INCLUDING AUDIO TAPE EXTRACTS
ORIGINALLY RESEARCHED & COMPILED BY
DENNIS GILLBEE & DENNIS ROOKARD
FOR ESSEX RADIO "60 Years of Radio" - 12th Sept 1981
Transcripted from Audio Tape by Jill Hadley
(27K Text Document only - Work in Progress, also Graphics and Sound to be added!)
The county and people of Essex now have their own local and independent station, part of the ILR network. This article traces the 75 years of history that have brought that network about and brought sound broadcasting home to Essex.
Seventy five years ago, a voice {Graphic stripped}crackled out over the airwaves from an old ex-army hut in a field, just outside Chelmsford. There were few who heard it, some fellow engineers and a small, but growing, army of amateur radio experimenters, but it signified the start of British broadcasting.
In this article we look at the development of sound broadcasting and, we also investigate the history of the company that has done so much to create not only the broadcast industry, but also today's world-wide network of telecommunications - Marconi. It is the story of the man who gave his name to that company and a new word to the English language - Wireless. It is the story of Gulio Marconi.
Betty Hance, Company Historian and expert on the early years of Marconi:-
As a young boy, he was never particularly good at school and his father was always trying to push him along a bit harder, and then he became interested in Hertz. He had read a little about the work that Hertz was doing on electro-magnetic waves and he became interested and did some experiments himself. His father thought he was wasting his time, but like most mothers with their sons, she encouraged him and gradually he had got a (?)distance. He now transmitted signals of a short distance across the orange groves at the back of a house in Bologna.
These back garden experiments, when in 1896, after being turned down by the Italian Government, he set sail for England. In that year, in London, he took out the world's first patent for a system using wireless telegraphy. In March of that same year, a letter landed on the desk of the then Chief of Engineering Department of the Post Office, William Preece.
Keith Geddes of the Science Museum takes up the story:-
He had come over from Italy, but fortunately, although his father was Italian, his mother was Irish. She was in fact, Annie Jameson of the distillers and they had got quite a number of relatives in London, one of whom was an engineer. He in turn knew an electrical engineer, a man called Campbell-Swinton, who knew the Engineer in Chief of the Post Office - (very much the old boy network!) and he wrote a letter, which I think I better read to you, on March 30th 1896.
"Dear Mr Preece, I am taking the liberty of sending you with this note, a young Italian of the name of Marconi, who has come over to this country with the idea of getting taken up a new system of telegraphy without wires, at which he has been working.
It appears to be based upon the use of Hetzian waves and Oliver Lodge's cohera, but from what he tells me, he appears to have got considerably beyond what I believe other people have done in this line. It has occurred to me that you might possibly be kind enough to see him and hear what he has to say, and I also think that what he has done will very likely be of interest to you.
I hope that I am not troubling you too much, believe me. Yours very truly, A A Campbell-Swinton".
So, at the age of 22, Marconi began his life's work. First, it was under the patronage of the Post Office, where, in a series of demonstrations, he said and proved that the strange and new device not only worked, but could be used to make money.
The first thing he did was to set up a permanent station on the Isle of Wight and another one on the mainland, and Lord Kelvin came along and inspected all this installation, and had the idea of sending a telegram to some of his friends. The telegram to be sent by radio across to the mainland and then by ordinary Post Office network thereafter, and he knew and Marconi knew that communication for money was a Post Office monopoly.
So, out of devilment, he said to Marconi, "I insist on paying you a shilling for sending this across to the mainland, Marconi, take it". Kelvin then had the satisfaction of originating the world's first commercial radio message, and there is a note upstairs, a very agonised note internally to the Post Office, to their solicitor saying "what about this, is it alright?" and the Post Office decided that although it was breaking the law, it was very ill-advised to press it , so they let the matter slide.
It was not long before Marconi hit upon the idea of ships at sea having their own ship-board radio systems in 1897. He set up the Wireless, Telegraph & Signal Company to that very end. In latter years it was to provide the staff for the service, but it was not all that simple, Keith Geddes explains:-
It was no good just putting a radio on a ship and saying, 'right we have sold you a radio', because a ship's radio is valueless until there are shore stations for it to communicate with, who is going to pay for the shore stations. In fact, the Marconi company, partly for business reasons, partly because they could dodge the Post Office monopoly, this way, they provided a service. You paid them a fee and this provided the equipment and the operator and the use of the shore stations.
