The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Paul Kerensa
100 episodes
1 week ago
Be informed, educated and entertained by the amazing true story of radio’s forgotten pioneers. With host Paul Kerensa, great guests and rarely-heard clips from broadcasting’s golden era.
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Be informed, educated and entertained by the amazing true story of radio’s forgotten pioneers. With host Paul Kerensa, great guests and rarely-heard clips from broadcasting’s golden era.
#101 The Sykes Report + Early Recordings Association
The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
48 minutes 48 seconds
4 months ago
#101 The Sykes Report + Early Recordings Association
Episode 101 finds us in late August 1923...
The first government inquiry into the BBC has just finished four months of interviewing dozens of interested parties about what the Beeb should/would/could be. Should it have a competitor? How do you solve the licence problem? Did the BBC have a monopoly? And isn't it time 'listeners-in' were just called 'listeners'?
We give you a potted summary of Sir Frederick Sykes' inquiry, committee and report - somehow known as The Sykes Inquiry, The Sykes Committee and The Sykes Report.
And our special guest, talking about three decades earlier, is Dr Inja Stanović of the University of Surrey, Surrey Future Senior Fellow, Director of Performance, and most crucially for us, Director of the Early Recordings Association. She brings reconstructed recordings and info about the Early Recordings Association (join free, click below) and its Conference.
SHOWNOTES:
Original music is by Will Farmer.
Early Recordings Association - join! https://www.surrey.ac.uk/early-recordings-association
Early Recordings Association Conference - come! https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20250701-early-recordings-association-era-conference-2025
The album 'Austro-German Revivals: (Re)constructing Acoustic Recordings' by Inja Stanović & David Milsom - listen for free! https://unipress.hud.ac.uk/plugins/books/30/
Paul Kerensa on Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
Paul Kerensa at Camden Fringe with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio, in August 2025 - come! https://camdenfringe.com/events/an-evening-of-very-old-radio/
Paul Kerensa on elsewhere on tour: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
Paul's walking tour of old BBC sites, 9 Aug and 6 Sept 2025 - come! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pks-walking-tour-of-old-bbc-and-pre-bbc-buildings-pwyw-tickets-1401875560539
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...
Comments? Email the show - paul at paulkerensa dot com.
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Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!
...Latest Patreon video is an even deeper dive into the Sykes Report - we read the lot (well, most of it): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-1923s-sykes-132182661
Next time: Episode 102: Simultaneous Broadcasting, on the BBC in August 1923.
More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Be informed, educated and entertained by the amazing true story of radio’s forgotten pioneers. With host Paul Kerensa, great guests and rarely-heard clips from broadcasting’s golden era.
