#106 6BM Bournemouth: The End of the Beginning at the BBC... and James Cridland

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

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26d ago 42:17

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"6BM Bournemouth sends hearty greetings to the world... We do hope you can smell the pines!" On 17 October 1923 (oh and look at the date this podcast landed - 102 years apart), the BBC opened its eighth station: 6BM Bournemouth. It was the last of the first, after the original plan for eight station. Now the map atop the Radio Times cover would be proven correct! When the magazine launched, it featured eight stations... but only six were in operation. For perhaps the first time, we'll unite some of the first voices from each station - from London's Arthur Burrows to Bournemouth's Auntie Lulu - as well as hear some of pioneering voices from 6BM, thanks to Seán Street, Emeritus Professor of Radio at Bournemouth University. Seán's wonderful recent article and 1973 documentary are essential further reading and listening - and any early voices you hear on this podcast are from interviews he recorded then. We're so glad he did. Hear the children's presenter in trouble for mentioning religion and booze in her children's tales (no 'Yohoho and a bottle of rum' here...) and the offers from France to pay a licence fee, so enamoured were they with the Bournemouth station. As for radio's future, who better than the radio futurologist to enlighten us? James Cridland is in-demand as a radio consultant and speaker, and has both intriguing thoughts on where radio (or audio) is going, and wonderful tales of working in radio, including being at the cutting edge of radio's move online two decades ago. I hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did (and yes he will be back). Elsewhere, we talk about not only this podcast's survey, but the BBC's survey, and its results. What do we want the BBC to be? The people have spoken... We dig into that a little. And our next clue in our audio Christmas gift. What will it be? Keep listening to puzzle it out. (Email me any guesses by all means - or feedback generally on the podcast, or any queries we can ponder on a future episode) I like all the episodes I make for this podcast. But I REALLY like this one. Hope you do too.

SHOWNOTES:

Original music is by Will Farmer.
Professor Seán Street's wonderful 1973 documentary on 6BM Bournemouth is a must-listen: https://soundcloud.com/seans-wireless/6bm-calling
His brilliant article on 6BM Bournemouth is here: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/celebrating-centenary-bbc-our-work-creative-industries/question-of-anniversaries
James Cridland's website is james.cridland.net, and his daily podcast newsletter is the excellent Podnews.
Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here - do please spare 5mins to let me know your thoughts: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
The BBC's slightly bigger survey has its results now in: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ourbbcourfuture/
Thanks to Andrew Barker, our Newspaper Detective, for finding the press extracts. Copyright may belong to a newspaper conglomerate somewhere that bought up old newspapers. I can't tell. I just know it's not mine. But fair use, right?
Paul's latest Substack is on the Boat Race and the BBC: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-boat-race-drifts-from-the-bbc
Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits a variety of tour stops: www.paulkerensa.com/tour.
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. And occasionally what's ahead.
Please like/share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.
Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. Coming soon to the podcast: a dramatic re-enactment! That involves me paying a producer for this one-off episode. I intend to give her one month's Patreon £. So now's a great time to chip in, and she'll get a good £... and might then do more for us! If you'd consider? Thanks. Guilt trip over. (...FOR NOW)
Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks! All keeps the podcast going.

Next time: Episode 107: The early BBC criticism programmes: Drama, Music, Film, Books...

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

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