The main source of the British Broadcasting Company's revenue was derived from radio receiving licences. The first Licence and Agreement granted to the Company was signed on 18 January With the development of additional relay stations, the extension of transmitting hours, and the continued increase in the cost of programmes, these calculations were completely upset. Other sources of revenue for the British Broadcasting Company came from tariffs on manufactured radio sets and The Radio Times.
Papers relating to the General Strike also form a large part of this series. The General Strike began on 03 May The end of the strike was announced on 12 May when J. During this period the British Broadcasting Company became almost the sole purveyor of news and broadcast five bulletins each day, rather than being restricted to one evening bulletin.
Three issues caused problems, however. They were the failure to put on the air a Labour or a Trade Union Congress speaker; the delaying of news of an important announcement by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the British Broadcasting Company's 'editorials'.
The General Strike left the British Broadcasting Company as a major news source and appreciation of the British Broadcasting Company's role was quick to follow. This BBC, however, was not a public body but a business enterprise. The British Broadcasting Company came into existence only after tough commercial bargaining, first between competitive wireless interests and second between the wireless interests as a whole and the Post Office.
The manufacturers of radio formed the British Broadcasting Committee after initial negotiations with the Post Office and held their first meeting on 23 May Discussions with the Post Office during the course of this year were intense and it seemed on more than one occasion that the outcome would be two broadcasting companies instead of one. During the period from to there were no fewer than seven Postmasters General A. Illingworth, F. Kellaway, N. Hartshorn and Sir William Mitchell-Thomson.
The legal powers of the Postmaster General to concern himself with broadcasting derived from the Telegraph Act and the Wireless Telegraphy Act. Interestingly Reith, who became the BBC in most people's eyes, knew nothing about broadcasting at the time. He commented in his diary, 'the fact is I hadn't the remotest idea as to what broadcasting was.
I hadn't troubled to find out. Once he had been appointed, Reith oversaw the creation of the BBC as an institution and as broadcaster. Radio quickly took off with the British public and many broadcast 'firsts' were celebrated - from first news bulletin to first outside broadcast, from first royal address to the very first sound of Big Ben on the BBC, from first broadcast election address to first relay from America.
In December the staff of the BBC numbered four. By the autumn of it had risen to and less than a year later it was The early staff were divided between three departments: Engineering, Programmes, and Administration. Two government committees were appointed during this time to discuss the future of broadcasting: the Sykes Committee and the Crawford Committee. The Sykes Committee was a result of the deadlock caused by one specific issue — that of licences.
The BBC also faced its first major government confrontation over editorial independence in those years, during the General Strike of The General Strike of 03 May — 12 May took place between the Crawford Committee's Report and the decision of the Postmaster General to implement the committee's decision.
Reith advocated that the BBC should be both a public institution and an independent institution as free as possible from interference both by business and by government. That service and enterprise may in any way be incompatible did not seem to be something he considered. The Post Office completely seemed to share Reith's views on this point. The files are arranged alphabetically by title, but within this arrangement there are three sub-sections for Board of Directors, Finance and the General Strike.
It is not known why some of these papers were not transferred to 'Special Collections'. Papers of the Company period can also be found at the beginning of files which carried on into the Corporation after , the Registry staff presumably making no distinction between the two organisations see also Related Areas.
The series also contains the following runs of General Strike papers on microfilm. Very little is known about the early history of the British Broadcasting Company's papers. The first edition of The Radio Times listed the few programmes on offer. It also provided advice for budding radio enthusiasts, and numerous advertisements by the fledgling radio industry, offering the latest in radio receiving technology. It was to become one of the world's most popular listing magazines.
The six short 'pips' were designed to mark the precise start of every hour on BBC radio. Time signals based on the same principle exist in other countries. Sir John Reith becomes the first Director-General. The Charter defined the BBC's objectives, powers and obligations.
It is mainly concerned with broad issues of policy, while the Director-General and senior staff are responsible for detailed fulfilment of that policy.
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