On the Air: a Short History of Broadcasting In
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BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ON THE AIR Price £3.00 2001 A Short History of Broadcasting to the Bristol Area ISSN 1362 77 59 No. 102 JOHN PENNY THE BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION LOCAL HISTORY PAMPHLETS ON THE AIR Hon. General Editor: PETER HARRIS A Short History of Broadcasting to the Bristol Area Assistant General Editor: NORMA KNIGHT Editorial Advisor: JOSEPH BETTEY The history of radio and television broadcasting contains two parallel strands, the story of the engineering and scientific developments which have provided an ever improving means of delivery, and the steady On the Air is the one hundred and second pamphlet in this series. progress made on the creative and political frontwhich has enabled this John Penny, who co-founded the Fishponds Local History Society in comparatively new medium to adapt its programming styles and content 1979, has been researching various aspects of Bristol's history fornearly 25 to meet the needs of an ever-changing society. However, in spite of the years. He specialises in local military, aviation and media history and fact that it is the programmes and personalities involved in broadcasting recently gained an MA in Local and Regional History at Bath Spa which have made the greatest impression on audiences during its first 75 University College. or so years, any account has to include a certain amount of technical The publication of a pamphlet by the Bristol Branch of the Historical detail, although this has been kept to the minimum required to explain Association does not necessarily imply the Branch's approval of the the basic engineering techniques employed during the period before the opinions expressed in it. digital revolution began in 1998. The Historical Association is a national body which seeks to encourage Towards the end of the last decade of the nineteenth century, wireless interest in all forms of history. Further details about membership and its telegraphy started to become a practical proposition and although for a activities can be obtained from the Secretary, The Historical Association, hundred years Morse Code was to be successfully used forpoint-to-point 59A Kennington Park Road, London, SEll 4JH. communication throughout the world, if radio was to become a mass medium then telephony, rather than telegraphy, would have to be ISSN 1362 7759 © John Penny employed. However, as 'spark' transmitters predominated in the period beforeWorld War One, and these were unsuitable for sending the spoken I word, it was not until after the conflict, when thermionic transmitting l valves had been perfected, that radio broadcasting became a practical proposition. Although several methods exist for impressing a sound signal on to radio waves, amplitude modulation (AM) was the first to be discovered and in January 1920, in order to test its long distance propagation characteristics, the Marconi Company set up an experimental transmitter at their works at Chelmsford, fromwhich was soon being broadcast half hour programmes of speech and music. However, it was a special Daily The title 'On The Air' is taken from a gramophone record of that name Mail sponsored song recital by the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba on (EMI Col.S 1094) by Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, with June 22nd 1920, heard as far away as America, which caught people's vocals by Dorothy Stedeford, released in 1932. imagination on both sides of the Atlantic. This was really the turning point in the public's response to radio and in spite of opposition fromthe Cover illustration: The logo of Bristol's Radio West which existed only military, in May 1922 a second experimental station, the famous 2LO in from 1981 until 1985 above an ident used by the BBC Television Service during the early 1950s London, was authorised to conduct regular broadcasts directly from were then broadcast before finally at 6.50 pm Lord Gainford, Chairman Marconi House in the Strand. of the BBC, introduced the Lord Mayors of London, Bristol and Cardiff, Nevertheless, Marconi's did not have a complete monopoly of British the latter officially opening the station ten minutes later. broadcasting at that time, for also in 1922 Metropolitan-Vickers were Transmitting on 395 metres, 5W A was the fifth BBC station to take granted permission to open a station in Manchester and Western Electric to the air and provided, within about a 25 mile, radius, a signal strong one in Birmingham, so in order that radio broadcasting should not enough to operate a simple crystal-set driving a single pair of develop in the commercial 'free for all' manner that was taking place in headphones, the way in which most people 'listened-in' at home, the United States, the Post Office thrashed out a scheme of co-operation although those wealthy enough to have a set equipped with valves