#116 The BBC's First Birthday - 14 November 1923

Our moment-by-moment retrospective of British broadcasting has reached the BBC's first birthday - 14 November 1923.

We started covering that first year back on episode 18! It's taken a while to get here - but what a year it was. From the first BBC news bulletin, songs and children's programmes to outside broadcasts, simultaneous broadcasting, new stations in Scotland and Wales, a government enquiry, new premises, wireless manhunts, the Radio Times and so much more, we've covered the lot across nearly 100 episodes.

This episode we lead up to the first birthday with plans for the pips, a Shakespearean anniversary, and a raucous farewell do for Marconi boss Godfrey Isaacs.

Then the birthday broadcast features speeches from John Reith and Guglielmo Marconi - hear some of that this episode, as well as reflections from Birmingham station chief Percy Edgar.

Some lovely voices from the archive here - including Reith, Edgar and Peter Eckersley, who wrote all of the early BBC birthday broadcast shows, achieving the impossible: making John Reith laugh.

SHOWNOTES:

• This podcast contains an excerpt from Marconi's BBC debut - his speech about the origins of broadcasting. Hear Paul read the full text of the speech on this Patreon video (£5/month - all supports the podcast, thanks if you support us there!): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-marconis-bbc-155370052 (also on that video: thoughts on Romany at the BBC, and Paul's latest (failed) Radio 4 pitches)
• Read Marconi's speech on this Facebook post by our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/854152096155912 (and do join the group, if you're on Facebook...)
• We mention the campaign against access changes at the BBC Written Archives Centre - more info on this open letter.  
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stops Chelmsford, Weston-super-Mare, Corsham Wilts... paulkerensa.com/tour
• Read Paul's Substack - the latest one is on early prophecies of what broadcasting might become - paulkerensa.substack.com
• Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury
• Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
• Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
• Join Paul's mailing list
• Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.

Next time, Episode 117: The BBC's First Homosexual - a new play bringing a lost controversial BBC documentary to light... and then it's the centenary of the General Strike - a key moment in the making of the BBC.

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio