Episode 45 sees us still in January 1923, but on the move...
First BBC Director of Programmes Arthur Burrows visits 5IT Birmingham and 2ZY Manchester to see the 2nd and 3rd BBC stations in action - so here's a podcast snapshot of what broadcasting was like in their makeshift studios in British broadcasting's earliest days.
Our guest is Jude Montague, whose grandfather Sydney Wright was an early on-air musician in the 2ZY Wireless Trio. And you'll hear the voices of those who were there: Kenneth Wright, Victor Smythe, Percy Edgar, A.E. Thompson...
Hear of singers toppling off platforms made of books, as they step back for the big final note. Hear of Manchester beating London to be first station to broadcast Big Ben. And hear of the Grenadier Guards Band, cramming 22 performers into a studio space fit for 3.
Next time: another grandchild of an early radio wonder: Justin Webb on his grandfather Leonard Crocombe, first editor of the Radio Times.
Thanks for listening!
#067 SPECIAL: A Brief History of Coronation Broadcasts
#066 The BBC’s News, Weather and SOS Broadcasts of March 1923
#065 A Brief History of the BBC’s Archives
#064 Farewell Magnet House, Hello... Laundry Baskets? + Jeffrey Holland
#063 Glasgow 5SC: The BBC Launches in Scotland
#062 Radio’s First Political Debate... and Reeta Chakrabarti
#061 The BBC’s Listings Ban... and Gareth Gwynn’s Ministry of Happiness
#060 A History of Religious Broadcasting: 100 Years of God on the Beeb
#059 100 Years in 100 Minutes, part 3 (1988-2022)
#058 100 Years in 100 Minutes, part 2 (1955-87)
#057 100 Years in 100 Minutes, part 1 (1922-54)
#056 BBC100, Poetry Please?... and Roger Bolton
#055 The First Shakespeare on the BBC (pt 1) + Happy BBCentenary! (also pt1)
#054 The First Welsh Broadcast... and The Exhibitionists!
#053 SPECIAL: Radio as Propaganda in WW2... plus Peter Eckersley & Hilda Matheson
#052 SPECIAL: Auntie’s War - with Edward Stourton
#051 SPECIAL: Early Black British Broadcasters - with Stephen Bourne
#050 Hilda Matheson and the Radio Girls of Savoy Hill - with Sarah-Jane Stratford
#049 It’s That Man Again! Peter Eckersley - 1st BBC Chief Engineer
#048 Daimler, 5MG and 2BP: The In-Car Radios of 1923
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