and amongst the equipment suppliers. This resulted in the establishment of a loudspeaker could expect reasonable reception forthe .whole family up the British Broadcasting Company Limited in October 1922, an to 75 miles away. In addition to the local stations, at Daventry the BBC organisation with monopoly status for public radio transmission in also decided to erect a powerful transmitter to operate in the long wave Britain, but one in which only the bona fide manufacturers were band (2020 to 1080 metres) and this, with the call sign 5XX, was to permitted to hold shares. Broadcasts commenced in November, and the bring a London compiled National Programme to some 94% of the th following month John Reith was appointed General Manager, this rather population. The new station commenced regular broadcasting on July 27 dour Scotsman being convinced that the company's future lay as an 1925, and during the General Strike of May the following year played independent broadcaster able to educate, inform and entertain the whole a large part in radio coming of age as a medium when, with few nation, freefrom political interference and commercial pressure. To bring newspapers available, the BBC provided the country with five news radio broadcasting to as many people as possible in the shortest time the bulletins a day. BBC set about constructing a network of eight stations to work in· the In just over four years the BBC, a body formed with no higher medium wave band (570 to 187 metres), each of which was to put out purpose than to promote the products of the equipment manufacturers, its own locally produced programmes. However, for the Bristol area this had become a national institution and in order that it might receive the was to prove a most unsatisfactory arrangement as it had been decided necessary funding and continue as a public service the Post Master that both sides of the Severn Estuary were to share a transmitter, and this General announced that in January 1927 it would become the British was to be located at Cardiff. Revenue to run the service was to come Broadcasting Corporation, a public body deriving its authority from a from a 10% royalty on the sale of receiving sets and equipment plus half Royal Charter, freefrom either commercial or political domination. With of the 10 shilling licence fee for receivers, also introduced in November the BBC's future assured, during 1930, in order to improve reception 1922, and of which more than a million were issued during the firsttwo throughout the country, the Corporation began putting into operation its weeks of the month! 'Regional Scheme' which resulted in many of the existing local stations Locally, Bristol's involvement with radio telephony had begun on being replaced by pairs of powerful co-sited medium wave transmitters, th November 5 1922 when the Marconi Company carried out a test one of which would radiate a localised Regional Programme and the transmission between the city and London. On this occasion Sir William other the National Programme. This reorganisation made its initial th Noble at Marconi House took the opportunity of speaking directly to the impression in the Bristol area on May 28 1933, when the first Mayor of Bristol, who recalled how as a young man he had helped Bell transmitter went on the air from Washford, near Minehead, providing explain the telephone to his fellow citizens. The demonstration was a improved reception for many listeners in South Wales and the West. great success and in three London halls 830 people, each with In addition, the National Programme was also put out by the long th th headphones, heard the speeches, while shortly after, on February 13 wave station at Daventry until, on October 7 1934, it was finally 1923, the new local BBC station became operational giving many people replaced by a new high-power transmitter at Droitwich, which until fairly in Bristol their first taste of radio broadcasting. The opening recently operated with a high degree of accuracy on the famous announcement was made a little before5 o'clock that afternoon, the new wavelength of 1500 metres. electronic era being heralded in for many with the quaint introduction Surprisingly, despite the Depression, during the late 1920s and early 'Hullo CQ, Hullo all, Hullo everybody, this is 5WA speaking, the 1930s the British radio industry was growing strongly, while the Cardiff station of the British Broadcasting Company'. Children's stories development of 'all-mains' radios, dispensing with the need to regularly 2 3 charge heavy 'Low Tension' accumulators and to buy expensive 'High Tension' dry batteries, also coincided with a rapid increase in the proportion of homes with mains electricity. As a result, by 1930 there were five million radio sets in Britain, many of them mains powered, but locally these were still confinedto the better-off as, even by 1931, of the 113,000 homes in the Bristol area, a little less than half were connected to the electricity supply.