An Empire Calls

In the history of public broadcasts there can be few as notable as the one recorded "off air" by my grandfather onto the EKCO disc below. This is the first royal Christmas message delivered by King George V in 1932 and one of the first broadcasts made to the British Empire. Received by an estimated 20 million listeners across the world and with many HMV records pressed, this metal disc may yet be the only original recording that has survived.

What impact did this message have on those overseas listeners? To them the King was a head on a coin, an artist’s portrait, a photograph reproduced in newspaper print, a silent projection in a huddled cinema. Hearing this mythological figure speak to them in their homes in India, Canada, Australia and Africa, thousands of miles from the British Isles, would have thrilled and astonished.

The King’s short message followed a carol service broadcast from a church local to his Sandringham estate. The EKCO disc contains almost the entire 3 minutes, but his voice is attenuated and obscured by noise. This noise is due to impact with the aluminium grain but may be worsened by dirt. The attenuation may be due to wear from repeated play or poor amplification or reception during the original recording. The MP3 below represents best effort to present the King’s closing words. First is a clear HMV record downloaded from iTunes followed by the original EKCO recording including my grandfather’s authenticating remarks.

Quality aside, the EKCO record is still discernible and shows the King’s “plum pudding” voice extraordinarily well suited to the occasion. His reputation as a stubborn technophobe lends the ground-breaking broadcast even greater appeal. Did "Grandpa England" (as our Queen once called him) believe the BBC had packed his subjects into little box microphones so he could speak to them?

Like light mirrored from a window pane, shortwaves (10 to 187m) will scatter off the atmosphere at a large enough angle of approach.

Or perhaps he knew his voice was being sent on a new shortwave signal and bounced off the sky to defeat the earth’s curve and find the far side. For the science had repercussions far more magical. It would make meteorologists out of the BBC engineers in Daventry, now to follow sunspot activity as avidly as the latest valve technology from Marconi. Meanwhile in Broadcasting House new recording technology would be used to enable repeat BBC news broadcasts across each of the Empire’s time zones.

The Blatterphone was an early reel-to-reel tape recorder with whom BBC operators shared an odd sado-masochistic relationship. Notoriously unreliable it would often shred its steel tape before whipping its attendant with the razor sharp remnants.

No longer would those bowler-hatted BBC controllers just be dreaming of their listeners in the Home Counties as they returned home daily from Broadcasting House ... but also those in Bombay, Brisbane and Canada.

2016 saw the 50th anniversary of the BBCs World Service relay station on Ascension in the mid-South Atlantic. Could any radio broadcast carry an echo more remote than that?

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Surfing The Earlynet

The BBCs early radio network offered the world's first public wireless service. The early 1930s were ground-breaking years for medium wave radio. New high power regional transmitters were replacing the city based stations of the 1920s. The first one began transmitting from Borough Hill near Daventry, replacing the stations in Birmingham and Nottingham covering the Midlands. Other transmitters followed suit covering London and the South, the North, Scotland and the West. These would broadcast both the National Programme produced in BBC Broadcasting House (see “Brave New Home”) and a Regional Programme produced in local studios. Situated on remote hilltops for maximum reach they increased the BBCs audience dramatically. Culturally they crystallised the country’s regional identities, defining a nation’s self-image thereon.

The circles represent transmitter reach, noting the reach of 5XX (blue circle) reflects the new evidence of F.O.Brown's 1932 recordings below

Because European agreements restricted the BBC to ten MW band allocations, only five twin-wave transmitters were planned. The fourth was Westerglen near Falkirk, known to be operating by September 1932. Since this was received in Edinburgh, my grandfather’s EKCO discs may provide evidence of its airdate. Indeed the MP3 below suggests a broadcast of the Scottish Regional Programme from Westerglen on 30th June 1932.

Shortly after 9pm that day my grandfather records the BBCs National news which would have been relayed on all BBC transmitters. He then introduces the BBCs Scottish Regional news from Edinburgh. This would only have been radiated by the Westerglen transmitter indicating that it had started operating by 30th June 1932.

"When the station is in full operation - about 3 months hence - dual programmes will be transmitted" The Glasgow Herald, May 21st 1932

Turning to the BBCs Long Wave broadcasts, this relied on a single transmitter 5XX operating from Borough hill since 1925. Reputedly 5XX replaced an oak tree which had marked the centre of England (the “Dane Tree” planted by an occupying 11th Century Viking army at the furthest point from any sea).

