The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
Paul Kerensa
100 episodes
6 days 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.
#104 The Radio Times is Launched! A Browse Through Issue 1
The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
36 minutes
1 month ago
#104 The Radio Times is Launched! A Browse Through Issue 1
On 28 September 1923, a new magazine hit news-stands.
The Radio Times was a BBC publication, born out of a listings ban seven months earlier, when the press tried to charge the Beeb advertising rates to print what was on. The BBC’s General Manager John Reith saw an opportunity: they’d just print their own.
We previously (on episodes 75 and 76) brought you the history of the Radio Times for its centenary, but as our moment-by-moment timeline of British broadcasting finally reaches September 1923, we just had to zoom in a little further on issue number one.
So join us for a look at the first listings, the first letter (a listener from Spain!), ads including headphones and - oddly - height-lengthening, the first cartoon (about listening to the wireless en masse in a village hall), plus listeners complaints mourning the “murder” of composer Tannhauser at the hands of the London Wireless Orchestra. Everyone’s a critic…
Our guests include Radio Times editor Shem Law, Radio Times collector Dr Steve Arnold, Radio 4’s Justin Webb and Dr Martin Cooper author of Radio’s Legacy in Popular Culture.
SHOWNOTES:
Original music is by Will Farmer.
Books referred to include Those Radio Times by Susan Briggs and The Radio Times Cover Story by Tony Currie. Martin Cooper’s book is Radio’s Legacy in Popular Culture https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/radios-legacy-in-popular-culture-9781501360442/
Steve Arnold’s website is radiotimesarchive.co.uk/. Martin Cooper’s website is prefadelisten.com
Paul's latest Substack is here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-171149075
Paul's live show on the BBC origin story - at time of writing, soon in Ealing, Petersfield, Norfolk, Hertfordshire: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC.
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Next time: Episode 105: The launch of Aberdeen 2BD. Advance reading: see Gordon Bathgate’s book Aberdeen Calling: https://amzn.to/4pi9FBW
More 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.
