The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
#054 The First Welsh Broadcast... and The Exhibitionists!
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Episode notes
Let Season 4 begin!
We pick up our timeline of the BBC origin story in February 1923 - and the launch of Cardiff 5WA, the first Welsh broadcast station.
Plus back in 2022: places you can go, museums, exhibitions and the like - from Bradford's National Science and Media Museum (and their Switched On exhibition) to St Bride's in London (and their A Kingdom of Cardboard exhibition). We chat to Lewis Pollard, curator of broadcasting at the first, and Bob Richardson, ex of BBC Presentation and Exhibitions departments, who's put together the latter.
They're great chats - and great exhibitions. Details on the links below.
Back in Wales, in the past, you'll hear some of the speeches delivered on launch night, from John Reith, Lord Gainford, Sir William Noble and the Lord Mayor of Cardiff. Fancy! Thanks Andrew Barker for sourcing the text, from newspapers of the day. We'll post the full text of the speeches on our Facebook group - again, link below.
SHOWNOTES:
- St Bride's, London hosts A Kingdom of Cardboard, on till the end of 2022: https://sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/a-kingdom-of-cardboard-2/
- ...see my pics of St Bride's A Kingdom of Cardboard exhibition here: https://twitter.com/BBCentury/status/1558125347614375936
- Bradford's Switched On event is at the National Science and Media Museum, on till the start of 2023: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/switched-on
- ...see my pics of Bradford's Switched On exhibition here: https://twitter.com/BBCentury/status/1571255160302702597
- The BBC Heritage Collection is hosted at the Science Museum: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/search/collection/bbc-heritage-collection
- The 100 Objects of the BBC page: https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/bbc-100/100-objects/
- Paul's tour of The First Broadcast: The Battle for the Beeb in 1922 has a few more dates left (and if not, you could book it for your place: www.paulkerensa.com/tour
- Read the full speeches from the launch of Cardiff 5WA, as sourced by Andrew Barker, here on our Facebook page: https://tinyurl.com/ye3kswt9
- Find us on the social medias at www.facebook.com/bbcentury and www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury or on www.twitter.com/bbcentury
- Paul's novel Auntie and Uncles will be out soon. More info will be on the mailing list: http://eepurl.com/M6Wbr
- ...or find Paul's existing books including Hark! The Biography of Christmas (https://amzn.to/3AZCzjf)
- Like the podcast? Want to see it continue/thrive/grow? £5/mth on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa gets you extra behind-the-scenes videos - next will be another reading from Cecil Lewis' Broadcasting from Within, the first book on broadcasting. Thanks for £supporting!
- We're nothing to do with the BBC - just talking about ye olde Auntie Beeb.
Enjoy!
Next time: The First Shakespeare on the BBC - and the BBC turns 100!