A BRIEF HISTORY OF UK RADIO Sadie Quinn

THE SCIENCE OF RADIO• A man called Michael Faraday developed electromagnetic theories from1831 to 1857, James Clerk Maxwell had predicted that radio waves existed in 1864 and it was Heinrich Hertz who produced the first man-made radio waves using a 'Spark-Gap' transmitter around 1887. • Nikola Tesla experimented with various electromagnetic principles and provided an insight into the science of radio which allowed David Hughes to invent the microphone in 1880. • In 1894, Sir Oliver Lodge created a device that could detect radio waves called a ‘Coherer’, a predecessor of the electronic valve method of detection.

IMPORTANT INDIVIDUALS

THE CREATION OF RADIO• Guglielmo Marconi is often credited with the creation of the radio in the early twentieth century, however it was his team of highly-educated colleagues who should not go unnoticed- in particular a Russian scientist named Alexander Stepanovitch Popov.• Marconi’s introductory achievement would have to be the newly developed Morse code transmitting device, which made the ‘Atlantic leap’.• Marconi improved and commercialised Hertz’ apparatus.• Radio broadcasting within the United Kingdom was initiated in 1920 by an experimental station ‘2MT’ located in Writtle, Essex, ran by an individual called Guglielmo Marconi. • Dame Nellie Melba made one of the first broadcasts from 2MT at 7.10 pm on 15th June 1920. Consisting of a concert of opera music to entertain the listeners, the broadcast opened with a recital of Home Sweet Home and finished with the national anthem.

THE TITANIC• On April 14th-15th 1912, the famous RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the middle of the ocean, hundreds of miles away from civilization.• Thanks to the invention of wireless transmission and the two wireless operators John ‘Jack’ George Philips and Harold Bride (employed by Marconi Telegraph company), signals were sent using Morse Code using a spark gap transmitter. • Because of this, The Titanic was able to send a distress call to its sister ship and an estimated 745 lives were saved during the tragic accident.• This re-established the importance to the government for these kind of transmissions.

ORIGINS OF THE BBC• On October 18th 1922 the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was formed with a grant from the government giving them a licence to operate, after they had attempted to thwart Marconi’s attempts to create a public radio for some time.• By the mid 1920's programmes from the BBC could be received by the majority of the population.• Thirty-three year old John Charles Walsham Reith became General Manager of the BBC on 14 December 1922.• September 1923- The first edition of The Radio Times listed the few programmes on offer.• February 1924- Greenwich Time Signal (GTS) - the ‘pips’; the six short 'pips' were designed to mark the precise start of every hour on BBC radio.•January 1927- the BBC is established by Royal Charter as the ‘British Broadcasting Corporation’.• November 1936- The BBC was the first broadcaster in the world to provide a regular ‘high definition’ television service.

BBC IN THE WAR- THE HOME SERVICE• Upon the declaration of war, the BBC immediately replaced all regional medium wave programmes with an alternate channel- ‘The Home Service’. This was so that German aircrafts could not access local transmissions for the use of directions in our air space.• British Prime Minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain, announces on the BBC Home service that Britain is at war with Germany on 3rd September 1939.• You can listen to the announcement by Chamberlain by using the link below:http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/history/ww2clips/speeches/chamberlain_declares_war

TRANSISTOR RADIO• The first ever Transistor radio was commercially released in 1954.• These radios were first produced as ‘Geranium transistors’ by John Bardeen, William Bradford Shockley and Walter Houser Brattain in the USA and were demonstrated for the first time on the 24th of December 1947. • The concept was that the transistor would replace vacuum tubes and mechanical relays, thereby changing the future of electronical advancements.• These individuals actually one the Nobel Prize for this invention.

FM RADIO• Edwin Howard Armstrong FM (frequency-modulated) radio in 1933.• FM drastically improved the audio signal of radio in general by controlling the static caused by electrical equipment and the earth’s atmosphere. • His discoveries drastically improved the quality of broadcasting radio.

PIRATE RADIO• In order to circumvent the strict broadcasting rules within the UK (considering that, in the 1960s, the BBC was the only radio station licenced to broadcast), anchored three miles outside of British territorial waters, the first ever ‘pirate’ radio broadcast was transmitted.• The individuals responsible for these stations were often dubbed as ‘irresponsible’ and were even labelled pirates, hence the derivative term ‘pirate radio’.• This is how the media often portrayed the individuals however, because the radios were broadcasting from international waters, their activities were never actually illegal.• They primarily catered to a young audience and many movies such as The Boat that Rocked (see trailer URL below) have recreated the story of pirate radio in order to be perceived as exciting, youthful and incredibly illegal.• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyXu0mC38SE

BBC RADIO ONE• Following the forced closure of pirate radio stations, the BBC had established the sound required to target a young audience.• On Saturday, 30th of September 1967, Radio 1 went on air as a station that would specifically cater to a youthful audience.

‘And good morning everyone! Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1.’

LOCAL RADIO• BBC Radio Leicester was the first ever BBC local radio station and transmitted its first broadcast on the 8th of November, 1967.

OWNERSHIP OF UK RADIO• Sound Broadcasting Act,1972- This new act transformed the ‘ITA’ into the ‘IBA’ (Independent Broadcasting Authority) giving it the additional responsibility for sound broadcasting in the UK.• The radio only license was abolished in February 1971.• Many local radio stations were introduced in order to provide more independence to community areas- the idea being that rather than operating through a license, these stations would seek funding through the use of advertisement.• The first contractor on air was the London Broadcasting Company (LBC), which had been awarded the 'London News and Information' franchise. • In 1976 James Callaghan was elected leader of the Labour party and Prime Minister. He was not keen on independently ran radio stations and so shut them off for a brief ‘moment of reflection’- meanwhile, the BBC was expanding their viewership and television industry.• 1978 brought about a re-organisation of medium and long wave frequencies, after international agreement at Geneva in 1975. These changes were designed to make more efficient use of these frequencies.

MODERN RADIO