Six Years of Progress

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 28, 25 January 1929, Page 7

Six Years of Progress

The B.B.C. in Retrospect HE advent of Christmas marked the seventh year of broadcasting in England. In fact, it was on November 14, 1922, that the first B.B.C. programme was transmitted. That evening the announcer said that broadcast messages would be sent twice each night, at 6 and 9 p.m. The call sign would be 2LO, and the wavelength 360 metres. "And," comments the editor of "Popular Wireless," "I shall never forget how after the official announcement, he (the announcer) began a little talk by saying: ‘You know, this broadcasting is going to be jolly good fun! " But wireless in England has not been "jolly good fun," but as that same editor remarks: "There is rather a lack of spontaneity, and a lack of that intimate comradely feeling which was so great a feature of the atmosphere of broadcasting when the old B.B.C. first began its duties," and adds: "Perhaps aloofness is the keynote of the present atmosphere of broadcasting." Suggesting a remedy, "Popular Wireless" makes the recommendation that the announcer be given more scope to

exercise his personality, perhaps in a joke, while reading the news bulletin, "and above all a little warmth." During the six years of progress since 1922 the growth of the English broadcasting has been very rapid. From the very few officials in that year to the huge staff of to-day, from the small studio "decorated with soap boxes and suspended microphones" to the multiplicity of elaborate studios at Savoy Hill, the B.B.C. has advanced. What the next six years will bring forth can only be a matter of speculation; certainly rapid advancement is assured, and that only through a little co-operation and a little warmth.