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Advent Calendar Day 14: A Poem

2016-12-14T07:00:00+00:00

Today's calendar window opens up to reveal a poem. It featured in the 1926 Christmas edition of the Radio Times magazine and then again in 1927 as part of a collection of poems about broadcasting. "It is not a strange thing", the introduction to the collection claimed, "that men have
made poems about broadcasting for this new magic, which pours the music of the concert room into the stillness of the cottage and brings the song of nightingales into the heart of Town, is of the very stuff of poetry."

BROADCASTING AT CHRISTMAS
by Katharine Tynan

What is it, fleeter than the bird,
That flies unfluttering far and near,
And is not seen, and is not heard,
Until it finds the listening ear?

It is the multitudinous voice,
That brings the good news far and wide,
And bids good people to rejoice
In town and in the countryside.

Of old, the angels bore the great
Tidings of joy from the high skies,
But here's a messenger of late
Bears Christmas tidings as he flies!

And through the speech and violin
There is a lovelier message swells,
And they have broadcast ChristmasE'en,
The voices of the Christmas bells.

Ever enamoured with the magic of the wireless, here at BBC Genome we feel it's still magical. Do you agree?

Advent Calendar Day 3: Have a Carnivorous Christmas

2016-12-03T08:00:00+00:00

And if you can't make it to Smithfields, you can always resort to Hilary Briss the butcher...

On the third day of Advent, 1927, a radio listing advocates for a Carnivorous Christmas:

"Despite all the attacks of foreign fashions, the Englishman is still at heart carnivorous, and at this season he reverts to type. Masses of meat go down his throat, and Smithfield is worked to its utmost capacity supplying them..."

Vegetarians shouldn't despair. Help is in hand from the 1964 and 1973 editions of Woman's Hour, which promise recipes and cooking tips on their More than Nut Cutlets and Lettuce and Let's Not Talk Turkey sections.

The first Christmas

2015-12-22T10:00:00+00:00

The much-loved Christmas edition of the Radio Times made its first appearance in 1923.

It was all very different to today's multi-channel, on-demand world. There was only radio, and London station 2LO had a meagre five-and-a-half hours of programmes on Christmas Day.

But to some extent, the first Christmas issue set many traditions which have prevailed for decades in various guises. The cover was a warm splash of colour and very festive in tone, while the publication's austere masthead was festooned with snow and holly.

John Reith, who went on to become the BBC's first director general, was given the first page to deliver a message to listeners, in which he deliberated the meaning of Christmas and then inevitably talked about the joy of broadcasting and the "first Wireless Christmas".

"The loud speaker is such a convenient entertainer," he wrote. "He doesn't feel hurt if a cracker is pulled in the middle of a song, or offended if the fun grows riotous during his performance".

While Reith was keen to talk up the virtues of broadcasting, the magazine was packed with adverts for radio sets and cartoons about the joys of consuming radio programmes.

But Christmas is all about giving, and we'd like to offer you the chance to download the first Christmas issue. It's a fascinating document and we hope you will enjoy it. Happy Christmas from BBC Genome!

Download a PDF version of the 1923 Christmas Radio Times by clicking on this link

Warm seasonal colour made the first Christmas issue stand out

Radio sets were the must-have Christmas present in 1923

Happy birthday Genome!

2015-10-16T09:00:00+00:00

Today marks the first anniversary since the public launch of BBC Genome, the site that brings you the BBC TV and radio listings printed from 1923-2009.

To date more than 107,000 corrections from our public community of editors have been accepted, while more than 9,000 links to playable programmes are now available.

The site has been visited almost 725,000 times in the past year and has amassed more than 6m page views. Visitors tend to hang around, leafing through some 8-10 pages when they land on Genome.

To mark this occasion, we decided to go back to 1924, when The Radio Times was celebrating its own first birthday.

The BBC’s then Managing Director, John Reith, who went on to become the corporation’s first director-general in 1927, wrote a front page article for the magazine in which he spoke of the "problems, hopes and fears" that came with launching a publication.

But he continued: "The first issues were sold out.. today - on its first anniversary - it is phenomenal". Two years after the BBC first started broadcasting, he put circulation at 600,000 copies.

"This journal of ours is, we consider, of the very greatest importance to the success of British broadcasting," said Reith, “It should be the connecting link between the broadcaster and the great listening public.

"If the broadcast service is to attain the maximum efficiency and the listener to reap the greatest benefit, it can only be secured through a considerable degree of intimacy and understanding between the two parties concerned in the undertaking.”

You can download a PDF version of Reith's birthday article by clicking on this link.

These days we have other ways of trying to secure this two-way communication, we call it interactivity and we think it’s a very modern idea (!), Radio Times of course continues in rude health, though no longer owned by the BBC, but 91 years on from Reith’s words, the value of having a catalogue of the BBC’s planned output shows what a very good idea it was.

As for BBC Genome, it's still very a much a work in progress, with a lot of editing still needed to whip the listings into shape from the original scanning process. We also hope to include regional and national variations, as well as a record of when the actual broadcast varied from the schedule. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

As Reith observed, “the personalities of the owners of aerials and the broadcasters are transient, but the ideas and the achievements remain.”

Thank you for all your support in the first year - long may it continue!

The Sunday Post: First issue

2015-08-30T09:00:00+00:00

Orchestral performances were a mainstay of very early radio broadcasts

As you probably know (I’m assuming you are all huge broadcasting buffs and know your stuff, and if you don’t there is a brief guide in the About this Project section at the front of the Genome website) the BBC began broadcasting regularly on 14th November 1922, but as Radio Times did not begin publication until September the following year, the Genome website does not feature more than 10 months of BBC broadcasts.