This caused a lot of very bad feeling because the shore stations were paid for by the Marconi company who, reasonably enough, said well if we have had the expense of putting these shore stations up, we don't see why we should make them available to our competitors. So since tuning was pretty primitive in those days, and there were only a limited number of wavelengths available, if you got your shore stations in all the prime locations, it more or less precluded anybody else from putting up shore stations, so that gave you a monopoly of shore stations. This in turn tended to give you a monopoly of the whole business and there was a lot of international feeling, in fact, the Germans called a conference in 1903, mainly on this issue of inter-communication. The fact that Marconi were refusing to collaborate with other systems except in emergencies.
Finally, the Americans ganged up on Marconi, about 1910 or thereabouts, and said that no ship would be allowed to put into port which did not communicate with anybody else and this called the Marconi company's bluff, but it took a long time.
But this was all for the future, for whilst communications with ships at sea was possible by 1900, it was useful only over short distances. Marconi's big challenge was to transmit a signal across the Atlantic. This was to be the greatest test of wireless communication yet, particularly as scientific opinion at the time suggested that wireless waves, like those of light, could only travel in a straight line, they would not follow the curvature of the earth. It was, they said, impossible.
Marconi set out to prove them wrong. One of his assistants, Percy Padgett, recalls, in a recording made in 1924, the scene at Signal Hill, overlooking St John's harbour in Newfoundland. It is a November day in 1901.
"Not a shrub or a tree, only a deserted military hospital in one room of which Mr Marconi set up his apparatus. We had brought two 15ft balloons and 6 kites for the purpose of elevating the aerial, but the weather was terrible and for a couple of days we battled with the elements. One of the balloons being carried away by the gale which snapped the heavy mooring rope, like a piece of cotton".
The loss of the more stable balloons meant that Marconi and his team of Padgett and Kemp had to fall back on a system of kites on which to hang the aerials. The three sat late into the night of December 12th 1901, straining to pick up the faint signals they hoped were being transmitted from Poldhu in Cornwall. Padgett takes up the story again:-
"We managed to fly it up to 400 ft. It flew up over the stormy Atlantic, surging up and down in the gale and tugging at its 600 ft of aerial wire. The icy rain slashed my face as I watched anxiously. The wind howled around the building, where in a small dark room, furnished with a table, one chair and some packing cases, Mr Kemp sat at the simple receiving set while Mr Marconi drank a cup of cocoa before taking his turn at listening for the signals that were being transmitted from Poldhu".
But what were Marconi's feelings at this time? Here, he looks back to that small shack high on the headland of St John's bay, and remembers.
"I placed the single earphone to my ear and started listening. The receiver on the table before me was very crude, a few coils, conveyances, a cohera, no valves, no amplifiers - not even a crystal".
They were rewarded. That great moment had come, and in this reconstruction made just a short while after, the great moment comes.
"Listen to this Kemp, take the headphone. Can you hear anything? Yes, there it is, the letter S, distinctly Mr Marconi, I did. Padgett, come here and listen".
They had succeeded in crossing the Atlantic. Wireless was no longer a short range device and from this moment on the world had become a much smaller place.
"The result meant much more to me than the mere successful realisation of an experiment, it was unequalled in history. I know felt for the first time absolutely certain that the day would come when mankind would be able to send messages without wires, not only across the Atlantic, but between the furthermost ends of the Earth".
1919, and an experimental radio station in America, using the call sign KDKA make history by broadcasting a programme to its few listeners.
Meanwhile at Chelmsford a number of engineers brought a 15 kW transmitter into action and began testing. This would have passed without comment, Marconi engineers at Chelmsford were always testing new transmitter designs, but rather than read out a list of railway stations as a test signal, they decided for a bit of fun, if only to entertain bored fellow engineers to press into service members of a local concert party.
One of them, now in her 80s was Winifred Sayer.
(Summarised interview notes):- For 3 evenings she sang individually from a Packing Shed and also did a duet with Eddie Cooper. She sang the song "Absent". Two-three months later she received a souvenir and in it were many people who had heard her voice, and also a ship, 1,000 miles away, out at sea. She was staggered.
The Daily Mail also paid £1,000 to Madam Milba who was the first person accompanied by a grand piano to sing, but Winifred, followed by other people, made history.
Despite the interest in these broadcast concerts, the Marconi company's view at that time, was that the future lay with the transmission of information not entertainment, so the station was closed down. But the public, at least those few hundred who had listened, wanted more. Sir Noel Ashbridge explained in a BBC recording made some 20 years after his work in establishing the station.
