British Broadcasting Company

Variant names
Dates:
Active 1886
Active 2002
Britons, Britons Britons,
English

History notes:

The two part documentary ‘No Plan, No Peace: The inside story of Iraq’s descent into chaos’ was produced by BBC Current Affairs and broadcast on the 28th and 29th October 2007.

From the guide to the BBC Documentary: ‘No Plan, No Peace’ Collection, 2007, (Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony's College, Oxford)

In December 1981, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a series of 13 controversial programmes by its Religious Affairs Correspondent, Gerald Priestland, under the title Priestland's Progress . They generated a large correspondent from listeners.

From the guide to the BBC Radio, Priestland's Progress, 1981, (University of Sussex Library)

The BBC was established in 1922.

From the guide to the BBC TAPE COLLECTION, 1964 - 1987, (University of Reading, Museum of English Rural Life)

Between 1977 and 1985 the BBC broadcast a radio series on consumer problems called Checkpoint, hosted by Roger Cook.

From the guide to the BBC Radio, Checkpoint, 1977-1985, (University of Sussex Library)

In 1984, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a series of controversial programmes by its Religious Affairs Correspondent, Gerald Priestland, under the title The Case against God . They generated a correspondent from listeners.

From the guide to the BBC Radio, The Case against God, 1984, (University of Sussex Library)

Fuller was an employee of the BBC in the New York office. The other BBC employees were all located in the London office: Goldschmidt was in charge of German music programs; Glock was Controller and Abraham Assistant Controller of the music department; Walford was Head of Copyright; and Simpson was a producer and broadcaster. Ratz was the president of the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft.

From the description of Correspondence with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, 1943-1963. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155863009

The Third Programme of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was inaugurated on September 29, 1946, as part of the BBC’s post-war restructuring of radio into three networks. Responding to the public’s growing interest in the arts, which BBC programs during World War II had helped to foster, the BBC instituted three complementary networks designed not only to inform and entertain, but to educate the public as well: the Home Service, the Light Programme, and the Third Programme. The Home Service provided a broad range of news, educational, and entertainment services and was the principal channel. The Light Programme, as the name implies, offered lighter fare which was intended purely for relaxation and amusement purposes. The Third Programme was more serious in nature and catered to an esoteric audience. Its purpose, as outlined by Sir William Haley, was to present “the great classical repertoire in music and drama, and, so far as they are broadcastable, in literature and the other arts,” things “culturally satisfying and significant.” The BBC defined the program as “being for the educated rather than an educational programme.” The esoteric nature of the Third Programme proved to be detrimental rather than beneficial to the BBC. Although the BBC was generally praised for its noble ambition of raising cultural standards, the Third Programme’s small following made the program less than cost-efficient. Saddled with rising production costs and stung by criticism of the Third Programme’s elitist tendencies, the BBC decided in 1957 to curtail the program. Its decision was met with much protest, which came primarily from a small but highly organized following. Several hundred constituents organized The Third Programme Defense Society and enlisted support from a number of well-known intellectuals such as T. S. Eliot, Albert Camus, and Sir Laurence Olivier, who headed the Society’s seven-man delegation. Despite the Society’s efforts, the Third Programme was truncated--its air time was reduced from 40 to 24 hours a week--but was otherwise materially unaltered. It continued to offer a combination of spoken word and music, though with fewer repeats and fewer long speeches, until 1970. At that point, aware of listener divisions the three-network system had perpetrated, BBC virtually phased out the Third Programme, allotting it only eight hours per week and merging much of the program’s material with that of Radio Four, which had been developed for a more general audience.

Paulu, Burton. British Broadcasting in Transition. Minneapolis: Universityof Minnesota Press, 1961. Whitehead, Kate. The Third Programme: A Literary History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

From the guide to the BBC Third Programme radio scripts, 1940–1969, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)

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Subjects:

  • Agriculture
  • Authors, English
  • Belief and doubt Case studies
  • Consumer complaints Great Britain
  • Documentary radio programs
  • War
  • International conflict
  • Motion picture producers and directors
  • occupied territories
  • Radio addresses, debates, etc.
  • Radio broadcasting
  • Radio plays
  • Radio programmes
  • Radio programs
  • Religious broadcasting Great Britain 20th century

Occupations:

not available for this record

Places:

  • England (as recorded)
  • Iraq (as recorded)
  • United States (as recorded)
  • USA (as recorded)
  • England--London (as recorded)
  • UK (as recorded)

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