Two or three huge moments in the BBC's history in 1932. Broadcasting House opened and the official home of BBC radio moved there from Savoy Hill. The BBC Empire Service, forerunning of the BBC World Service began its first experimental broadcasts, ending the year with the first Christmas speech on that occasion from King George V, written by Rudyard Kipling. The BBC also began experimental TV broadcasts using the Baird system and incredibly we have some brief footage of him with his machines and what may have been part of the first broadcast.
Broadcasting House Opens
"As it approached its second decade, the BBC’s happy-go-lucky attitude was fading fast."
[History Extra]
"When Broadcasting House, London entered service in 1932 the BBC published a book of photographs of the building called 'Broadcasting House'. Its pictures give us not only a view of the studios and other technical areas but also of many other parts of the building. A corridor, a staircase, a dressing room, the boiler room and the ventilation plant were all considered worth recording just as much as the Control Room, the Concert Hall or the Chapel Studio."
[ORBEM]
Thorough history of television broadcasts from Broadcasting House.
[TV Studio History]
"Offices and studios for the British Broadcasting Corporation (north extension not of special interest). 1930-32 by Col. G Val Myer and Watson Hart, relief panels by Eric Gill and Gilbert Bayes, etc. Portland stone on steel frame."
[Historic England]
"And now we are at Broadcasting House."
[BBC Programme Index]
A commemorative catalogue with hundreds of photographs of the exterior and interior.
[World Radio History]
"John Logie Baird striving to create television. B.B.C. Broadcasting House."
[Pathe]
The First Christmas Speech
"By the 1920s radio was increasingly becoming the medium through which leaders could talk to their nations and, in some cases, their empires, with radio the norm in the US by this point."
[gov.uk]
"In this clip, John Reith, the founding director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), opens the first programme of the BBC Empire Service. The service went on air at 9:30am on Saturday 19 December 1932, and Reith’s address was read out five times over the day to reach different parts of the world."
[British Library]
The continuity announcement then part of the speech.
[BBC Sounds]
"The first ever Royal Christmas Message, written by Rudyard Kipling and broadcast live over wireless from Sandringham by King-Emperor George V in 1932."
[Roman Styran][BBC Programme Index]
Behind The Scenes
"Directed by Henry Hall from first studio completed in Broadcasting House."
[AP]
"The BBC Dance Orchestra and Henry Hall play cricket then play 'Here's To The Next Time' for a radio audience."
[Pathe]
"The New Empire Review, now present the first pictures of the, BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] Orchestra (Leader Arthur Catterall) Conducted by Adrian Boult."
[Pathe]
"A video-only extract from the 30-line TV restoration of Betty Bolton singing some time between 1932 and 1935."
[TVDawn]
"It was not until 22 August 1932 that the BBC finally took over television programme production from the Baird company. At this time, the vision signal was being sent out on 261.3 metres (London National) with the corresponding sound on 398.9 metres (Midland Regional)."
[Baird Television]
"New Zealander Joan Sherley tells of the time she heard King George on the radio in 1932."
[BBC Sounds]
"In October 1932 the BBC introduced a marriage bar, stemming what had been an enlightened attitude towards married women employees. The policy was in line with the convention of the day; marriage bars were widespread in the inter-war years operating in occupations such as teaching and the civil service and in large companies such as Sainsbury’s and ICI. However, once implemented, the BBC displayed an ambivalent attitude towards its marriage bar which had been constructed to allow those married women considered useful to the Corporation to remain on the staff."
[Bournemouth University]
"This year had again been one of steady progress."
[hathitrust]
"On July 7th, 1932, the visit of their Majesties the King and Queen to Broadcasting House, the B.B.C.'s new London head- quarters, set the seal on ten years of British broadcasting. On November 14th and the following days the B.B.C. celebrated its actual tenth anniversary with a week of special programmes. The purpose of the present article is to review the B.B.C.'s career as objectively as possible."
[World Radio History]
No comments:
Post a Comment