The above functional block diagram has been compiled from recollections of BBC engineering personnel available on the website www.bbceng.info

The world’s first public serving LW transmitter, 5XX had been broadcasting the BBCs National Programme since 1930. In his 1998 book “Daventry Calling the World” engineer Norman Tomalin gives its reach to have been 150 to 200 miles, leaving its Northerly reception short of Newcastle and Scotland.

The other side of this disc contains a speech made by the Prince of Wales at the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre earlier that same day (see "Modern English")

Despite Norman's estimates, the above EKCO disc suggests 5XX had greater overland range. This contains an “off air” recording of organist Reginald Foort playing from the Regal in Kingston-on-Thames on 23rd April 1932. This was received in Edinburgh sometime after 4:45pm that day, even though the Scottish Regional Programme was carrying Alex Freer and his Band from the Plaza Ballroom, Glasgow (see archive Radio Times listings below).

On the left is the Scottish Regional Programme schedule, which departed from the National Programme schedule (on the right) at 4:45pm after that day's FA Cup Final

The conclusion may surprise. Not only did a Scotsman prefer cinema organ from England, but prior to Westerglen's dual programme transmissions in June, he could only have heard it on LW from 5XX. This gives 5XX an overland reach of 270 miles, exceeding the upper 200 mile estimate of Norman Tomalin. 5XX ceased LW broadcasts in 1934 so perhaps Norman's knowledge did not benefit from operating experience.

Remnants of 5XX, these Marconi water cooled valves were lost in 1992 but have now been found and displayed in Daventry's Town Council Museum

Today Borough Hill with its broadcasting past has re-entered folklore. Only a few concrete anchors remain to signify the aerial army that once camped there. Nature has returned a new oak tree to mark England's centre, providing an eerie echo of the poem which was written for the opening of 5XX all those years ago (see below).

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Modern English

The MP3 above was produced on 31st October 2016 from the aluminium EKCO disc entitled “New Shakespeare Theatre” dated 23rd April 1932. This is a very early outside BBC radio broadcast of a speech made by Edward, the Prince of Wales at the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The signal was transmitted to BBC Broadcasting House in London on a GPO (General Post Office) land line and broadcasted “live” on the BBCs pre-war radio network. From there it was captured “off air” by my grandfather F.O.Brown using his antenna, “radiogram” and EKCO “radiocorder”.

Edward, Prince of Wales

Following F.O.Brown’s introduction, only about 2 minutes of the speech is recorded. But it is enough to show Edward’s talent for public speaking and broadcasting. Extolling both the technical virtues of the new theatre and the language of Shakespeare, Edward incites nationalist feelings of nostalgia, pride, nobility, pageantry and heroism. Referring to the overseas gifts received after the destruction of its predecessor by fire, he even cites the theatre as an international inspiration.

The opening ceremonies started as early as July 1929 when 600 freemasons marched through the town after anointing and laying the foundation stone.

Yet for all the oratory, Edward cared little for theatre and even less for ceremony. Having flown to Stratford in his plane he is reported to have headed off to the airfield before the opening performance was finished. Furthermore, despite the male dominated ceremonies, the new theatre was actually the creation of a young woman.

A rare image of Elisabeth Scott

Serious in ways Edward was not, Elisabeth Scott is considered the first woman in the country to design a building of public importance. Aged only 29 she entered and won an international competition to design the new theatre. Her sensible straight-line geometries contrasted with the previous ill-fated “Merrie England” ornamentalism. Unsurprisingly her creation was rejected by the more conservative. That included Edward Elgar, who even rejected his post as the new theatre’s music director.

But despite its early reception the theatre has endured. Those who might have hated it then, cherish it now. Grade II* listed, it is described by English Heritage as representing the “best modern municipal style of architecture comparing favourably to other brick-clad contemporary buildings such as Battersea Power Station”. Strangely the comparisons between the two buildings run deeper. For while Elisabeth was designing the theatre, her second cousin Giles was designing the pride of the London Power Company. Furthermore, both Scotts now appear in the new 2015 British passport design, alongside their iconic creations and the ubiquitous Shakespeare.

Meanwhile Edward, who became the king that was never crowned, the most photographed celebrity of his time, seems to have left nothing concrete behind ... a collection of images, his ethereal radio broadcasts and his mythical romance with Wallis. Perhaps those are the only echoes left by people who are famous for ... being famous.

