The Foundation of the BBC

The BBC began with radio broadcasting.  The licence fee to BBC was 10 shillings (50p) which had to be paid in the post office, and this was to make sure that the BBC wouldn’t have to depend on the government financially but to be helping them selves.  BBC meant the British Broadcasting Company, which was formed on 18th October 1922 by wireless manufacturers. One of those manufacturers was Marconi. Marconi was credited with the discovery of radio in 1895.

The first broadcasting began in Marconi’s Studio (2LO) on 14th November 1922.

The BBC Broadcasted news but only after 7pm as they didn’t want to upset the newspapers because at some point people moved to radio. So the BBC spent most of its time broadcasting plays, concerts, classical music, talks and interviews.

The BBC made ‘Listening’ a culture as it became a popular thing to do. On radio The Big Ben and the Greenwich pips became a feature.

In 1926 the general strike happened and the newspapers stopped being sold. So people depended on the radio for all their daily news.

For this reason Winston Churchill decided that the government should take over the BBC but it didn’t happen as the Prime Minister was encouraged by John Reith to stop this from happening.

The BBC was founded by John Reith in 1922. He was a 33 year old Scottish engineer and was appointed General Manager of the BBC. John Reith had a vision that the BBC was to educate, inform and entertain the nation.

John Reith knew nothing about broadcasting so decided to take the challenge and work with Peter Eckersley and try out and experiment with broadcasting.

In 1927 the British Broadcasting Company became the British Broadcasting Corporation and received its first charter from the Queen and John Reith was knighted.