BBC

===1927 to 1939===
[[File:Radio Times 1931 (masthead).jpg|thumb|left|The ''[[Radio Times]]'' masthead from 25 December 1931, including the BBC motto "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation"]]
[[File:John Logie Baird in 1917.jpg|thumb|right|Television pioneer [[John Logie Baird]] (seen here in 1917) televised the BBC's first drama, ''[[The Man with the Flower in His Mouth]]'', on 14 July 1930, and the first live outside broadcast, [[Epsom Derby|The Derby]], on 2 June 1931.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Man with the Flower in his Mouth|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02d2sm7|publisher=BBC|date=9 October 2017|access-date=20 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181021180342/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02d2sm7|archive-date=21 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=BBC's first television outside broadcast|url=http://www.bbceng.info/additions/2016/first-scanner-prospero-2010a.pdf|publisher=Prospero|access-date=9 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009223351/http://www.bbceng.info/additions/2016/first-scanner-prospero-2010a.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

The British Broadcasting Corporation came into existence on 1 January 1927, and Reith – newly knighted – was appointed its first Director General. To represent its purpose and (stated) values, the new corporation adopted the [[Coat of arms of the BBC|coat of arms]], including the motto "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation".<ref name="Motto">{{cite book |editor-last=Knowles |editor-first=Elizabeth |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations |url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000unse_f8b0 |edition=Oxford Reference Online |year=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=11 February 2010 |isbn=9780199208951 }}</ref>

British radio audiences had little choice apart from the upscale programming of the BBC. Reith, an intensely moralistic executive, was in full charge. His goal was to broadcast "All that is best in every department of human knowledge, endeavour and achievement.... The preservation of a high moral tone is obviously of paramount importance."<ref>[[Charles Mowat]], ''Britain between the Wars 1918–1940'' (1955) p 242.</ref> Reith succeeded in building a high wall against an American-style free-for-all in radio in which the goal was to attract the largest audiences and thereby secure the greatest advertising revenue. There was no paid advertising on the BBC; all the revenue came from a tax on receiving sets. Highbrow audiences, however, greatly enjoyed it.<ref>David Hendy, "Painting with Sound: The Kaleidoscopic World of Lance Sieveking, a British Radio Modernist," ''Twentieth Century British History'' (2013) 24#2 pp 169–200.</ref> At a time when American, Australian and Canadian stations were drawing huge audiences cheering for their local teams with the broadcast of baseball, rugby and hockey, the BBC emphasised service for a national rather than a regional audience. Boat races were well covered along with tennis and horse racing, but the BBC was reluctant to spend its severely limited air time on long football or cricket games, regardless of their popularity.<ref>Mike Huggins, "BBC Radio and Sport 1922–39," ''Contemporary British History'' (2007) 21#4 pp 491–515.</ref>

[[File:BBC Birmingham 1928.png|thumb|The BBC's radio studio in Birmingham, from the ''BBC Hand Book'' 1928, which described it as "Europe's largest studio"]]

John Reith and the BBC, with support from [[the Crown]], determined the universal needs of the people of Britain and broadcast content according to these perceived standards.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The BBC and national identity in Britain, 1922–53|last=Hajkowski|first=Thomas|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2010|isbn=9780719079443|location=New York, New York|pages=11}}</ref> Reith effectively censored anything that he felt would be harmful, directly or indirectly.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|title=Radio Modernism|last=Avery|first=Todd|publisher=Ashgate Publishing Limited|year=2006|isbn=9780754655176|pages=21}}</ref> While recounting his time with the BBC in 1935, [[Raymond Postgate]] claims that BBC broadcasters were made to submit a draft of their potential broadcast for approval. It was expected that they tailored their content to accommodate the modest, church-going elderly or a member of the [[Clergy]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dawkins|first=Charlie|date=Spring 2016|title=Harold Nicolson, Ulysses, Reithianism|journal=The Review of English Studies|volume=67|issue=280|pages=558–578|doi=10.1093/res/hgv063|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:977bed97-a430-4524-a0dc-1ba68898ba04|access-date=6 September 2020|archive-date=22 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222192412/https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:977bed97-a430-4524-a0dc-1ba68898ba04|url-status=live}}</ref> Until 1928, entertainers broadcasting on the BBC, both singers and "talkers" were expected to avoid biblical quotations, Clerical impersonations and references, references to drink or [[Prohibition in America]], vulgar and doubtful matter and political allusions.<ref name=":02"/> The BBC excluded popular foreign music and musicians from its broadcasts, while promoting British alternatives.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music, 1922–1936: Shaping a Nation's Taste|last=Doctor|first=Jennifer|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0521661171|location=New York, New York}}</ref> On 5 March 1928, Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, maintained the censorship of editorial opinions on public policy, but allowed the BBC to address matters of religious, political or industrial controversy.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book|title=A Social History of British Broadcasting|last1=Scanell|first1=Paddy|last2=Cardiff|first2=David|publisher=Basil Blackwell|year=1991|isbn=978-0631175438|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=75}}</ref> The resulting political "talk series", designed to inform England on political issues, were criticised by members of parliament, including Winston Churchill, [[David Lloyd George]] and [[Austen Chamberlain|Sir Austen Chamberlain]]. Those who opposed these chats claimed that they silence the opinions of those in Parliament who are not nominated by Party Leaders or Party Whips, thus stifling independent, non-official views.<ref name=":15"/> In October 1932, the policemen of the [[Metropolitan Police Federation]] marched in protest at a proposed pay cut. Fearing dissent within the police force and public support for the movement, the BBC censored its coverage of the events, only broadcasting official statements from the government.<ref name=":15"/>

