History of the BBC

« History : Following the closure of numerous amateur stations, the BBC starts its first daily radio service in London.

News is supplied by an agency, and music drama and « talks » fill the airwaves for only a few hours a day.

The first broadcast is on November 14th 1922 . In 1927, the BBC became a public corporation under a royal charter to act « as a trustee for the national interest ».

The royal charter established the BBC’s mission : « Inform, educate, entertain ». The same year, the BBC became the first radio station to comment a football match.

The producer (Lance Sieveking) devises a paper plan of the pitch divided into eight numbered squares, which is published in the Radio Times to help listeners follow the game. A decade after the BBC launched the world’s first regularly scheduled TV service. Programmes we expect to see today such as drama, sport, cartoons all feature. But the outbreak of the war in 1939 brings programmes to a sudden halt.

Six months after, the BBC takes its live cameras on location to their first major outdoor event for the Coronation of King George VI. But the progress doesn’t stop here, a year later in 1938, Announcer Ahmad Kamal Sourour Effendi is.... »