here on Youtube. 
Support the podcast! I've got books and gramophone records in my sights that'll improve the podcast no end. Help us afford them?... 
- ko-fi.com/paulkerensa chips in £3
- patreon.com/paulkerensa starts at £5/mth and you get benefits - 5 of you have joined us in the last fortnight. THANK YOU!
Please do share, rate, review, the podcast. It helps a heap.
We're on Facebook and Twitter with relevant pics & chat. 
Original music is by Will Farmer. Hire him now!
Your host Paul also presents PK's Uplift Live: a Facebook Live each Tue 8pm, of fun and games.
...and he's available for socially-distanced outdoor stand-up gigs. Very bookable.
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 

#008 2MT Writtle: Radio Active

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 brings entertainment radio to the masses with jokes, songs, impressions and severe over-running.
Hear all about it - including archive clips aplenty - including more from broadcasting historian Tim Wander (buy his books here).
Plus an early broadcasting memory - now called 'AM' (Airwave Memories) from Jamie Dyer of the Watching the Wireless podcast.
We're nowt to do with the BBC - we just like to talk about them. (Though if you work for the BBC and can commission us to make this entire series again for you, get in touch... and can we have access to your archive please?)
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This podcast needs you!... 
- ko-fi.com/paulkerensa chips in £3
- patreon.com/paulkerensa starts at £5/mth and you get benefits - join our merry small band who help keep us on air.
And/or just share, rate, review, tweet + talk about this podcast. It really helps.
We're also on Facebook and Twitter - 'like' us there. 
Original music is by Will Farmer. Clarinet is by Adam Smith.
Join your host Paul every Tuesday 8pm for PK's Uplift Live: a Facebook Live of fun and games, mostly unrelated to this podcast, but normally with a broadcast history reading most weeks.
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 

#007 Peter Eckersley: 1922's Pre-Goon Goon

Thank Eckersley for the BBC! It's almost entirely down to him. Never heard of him? Then listen on, to the original PPE...
We chat to broadcasting historian Tim Wander (who knows more about Eckersley than anyone on the planet). Plus hear clips from Captain Eckersley himself, both in wild action on air, and looking back over his amazing career as first BBC Chief Engineer, first regular voice on British radio, and pioneer of air traffic control. Oh yes, he also built an airport. And he was a spy in WW2. What a tale!
It's all here on this unaffiliated-to-the-BBC-we-have-to-make-that-clear podcast.
Support the podcast: 
- ko-fi.com/paulkerensa buys me a coffee
- patreon.com/paulkerensa has tiers and benefits - thanks to Mel, Chris and Andrew who've joined up this month!
- and thank you for sharing, rating, reviewing, tweeting + talking about this podcast. It really helps.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for extra bits and pieces. 
Original music is by Will Farmer - wrangler of notes.
Your host Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 

#006 William Le Queux: Power to the People

A minisode that somehow ends up longer than a normal episode... Instead of telling you all about 1922's pioneer extraordinaire P.P. Eckersley, we're putting him back a week. Well, the radio hams of the day had to wait 18 months - you can wait 7 days.
Before him, we bring a tale of William Le Queux, amateur broadcaster of 1921 - oh and he was a writer from Guildford. Like your host...
Plus a tale of hospital radio, and a TV memory from illustrator Rachel Berman.
Support the podcast: 
- ko-fi.com/paulkerensa buys me a coffee
- patreon.com/paulkerensa has tiers and benefits
- and your sharing, rating, reviewing and talking about this podcast is hugely appreciated.
Follow our Facebook page and Twitter handle for pictures and things to go with this podcast. 
Original music is by Will Farmer - if you need music, visit his page.
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 

#005 Arthur Burrows: 1920's All-Request Pirate (with Emperor Rosko)

Meet the guv'nor: BBC's first newsreader, children's presenter, actor, Head of Programmes... but before all that Arthur Burrows was one of broadcasting's lone prophets, convincing journalists, ministers and future listeners-in that mass entertainment from a small box was A Good Thing.
Plus we exclusively hear from a pirate radio legend. Emperor Rosko tells us his journey from naval ship DJ to Radio Caroline, Radio Luxembourg and the first line-up of BBC Radio 1.
This podcast has nothing by the way to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not with them... It's just a one-man band here.
If you'd like to support that one-man band: 
- ko-fi.com/paulkerensa buys me a coffee
- patreon.com/paulkerensa has tiers and benefits
- and your sharing, rating, reviewing and talking about this podcast is hugely appreciated.
Follow our Facebook page and Twitter handle for pictures and things to go with this podcast. 
Original music is by Will Farmer - if you need music, visit his page.
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 

