Birth of the BBC

Birth of the BBC

In 1920 the first true radio station (KDKA) began regular broadcasting

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Within two years

the number of stations in America reached into the hundreds, concerts

were being broadcast regularly in Europe from The Hague, and in

Britain, Marconi stations broadcast from Chelmsford, Essex, and then

London.

It was in Britain that fears over the "chaos of the ether" led to the

Post Office and leading radio manufacturers setting up the British

Broadcasting Company (BBC). The first programmes by the BBC were

broadcast in November 1922. In 1926 it changed from a company into a

public corporation, with a monopoly of broadcasting in the country. By

this time, radio manufacturing in America had for a brief period been

growing faster than the car-making industry, and the number of

listeners on both sides of the Atlantic ran into many millions. Radio

had moved rapidly from being an attic experiment to a household

utility.[1]

History

In the last quarter of the 19th century many scientists were

attempting to transmit messages over distances without wires. They

were not searching for a means of mass-communication, but simply

exploring the possibility of using electromagnetic waves in order to

communicate between two fixed points. Nevertheless, the history of

"wireless" communication eventually became largely the history of

broadcasting.

Radio had no single inventor, but grew out of several international

developments. The pioneers of radio drew on the work of the British

physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who published his theory of

electromagnetic waves in 1873. Howeve...

... middle of paper ...

...iche markets. Output is characterized by aggressive

marketing, and slick, image-conscious presentation.[7]

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]"Radio," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved.

[2]"Radio," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved.

[4]"Radio," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved.

[5]"Radio," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved.

[6]"Radio," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved.

[7]"Radio," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved.