"6,000,000 Licensed Listeners Before Christmas"

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 18, 10 November 1933, Page 18

"6,000,000 Licensed Listeners Before Christmas"

British Broadcasting Corporation, Colossus of the Radio World, Sets Itself a Goal--and Celebrates a Birthday

T is only 18 years since the lonely listeners _ for SOS messages were startled by a few chords of music replacing the interminable dots and dashes, and what strides telephonic broadcasting has made in those few short years! Shortly after that epochmarking day the engineers at a British Government commercial station with a rude microphone, and Dame Nellie Melba as conspirator, impressed speech and song upou the station’s carrier-wave and brought official admonishment for making foolish a wonder ful scientitie invention. But telephonic broadeasting was launched! There is a tendency to’ assume tha! Britain lags behind in matters of progress, but as far as broadcasting is concerned it is pleasing to be able to record the fact that the. British Broadcasting Company Was the first organisation in Kurope to transmit yaonlar dvilv hroadeastinge programmes.

ovo" ee ell la, Actually, although the B.B.C, celebrates its eleventh birthday on Tuesday, these had been broadcasting of a more or less spasmodic nature’ for some two yeil's previously. By 1922 it was apparent that broadcasting was not a mere hobby, or a possibly popular form of cheap enfertnainment, but’ was the greatest power for good, or evil. youchsated to Man since the invention of printing. It was recognised that it had no froutiers, that it was a marvellous channel of communication between nations, and a means of interpreting the peoples of the world to each other. It was the recognition of these facts that led to the adoption of the B.B.C. motto, "Nation shall speak peace unto nation." The initial problem with which the company was confronted was to define a policy for the future of broadcasting. But in 1921-1922 even’a general idea was difficult to formulate. The situation was that broadcasting, hitherto practised for the love of the thing by a few scientific amateurs, had leaped into considerable popularity in the United States, and was spreading to Europe under the impulsion of some urge that might be either a whim of the moment or the sign of a real society necessity. In America the pace of the movement had been too hot for carefu! thought and planning, with the result that six hundred stations were in existence by the end of 1922. Although the first, important and sensational broadcast had been one of political news, and educational broadeasting of a sort was done as early as 1921, the field was at once captured by forces whose demands the radio trade set itself. to cater for on purely commercial lines.

The license granted to the original company was for four years and was due to expire on December 381, 1926. During these four years the British Broadcasting system had developed along sound lines, and was already looked upon by other nations as a model to be copied. Representatives from many countries journeyed to Savoy Hill to study British methods, many of which have been adopted. It was in those early days that radio links were forged with foreign countries which have endured to this day. With the astounding success achieved, it was realised that such an instrument in the hands of a commercial company Was a p.enace. An organisation controlling broadcasting could, and yet may, control a country, A new policy was desirable. 5 In 1925 the House of Commons set up a committee to report on the whole broadcasting position in Britain, with a view to deeg ew ew eee ewhkam é¢ha

,c1diIns THE PrOper CUULSE LY PU*SUC wane eo company’s license expired on December 81, 1926. As was generally anticipated this committee reported in favour of a national broadcasting authority taking over the staff, system, and plant as a going concern, This: was effected on January 1, 192%, when the "corporation" replaced the "company." This decision was of fundamental importance not only for British Broadcasting, but for European practice in general. It marked the intention to make broadcasting, as a public service, subserve a public need. What precisely that need was would presumably emerge from experience. Meantime the management would be in the hands of a board with a chairman appointed by the Government, and the other directors by the wireless manufacturers. Development has been phenomenal even in this age of miracles. Replacements of low-powered transmitters with giants of 100 kilowatts and 50 kilowatts that give crystal reception for hundreds of miles, the super-power Empire station that gives wonderful service in some areas, and the erection of Broadcasting House that has: been facetiously deseribed as the "Petrified Dreadnought" are developments known to all. With orchestras unsurpassed anywhere in the world and a revenue that permits engagements of célebrities at 300 guineas an appearance, the B.B.C, with its new slogan, ‘6,000,000 licensed listeners before Christmas," is a colossus that compels admiration. It is the Atlas of the broadcasting world, and all the earth wishes it many happy returns of the day.