1924 brings a few more firsts, the first pips, the first drama written specifically for radio, the first broadcast from a monarch and the BBC's first fakery scandal, although the truth wouldn't be revealed for ninety odd years.
Or was it? I've included The Guardian story below, but the text under the episode of Private Passions which discusses the potential siffleur now includes a correction that the audio the zooilogical experts were working from was from a commercial release in 1927 not the original broadcast (which had been mislabelled in the BBC archive) and although there is testimony from the imitator Madame Saberon and her family, there's equally valid testimony from others, so no one really knows.
The Pips and Chimes
"The six-pip Time Signal was introduced on 5 February 1924 following the successful broadcast of the chimes of Big Ben to usher in the new year."
[Royal Museums Greenwich]
"One of the most familiar sounds on BBC services, Greenwich time signal pips turn 75 years old. Inventor Frank Hope-Jones explains them to the listeners."
[BBC Sounds][BBC Programme Index]
"On New Year's Eve, 1923, BBC engineer AG Dryland climbed onto a roof opposite the Houses of Parliament with a microphone to record the chimes of Big Ben."
[BBC Archive]
Archive
"This is the first broadcast made by a British monarch on radio. King George V opened the British Empire Exhibition on 23 April 1924. In his speech, broadcast by the BBC, he thanks all those who worked to deliver such a ‘magnificent result’, despite challenges such as the ‘unfavourable weather’."
[British Library][BBC Programme Index]
Behind The Scenes
"Exclusive: bird impressionist was brought in for Beatrice Harrison’s historic performance, says broadcaster"
[The Guardian]
"Radio seems a natural medium for the play, or maybe it doesn’t. The first to be commissioned especially for the wireless in Britain was ‘A Comedy of Danger’, aired in January 1924. The playwright was 23 year old Richard Hughes: “I was asked by the BBC, in January of 1924, to write a play for effect by sound only, in the same way that film plays are written for effect by sight only”. The production was set in the darkness of a coalmine, where listeners and characters alike were at the same disadvantage. Both could ‘see’ nothing."
[audioboom][BBC Programme Index]
"Who would hear the story of a year's pioneering? A rare enough thing these days, when all the grounds seems to have been gone over again and again, and all the walks of life seem to have been explored and exploited."
[World Radio History]
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