Empty echoes of celebrity

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

A Brave New Home

Echoes of 1932 are a series of the earliest recordings my grandfather made in 1932. This was a landmark year in the history of public broadcasting. After BBC Broadcasting House began operating it hosted the world's first TV broadcasts, the first "world service" broadcast and the first royal Christmas broadcast. The purpose of this series is to use my grandfather's recordings to explore this new world. The first is "Brave New Home" covering the first ever radio broadcast from Broadcasting House on 15th March 1932.

Echoes of '32 ... Extraordinary Entanglements

Before introducing that broadcast, Broadcasting House itself requires introduction. As the first public broadcasting facility in Britain it provided an ideal "Home" for the BBC. Driven by function and technological constraint, its design included unconventional and innovative features.  Instead of a stairwell and atrium, the core of the building housed a complexity of windowless studios, listening rooms and concert halls. It was a self-contained world which required heating and ventilation of ground-breaking capability. Located down in the basement, that system featured anti-vibration mounts for its pumps and acoustic baffles for its ducts, with steam pipes to heat the air in winter and water sprays to cool it in summer. Meanwhile the top floor housed all the studio amplifiers in a single control room, allowing economic use of the valves and avoiding any need to distribute the batteries that supplied them.

The room that never slept ... the control room at BBC Broadcasting House

Self-contained like an ocean liner, the outside of the building is similarly streamlined. Only a pair of statues above the entrance break its clean lines. These are the characters Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Prospero is an exiled magician served by Ariel his messenger of the air. Together they signify the modern magic of broadcasting.

Prospero and Ariel located above the entrance to BBC Broadcasting House

But Broadcasting House was not the only new model of modernism with which The Tempest shared parallels that year. Also produced in 1932, the futurist novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is the story of the outcast son of a woman left abandoned among aborigines. Self-educated in the works of Shakespeare, John is rescued by his mother's modern civilisation, just as Prospero's daughter Miranda is rescued by her father's. Both exclaim "O Brave New World" at their salvation. Both outbursts are later proved ironic. For John discovers that the material benefits of an urbanised and industrialised future have come at the cost of his heroic Shakespearean values. His "Brave New World" harbours a "slave" population, subjected to selective breeding and infantilised by diversionary thrills and drugs. 

"Mobile Connectivity" has democratised broadcasting and can empower us enormously but can also isolate us from nature and leave us vulnerable to blind populism, "groupthink" or the vanity of our own egos when we could be educating ourselves from our own direct explorations and observations

It is reported Huxley was inspired by a visit to the Billingham chemical plant in Teeside so it follows his controlling technology is biochemical. But what if he had visited the new Broadcasting House in London instead? Perhaps he would have enslaved his population using the audio-visual technology more familiar today. The first broadcast from the BBCs new "home" is known to have been "live" music. That should give us some comfort since we are probably justified in thinking that music and song are benign forms of entertainment whose gentle enslavements endure and remain welcome. Below an image of the EKCO disc which may contain it, labelled "New BBC Band" and dated 15th March 1932.

The labels are etched with the words "New BBC Band", "Home" and "15/3/32"

The 15th March 1932 is known to be the date of the first radio broadcast. But little else seems known other than it was by Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra. This EKCO disc contains little voice-over introduction but it certainly contains "live" dance band music which meets expectation. Side 1 contains the song "Home" followed by the opening to "Rio de Janiero", while Side 2 contains the song "Sycamore Tree" followed by an introduction to "Blue of the Night". Below is a sample of "Home" after which there is a hesitant voice-over introduction to the next song. This matches critical reviews of the first broadcast which describe the band leader Hall as being nervous throughout.

Familiarity with "Home" may have an unlikely source, but one which provides authentication. Below is a link to a scene from a Stanley Kubrick film called "The Shining".  Set in the haunted Overlook Hotel, the same gentle melody and vocal can be heard contrasting with the menacing dialogue.

This is the section of the movie where Jack meets the former caretaker of the hotel ... who proceeds to tell him how his son "...needs a good talking to..." and how he "corrected" his daughters & his wife. Creepy.

The film soundtrack shows it to be the song "Home" as recorded by Henry Hall and the Gleneagles Hotel Band. This is the band which Hall is known to have led at the Gleneagles Hotel just before taking up his post as band leader at Broadcasting House. This leaves little doubt that he took the song with him for that first broadcast. So the fact that he now forever leads a phantom band playing "Home" in a hotel ballroom not only authenticates my grandfather's recording, but renders it a suitably haunting elegy.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England