Before you get excited, no, I am not announcing that the listings for those months are about to be added to Genome, that is just one of a number of major tweaks that are on our to do list. It’s more that I have a sneaking suspicion that I feature TV more often than radio in these columns, so I thought I would take a look at the very first schedules published in Radio Times (or ‘The Radio Times’ as it was known, until January 8th 1937 – coincidentally that issue previewed the programme Scrapbook for 1922, which featured reminiscences of the start of the BBC.)

By 1923, the main stations of the BBC (then the British Broadcasting Company) were established, with broadcasts coming from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle and Glasgow. A few things are particularly noticeable about the first published day of listings, for 30th September 1923: one, the programmes are mainly composed of music, the only exceptions being religious talks (it being a Sunday) and the news.

The news itself is a single short bulletin at 10pm, and it is the only networked programme that day – the rest of the content is produced locally. Another thing is the hours of broadcasting: only London and Newcastle provide afternoon programmes, from 3pm to 5pm (London in fact does not list the closedown time but it is a reasonable assumption). Most of the other stations start their transmissions at 8.30, when London and Newcastle also resume; Cardiff though begins at 8.15.

The nature of the content is noticeably sober too, the music is all serious and ‘improving’, in line with the views of the then General Manager of the BBC, John Reith (later Managing Director, and then the first Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation), whose strict Presbyterian upbringing left him determined to protect the Christian religion, which he felt would be compromised by the inclusion of jazz or variety (in the showbusiness sense, though other senses apply) on the Sabbath. One of the most light-hearted offerings anywhere that day were numbers performed on the Newcastle service by the South Shields Corporation Tramways Band.

The popular pastime of Bridge was brought to the airwaves

The rest of the week, 1st – 6th October, saw things lightening up a little, with a greater range of programmes, and more hours of broadcasting – London begins with a Morning Concert from 11.30 am to 12.30, though the other regions start around 3.30 pm – London itself does not restart until 5pm with Women’s Hour (Manchester follows this pattern as well on Thursday 4th). Most of the programmes still originate locally, but on the Monday at 7.30pm there is a Symphony Concert from 2LO London which is taken by all the regions except Cardiff – Manchester is listed as providing a Special Operatic Night performance of Carmen, starting at 8.15, but elsewhere in the magazine there is an erratum note to the effect that this would not take place.

Apart from the national news, the only other networked programmes appear to be a simultaneous broadcast of speeches at the Royal Colonial Institute Dinner from the Hotel Victoria in London on Tuesday 2nd , and a play, Rob Roy, produced in Glasgow on Saturday 6th October, although Birmingham transmitted their own programmes in the latter slot – mostly a concert by the Band of the Royal Air Force, with talks and a comedian in the intervals.

On a technical note, it’s interesting to see that the mode of transmission is mentioned occasionally – the Rob Roy production is specified as being ‘transmitted by wireless’, while several broadcasts by Mr Paul Rimmer’s Orchestra from Lozells’s Picture House in Birmingham, and the Oxford Picture House Orchestra in Manchester, are billed as being by landline (they were not being heard outside their own regions, this is presumably a reference to the programmes being outside broadcasts rather than coming from the studio).

It’s unfortunate that we are not yet able to share all the articles from Radio Times on the Genome site, perhaps this will one day be possible – but the earliest pieces in the magazine are fascinating for the historical information they give. The first edition includes an article by the BBC’s Chief Engineer, Captain P.P. (Peter) Eckersley, about the problems of these ‘simultaneous transmissions’, alongside an alarming picture of him alongside the current equipment to achieve this in the “experimental room” at the BBC headquarters, an arrangement that would make Heath Robinson throw in the towel…

The first edition of Radio Times is more than just a publishing landmark, it gives so many insights into the state of broadcasting then, both in the articles (sorry about that, again) and the listings. Various Children’s Hours under various names were well established, concerts were being given by in-house musicians such as the 2LO and 2ZY Orchestras, and Glasgow’s ‘Wireless Trio’. There was even a talk Seen on the Screen with Mr. G.A. Atkinson reviewing the latest films (silent of course – the films, that is, not the talk).

Every now and again, you can come across something that makes you realise people were not entirely straight-laced – for example, Manchester’s programme Keyboard Kitty and Klavier-Klash on 5th October wouldn’t sound too out of place at Glastonbury…

On This Day, 1927: First BBC Prom

2015-08-13T09:00:00+00:00

Rehearsal for the Promenade Concert inside the Queen's Hall, 1927.

"The 'Proms', which since 1895 have been the most popular series of concerts in London, were, for various reasons, to have come to an end last year. However, by arrangement with the B.B.C., it has been found possible to continue the series" - this is how the first-ever BBC Prom was listed in August 13, 1927.

The BBC saw that taking them on would provide a full season of concerts for broadcast and would fulfil the Corporation's remit to "inform, educate and entertain".

You can read the full programme as relayed from the Queen's Hall on that night and find out more about the composers and the music that was played on the BBC Proms website, where you can delve into their performances archives, containing details of all concerts since 1895 organised by date, seasons, composers and artists.

You can also listen to this clip of Henry Wood, founder-conductor of the Proms, talking about Rule Britannia, which is traditionally performed at the Last Night of the Proms.