Throughout the 1930s, political broadcasts had been closely monitored by the BBC.<ref name=":23">{{Cite book|title=Truth Betrayed|last=West|first=W.J.|publisher=Redwood Burn Limited, Trowbridge|year=1987|isbn=978-0715621820|location=London, England|pages=15}}</ref> In 1935, the BBC censored the broadcasts of [[Oswald Mosley]] and [[Harry Pollitt]].<ref name=":15"/> Mosley was a leader of the [[British Union of Fascists]], and Pollitt a leader of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]. They had been contracted to provide a series of five broadcasts on their parties' politics. The BBC, in conjunction with [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|The Foreign Office]] of Britain, first suspended this series and ultimately cancelled it without the notice of the public.<ref name=":23"/><ref name=":15"/> Less radical politicians faced similar censorship. In 1938, Winston Churchill proposed a series of talks regarding British domestic and foreign politics and affairs but was similarly censored.<ref name=":23"/> The censorship of political discourse by the BBC was a precursor to the total shutdown of political debate that manifested over the BBC's wartime airwaves.<ref name=":23" /> The Foreign Office maintained that the public should not be aware of their role in the censorship.<ref name=":15"/> From 1935 to 1939, the BBC also attempted to unite the British Empire's radio waves, sending staff to Egypt, [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]], [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]], Jamaica, India, Canada and South Africa.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book|title=Broadcasting Empire|last=Potter|first=Simon|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=9780199568963|location=Oxford, England|pages=85}}</ref> Reith personally visited South Africa, lobbying for state-run radio programmes which was accepted by [[Parliament of South Africa|South African Parliament]] in 1936.<ref name=":32"/> A similar programme was adopted in Canada. Through collaboration with these state-run broadcasting centres, Reith left a legacy of cultural influence across the empire of Great Britain with his departure from the corporation in 1938.<ref name=":32" />

Experimental television broadcasts were started in 1929, using an electromechanical 30-line system developed by [[John Logie Baird]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=1920s|url=http://bbc.com/historyofthebbc//timelines/1920s|access-date=18 November 2020|website=bbc.com|language=en|archive-date=16 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200516200700/http://bbc.com/historyofthebbc//timelines/1920s|url-status=live}}</ref> Limited regular broadcasts using this system began in 1932, and [[First day of television programmes|an expanded service]] (now named the [[BBC Television#History of BBC Television|BBC Television Service]]) started from [[Alexandra Palace]] in November 1936, alternating between an improved Baird mechanical 240-line system and the all-electronic [[405-line television system|405-line]] Marconi-EMI system which had been developed by an [[EMI]] research team led by Sir [[Isaac Shoenberg]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Sir Isaac Shoenberg, British inventor|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Shoenberg|access-date=22 July 2021|work=Encyclopaedia Britannica|quote=principal inventor of the first high-definition television system|archive-date=20 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020205748/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Shoenberg|url-status=live}}</ref> The superiority of the electronic system saw the mechanical system dropped early the following year, with the Marconi-EMI system the first fully electronic television system in the world to be used in regular broadcasting.<ref>{{cite book|author=Norman, Bruce|url=https://archive.org/details/hereslookingatyo0000norm/page/99|title=Here's Looking at You: The Story of British Television 1908–1939|year=1984|isbn=978-0-563-20102-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/hereslookingatyo0000norm/page/99 99]|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation }}</ref>

====BBC versus other media====
[[File:Royal broadcast, Christmas 1934 (Our Generation, 1938).jpg|thumb|left|King [[George V]] giving the 1934 [[Royal Christmas Message]] on BBC Radio. The annual message typically reflects on the year's major events.]]
The success of broadcasting provoked animosities between the BBC and well-established media such as theatres, concert halls and the recording industry. By 1929, the BBC complained that the agents of many comedians refused to sign contracts for broadcasting, because they feared it harmed the artist "by making his material stale" and that it "reduces the value of the artist as a visible music-hall performer". On the other hand, the BBC was "keenly interested" in a cooperation with the recording companies who "in recent years&nbsp;... have not been slow to make records of singers, orchestras, dance bands, etc. who have already proved their power to achieve popularity by wireless." Radio plays were so popular that the BBC had received 6,000 manuscripts by 1929, most of them written for stage and of little value for broadcasting: "Day in and day out, manuscripts come in, and nearly all go out again through the post, with a note saying 'We regret, etc.'"<ref>''BBC Hand Book'' (1929), pp. 164, 182, 186</ref> In the 1930s music broadcasts also enjoyed great popularity, for example the friendly and wide-ranging [[BBC Theatre Organ]] broadcasts at [[St. George's Hall, London|St George's Hall]], London by [[Reginald Foort]], who held the official role of BBC Staff Theatre Organist from 1936 to 1938.<ref>{{cite journal |date=28 October 1938 |title=National Programme Daventry, 31 October 1938 20.10: Farewell to Reginald Foort |journal=[[Radio Times]] |publisher=BBC |volume=61 |issue=787 |url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/c92472a1092345fdbaa66216e8ed9451 |access-date=11 September 2021 |archive-date=4 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004180651/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/c92472a1092345fdbaa66216e8ed9451 |url-status=live }}</ref>