"At last it was announced that the wireless telephony programme would be permitted once a week for half an hour. The station chosen was Writtle with a power of 0.50 kW. So it was that our engineers down there in Essex received instructions to start. We had no experience of broadcasting, and our equipment was extremely primitive to say the least of it. We had one army hut but an amusing example of this kind of thing, although as a matter of fact, our regular concerts did not start until early 1922".
Happy days from an engineer, but as Captain P B Eckersley leader of the band of pioneers recalled, a few years later, conditions at Chelmsford in those early days were difficult, but they were not without fun.
"If you had got a wireless set as an amateur which had never done more than go beh beh beh beh beh bah, and then suddenly you heard a voice or music, it was fascinating; and the Postmaster General, on whom be at last peace, he realised that you could not have such a thing as this without committed judgement and serious consideration. But somehow or another was an idea among the amateurs, real amateurs, they are called 'HAMS'. They are the people who wound coils and drilled overnight and did all the happy things that you do with valves and wireless sets, and they petitioned the then Postmaster General that they might have a station so that they could have a constant source against which to calibrate their receivers, and the result of this petition was very naturally, that it was turned down. But, under the influence of shock tactics, in preparation for another petition, eventually it was decided that there should be a station for these amateurs.
I happened to be in the Marconi company at the time and we inhabited in a place called Writtle, a hut, a long low hut full of long low people and we had a wireless transmitter and we were eventually appointed by the Radio Society of Great Britain to talk into this thing, and give them signals. It was very formal mark you, it was a licence that we were given. The licence said that the power had to be limited to 1 kW, was it? And that had to include the power that was necessary for illuminating or heating the filaments of the valve, but it took 2 kW to do that already. However, we still owe the Postmaster General a number of kilowatts but we went ahead nevertheless and that was how probably the first regular broadcasting station in Great Britain started. There was one before it, I am a little jealous about, the one that preceded, so I am not going to talk about it, I am talking about regular broadcasting and gee boy were we regular. We were half hour a week every Tuesday and we would just broadcast that is all. You know at Writtle, we did not have any elaborate studios or any wonderful gadgets and things like that, what we had was; when you wanted to play a gramophone record, we had a perfectly good mechanical gramophone with open doors, and we opened the doors and we put the needle on and it scratched and it played the music and then you held the microphone in front of the open doors, where the sound poured out from. And if you wanted it louder, you just moved the microphone nearer and if you wanted it softer you moved the microphone further away. We were able to keep one of the smoothest volume controls that has ever been invented. Of course today, I mean there are sliding, resistor wires, and wonderful faders and this and that, but pioneers always knew best".
That is how British broadcasting began. Now the race was on, Marconi, together with other British manufacturers was given the go-ahead to start the British Broadcasting Company. Its only revenue would come from a licence paid for each receiver sold. It was to have a London based transmitter and a studio. Its call sign 2LO.
Broadcasting first from Marconi's head office and then from Savoy Hill, 2LO became the vanguard of a chain of local radio stations covering the United Kingdom. It soon became clear, however, that broadcasting was to important to remain the domain of the private sector, so, in 1924 2LO became a monopoly under a Royal Charter and thus was born the BBC, who, under its first Chairman, John Reith, was to formulate the pattern of radio broadcasting for the next 50 years.
As the 1920s gave way to the depression years of the 1930s, and crystal sets and headphones gave way to valves and loud-speakers, these were the sounds of an age coming into the homes of the people for the first time.
"Good afternoon. Well, I would like to be able to bring this bunch of records to you, and then I would see from the look on your face whether each one pleased you or bored you. Songs, for instance, that you have heard so often sung by your friends or by professional artists, or played by bands or broadcast. Do they still come to mind with a fragrance of memory?"
(Next, follow radio broadcasts from:- His eminence Cardinal Bourne re general strike, Lewis fight boxing commentary and a Christmas Day message from male Royalty).
More radio bulletins follow regarding:-
Death of the King.
German troops enter de-militarised zone on the left bank of the Rhine.
Abdication of Prince Edward.
Coronation broadcast (?)
Mr Chamberlain speaks about peace.
Germany invades Poland.
The only problem for the fledgling BBC was that the public had developed a taste fro the private or more commercial form of broadcasting. To meet this need, the early 1930s saw the formation of the International Broadcasting Company. Simply by taking over un-used air time on already established continental radio stations, the IBC were able to provide this new form of commercial broadcasting for their growing army of devoted listeners.
