Fascinating Historical Photos from the Golden Age of BBC Radio from the 20th Century

The BBC began daily radio broadcasts on 14 November 1922. At 6 pm, a news bulletin from news agencies was broadcast. Following this, the Met Office provided a weather forecast. Arthur Burrows, Director of Programmes, read the bulletin twice, once fast and once slowly, so that listeners could take notes if they wished. The radio broadcasts were made from 2LO, a transmitter acquired from Marconi by the British Broadcasting Company. 2LO derived its name from the number of the broadcasting license issued to Marconi by the Post Office. Initially, there was a restriction on what and when the BBC could broadcast due to concerns from both the government and newspapers about its ability to drown out official communications. With the realization that the radio could entertain and inform, the call sign “2LO calling” became well known. Gradually, broadcasting restrictions were relaxed, and radio became an integral part of British life. The 2LO transmitter is on display at the Science Museum in London.

The BBC was founded by six private ‘wireless’ manufacturers, including Marconi, hoping to sell their radios. By the end of the first year, the pioneering staff of just four had grown to nearly 200, and various programs were airing. The company moved to Savoy Hill in 1923. When the BBC became owned by the British government under the Post Master General, the minister responsible for the postal system and telecommunications, it became known as the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC had been publicly funded for five years when it built Broadcasting House and began broadcasting experimental television in 1932. Until 1973, no other radio broadcasting organization was licensed in the UK.

#1 BBC Broadcasting House in 1932

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#2 BBC Yearbook 1930

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#3 BBC Broadcasting House under construction in 1930 Lon Chaney in Thunder

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#4 Working with smiles are Moira Lister and Tony Hancock, rehearsing together for the new radio show ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’, 1954

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#5 A view of the newly-built BBC Broadcasting House in a wet central London, 1931.

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#6 Picture shows unidentified male and females in the restaurant at Broadcasting House, Nov 1932

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#7 Studio 4B and News Editors Cubilcle, July 1932 Broadcasting House

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#8 BBC Yearbook, 1932

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#9 Derby County captain 36 year old Jack Nicholas (second left) steps up to the microphone with the FA Cup to give his opinion on his team’s extra time 4-1 victory, 1946.

The players in the 1946 Cup final were awarded two medals each. Due to a shortage of gold following the Second World War, the two teams were initially presented with bronze medals (winners and runners-up) on the day, and subsequently awarded the gold versions when gold became more readily available later that year.

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#10 George V giving the 1934 Royal Christmas Message on BBC Radio

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#11 Interior of BBC Broadcasting House in 1932 Studio 7A – ‘Empire Studio’

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#12 London Olympic Games 1948. A radio outside-broadcaster prepares his equipment.

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#13 The popular radio and stage comedian Arthur Askey at the microphone to sing ‘Ev’ry Piggy’s Got a Curly Tail’ at the EMI Studios in Abbey Road, north west London.

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#14 From left to right: Fred Yule, Joan Harben, Hugh Morton, Lind Joyce, Tommy Handley, Diana Morrison, Derek Gyler, Hattie Jackes and Jack Train during rehearsals for the radio show “ITMA” in London.

The title ITMA (It’s That Man Again) referred to a contemporary phrase concerning the ever more frequent news-stories about Hitler in the lead up to the Second World War and specifically a headline in the Daily Express written by Bert Gunn.

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#15 Tommy Handley and Hattie Jacques, during rehearsals for the radio show “ITMA” in London, 25th September 1947.

Handley would die of a cerebral haemorrhage two years later.

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#16 King Edward VIII at the microphone after telling Prime Minsiter Satnley baldwin that he intends to marry the American divorcee Wallace Simpson in 1936.

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#17 Vera Lynn on stage at Grosvenor House, London, for the 1949 National Radio Awards presented to popular broadcasters.

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#18 Microphone and umbrella in hand, Manchester born broadcaster Jessica Dunning makes an outside broadcast in an audition for commentators for the Coronation.

It is thought women may be better able to handle some aspects of the day’s ceremonies.

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#19 A wartime picture of Princess Elizabeth (right) and Princess Margaret after they broadcast on “Children’s Hour” from Buckingham Palace.

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#20 1933: A scene in a 1930s BBC recording studio showing Christopher Stone, wearing a dinner jacket, bidding listeners ‘Good Evening’.

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#21 Studio 6E Broadcasting House 1932

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#22 Broadcasting House, in the Concert Hall, 1932. Director General, Lord John Reith can be seen sitting centre front row

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#23 The Beatles singing together during a recording session for the BBC radio programme ‘Easy Beat’

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#24 British music hall stars George Robey and Alma Adair giving a wireless rehearsal from the Covent Garden Review “You’d be surprised”, 1922

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#25 Sydney and Lesley Piddington, at their London home, who now have 20 million British radio listeners tuned in to their thought transference act, 1949

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#26 A portrait of a Miss Partridge who Assembles wireless radios in her home in Exeter.

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#27 Golf – Ryder Cup 1949 – Ganton Golf Club

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#28 Deryck Guyler, Hattie Jacques and Tony Hancock – BBC Radio – 1956

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#29 Singer Carole Carr takes over as disc jockey on the radio programme linking Britons with their relatives and friends in the forces overseas, 1959

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#30 Miss Margaret Bondfield at Broadcasting House with actress Deborah Kerr and Mrs Elsie May Crump, 1946

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#31 A view of the commentators box at Lord’s, 1957

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#32 General view of the Great Radio Show at London’s Earl’s Court. The show opens tomorrow, 1959.

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#33 Eamonn Andrews at the Paris Cinema, London, the new quiz-master of ‘Ignorance is Bliss’.

With him are Harold Behrens, left and right is Gladys Hay and Michael Moore, 1950

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#34 American actress Tallulah Bankhead recording a show at the London Palladium for BBC Radio and the American Radio Station NBC, 1951

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#35 The ‘Much Binding in the Marsh’ radio comic team, left to right; Patricia Hughes, Richard Murdoch, and Kenneth Horne, at the Winter Garden Theatre, London, 1950.

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