#097 Manchester, Birmingham, Gardening, Radio Circle + a Wireless Elephant: The BBC in August 1923

2025-03-13

Episode 97 finds the BBC in August 1923... There are two studio moves - 2ZY Manchester and 5IT Birmingham leave their old premises in style ('The Etude in K Sharp by Spotsoffski'... "The studio ghost looks round - burial forever of the carrier wave...") and find new city centre studios, including a heavy goods lift with a pulley that visitors need to pull themselves, so put down your briefcase or cello and get hoisting... At the Birmingham station, we check in with Uncles Edgar and Thompson and their innovative Children's Hour, who now...

Episode 97 finds the BBC in August 1923...

There are two studio moves - 2ZY Manchester and 5IT Birmingham leave their old premises in style ('The Etude in K Sharp by Spotsoffski'... "The studio ghost looks round - burial forever of the carrier wave...") and find new city centre studios, including a heavy goods lift with a pulley that visitors need to pull themselves, so put down your briefcase or cello and get hoisting...

At the Birmingham station, we check in with Uncles Edgar and Thompson and their innovative Children's Hour, who now has a Radio Circle - the origins of Children in Need, perhaps?

We visit London 2LO to find Marion Cran, one of the first gardening presenters, as well as a wireless elephant. We visit Glasgow 5SC, with guest expert Graham Stewart.

We're grateful to other experts: comedy historian Alan Stafford, Children's Hour historian Dr Zara Healy, and Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - among others. This podcast is a group effort! If you listen, you're part of that too, so do get in touch...

...In fact DO get in touch ahead of our 100th episode. We'd love to hear from you with your favourite parts of the story so far. Write an email or record a voice memo, send to paul at paulkerensa dot com - anything about a moment from early broadcasting that you particularly found marvellous. Peter Eckersley on 2MT Writtle? Gertrude Donisthorpe the WW1 DJ? The drunken launch of Savoy Hill? The first BBC Christmas? What's your favourite? Do tell. Email us!

SHOWNOTES:

I'm now posting on Substack: https://substack.com/@paulkerensa - My first post is on the bizarre history of the BBC Concert Hall/Radio Theatre/WW2 dormitory. Do subscribe if you'd like a fortnightly long-form blog post type of reading thing.
Last episode's guest Beaty Rubens brought this to Radio 3 recently: Between the Ears: Listen In
Alan Stafford's biography of John Henry is Bigamy Killed the Radio Star: https://www.fantompublishing.co.uk/product/bigamy-killed-the-radio-star/
Paul Kerensa's books include Hark! The Biography of Christmas: https://amzn.to/4iuULoB - with the audiobook read by Paul: https://amzn.to/4gdlYud
Original music is by Will Farmer.
Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting, live.
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...
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