(A variety of broadcasts follow from Radios Normandy, Luxembourg, Huntley & Palmer's 'Music through the ages' series, Billenium Bill sketch and descriptive commentary of what is happening).
It was not to last, however, for with Europe moving closer to open war, that wireless, taking pride of place on the nation's sideboards, took on a new meaning.
(Broadcast of Churchill announcing, from no !0 Downing Street, that England is at war with Germany. Followed by various news reports from the Fronts during the war, and bulletins on the successes and failures of the troops).
Whilst the war time BBC provided the necessary news coverage to keep the nation informed, it also took up another function. That of raising the spirits of a nation at war.
(Broadcasts of the Hi Gang Show, Chestnut Corner, jokes, sketches and music from bands, a letter and song from Vera Lynn and a newsflash announcing Hitler's death and the fall of Berlin. Plus an announcement from the Home Service notifying the official end of the war. Sounds of celebrations, Winston Churchill announcing VE day, jokes and sketches follow).
With the war over, the infant television service resumed, as did Radio Luxembourg, last survivor of the 10 station pre-war IBC continental network. Broadcasting expanded the national and regional services of the BBC became the home, light, and the new-born third programme. New technical developments became common-place, for example, the introduction of Very High Frequency or VHF radio services, which brought with it the new transmission in sound quality. The end of one channel viewing came with the start of commercial television, but still no independent radio. That is, until...
"You are tuned to Radio Caroline on 199. Your all music station".
The date, Easter Monday 1964, the location, just a few miles off the Essex coast and a new sound is born.
"This is Simon Dee talking to you on behalf of all of us at Radio Caroline here, 4{Special Char 189 in Font "Kino"} miles away from Folkestone. Now what can I tell you about the station? Well, our technical equipment, I suppose firstly, the transmitters are made by Continental Electronics in the States"......
When a short time, Radio Caroline was joined by 16 sister ships and old war time Essex forts. All broadcasting a new sound of radio to a public bored with a form of programming that had been almost unchanged for 50 years. New station call signs with new radio personalities were born overnight.
(Broadcasts from Radio Atlanta, Caroline, Such (?), Invicta and K.I.N.G., Essex and London).
The Government was not amused. For most of the stations the end came in 1967 with the passing of the Offshore Marine Offences Act.
"Some mention has been made of the fact that mine was the first voice to be heard on Radio London and it will also be the last in, regrettably, a few minutes from now. The time on Big L is 3 o'clock and Radio London is now closing down".
But the pirates changed the face of popular broadcasting for ever. Support for a form of London based commercial independent broadcasting service became demand. As an answer, the old BBC light programme gave way to an all swinging, Radio 1, manned by many of the old ship-born broadcasters. But it was not enough, the public wanted more. They wanted local radio.
Within a year they got it, in the form of a chain of local BBC radio stations, it was not much, but it was start.
By 1972, the pressures for local independent radio were such that an Act of Parliament was passed changing the structure of the Independent Television Authority, giving it responsibility for sound broadcasting, changing its name to the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The Act paved the way for the start of independent local radio and in late 1973, the all news station LBC in London, was the vanguard of the many that were to follow.
(Snippets of jingles follow from LBC, Capital, BRMB, Radio Forth and Essex and various others).
Interestingly enough, Marconi had a part in the formation of ILR - Independent Local Radio. They had the task of finding the locations for the new and future transmitters for the network. As Doug Holden explains:-
"Well, the requirements on the VHF/FM side was to produce a frequency plan which allowed for up to about 90 local radio stations to be introduced into the band. Already heavily congested with the BBC nation-wide programmes and also the local radio network themselves.
So, we had to provide suitable frequencies for the IBA for these stations. How did you set about the task? Well, it was an awe-inspiring task to say the least and obviously we were going to have to use the technology that was available and we relied very heavily on the computer. The computer did most of the calculations for us to provide suitable levels and protected levels of similar strength and by using the numbers turned out by the computer, manually we were able to produce a frequency plan".
One of these new transmitter sites was to be at Chelmsford with the start, in late 1981, of Essex Radio. The site was located not a stone's throw from that old ex-army hut and the mast of 2MT. Local independent broadcasting had come home. Home to where it all began, 100 years ago - Chelmsford.
Marconi: "I have striven to give the world improved and cheaper means of communication by means of electrical transmission through space".
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