#004 Happy 100th, Radio! Melba: The Voice

Hip hip hurrah! Our centenary special, landing on the 100th birthday of professional public broadcast radio in Britain. Hear the best/only (possibly) re-enactment of the Melba Concert, sent from Chelmsford to the world on June 15th 1920 - exactly a century before this episode lands.
Relive the songs, the fire, a genuine joke, the panic when it goes off-air... and discover how an attempt at Daily Mail Radio sparked British broadcasting into being.
This podcast is here to inform, educate + entertain on the origins of the BBC, radio and life as we know it - but has no affiliation with either the British Broadcasting Corporation or the British Broadcasting Company (which, in fairness, ceased trading in 1926, so that was always unlikely).
Pleas rate and review wherever you got this podcast - it really helps spread word. It's a one-man operation!
Join Paul TONIGHT on Facebook Live, with a live talk/Q&A on The History of the BBC (basically this entire podcast series condensed into an hour). £Pay What You Want, details here or on our Facebook page.
Your questions/comments (written) or early broadcasting memories (recorded) are welcome via email. 
This episode's guest was Lorna Farrell, and her Facebook page of prayers and poems is here.
Support the show at Patreon / Ko-fi ...Please?
Then we can pay people, like composer of our original music, Will Farmer  
Visit BBCentury on Facebook / Twitter
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROADCASTING! Here's to the next 100...

#003 Earlier... with Winifred Sayer

The 1st woman on British radio! Radio's 1st professional artiste! The 1st listings! The 1st programme with a title!
Journey back to early 1920 for episode 3 of the story of pre-BBC broadcasting, and meet W.T. Ditcham, Captain H.J. Round and Winifred Sayer - the girl from the ball-bearings factory who brought song to our radio sets. 
We're here to inform, educate + entertain on the origins of the BBC, radio and life as we know it. I say 'we'. It's just me. 
Oh, and original music by Will Farmer  
Oh, and our guest is Emily Jeffery, who presents the fab Edge of England podcast.
(To be our guest, email an audio clip of your early broadcasting memories.)
Support the show at Patreon / Ko-fi
Visit BBCentury on Facebook / Twitter
Please Share/Rate/Review wherever you got this podcast. It really helps.
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 
BTW, we have no affiliation to the BBC, or to the BTW, whatever that is.

#002 Ditcham and Round: Record Breakers

Episode 2 of our journey towards British broadcasting's birth: Dr Crippen, Titanic, war, a ghost + 2 brilliant engineers. 
Be informed, educated + entertained on the origins of the BBC, radio and life as we know it. (We've no affiliation with the BBC, to be clear.)
Original music by Will Farmer  
-
Email an audio clip of your early broadcasting memories, or send your questions/comments
Support the show at Patreon / Ko-fi 
Visit BBCentury on Facebook / Twitter
Please Share/Rate/Review wherever you got this podcast. It really helps.
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 
Pip pip!
 

#001 Morse to Marconi: Pick of the Pioneers

Episode 1: Morse, Marconi + Reg Fessenden's first entertainment show. 
This episode covers 1830-1906, yes, we're not even in the last 100 years yet... but first we have to invent wireless telephony.
Be informed, educated + entertained on the origins of the BBC, radio and life as we know it.
(We've no affiliation with the BBC, to be clear.)
-
Email an audio clip of your early broadcasting memories, or your questions/comments 
Visit BBCentury on Facebook / Twitter
Support the show at Patreon / Ko-fi 
Guest Philip Simon's Youtube 
Original music by Will Farmer  
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 
Closing down now...

#000 Trailer: The British Broadcasting Century

Happy 100th Birthday Radio! Welcome to the podcast that informs, educates + entertains on the origins of the BBC, radio and life as we know it. 
(Oh, we've no affiliation with the BBC, to be clear.) 
Original music by Will Farmer. All other clips are public domain, by our understanding, due to their vast age. If we're wrong and you own a clip, get in touch. 
Be on the podcast: Email an audio clip of your early broadcasting memories, or send your questions/comments 
Support the show at Patreon / Ko-fi 
Visit BBCentury on Facebook / Twitter 
Please Share/Rate/Review wherever you got this podcast. It really helps.
Paul's Mailing list | Books | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website 
Pip pip!