To achieve his goal of “public service” broadcasting, Reith designed a course of diverse educational programming that would appeal to and therefore educate as wide an audience as possible. Mixed programming was that the heart of Reith’s “public service” philosophy. The BBC covered a wide range of areas – including: drama, sport (with events such as the Boat Race, the Cup Final and the Derby covered), light and classical music, and religion. This meant that as many people as possible could be satisfied, and from time to time, sections of the audience were explicitly targeted – children, women, business people, gardeners, farmers, etc. It was not simply hoped that each individual should seek and find his or her own interest and then switch off: the hope was that he or she would be educated and enriched by exposure to the full range of programming. The practise of offering the same or similar programmes at the same times every day – was deliberately avoided. Specific examples of Reith’s educational programming included: “The Foundations of Music,” a 15-minute programme, broadcast five times a week between 1927 and 1937, with the aim of helping the mass audience to understand and enjoy classical music: spreading knowledge of the genre to those who were at the lower end of the social scale, and many of the BBC’s educational programmes were for schools. They ranged from attempts at direct on-air teaching; with lessons given on air, to story readings and dramatisations. By 1927 educational broadcasts were being heard in 3,000 schools.
Thus, Reith can be seen as highly influential on the BBC in the 1920s, as by shaping the course of programming according to his moral convictions, he transformed the BBC from its origins as a private company to make money to a public service corporation, which was not primarily motivated by profit.
Secondly, Reith was influential on the BBC in the 1920s as he handled the company through a major social-political crisis, and utilised it to boost the company’s credibility and influence.
In 1927 a major dispute erupted between the trade union and a variety of industries. For years labour relations within various major industries had been worsening. The Great War had been followed by economic problems which some employers, mainly the mine owners, sought to alleviate by imposing wage cuts on the workforce. The trade unions reacted by calling a general strike for ten days in May which paralysed the county’s essential resources.
As “the government saw the strike not simply as an industrial dispute, but as a political and constitutional threat,” it imposed restrictions about how it could be reported. The BBC faced a dilemma, it could not report any information favouring the strikers or that would encourage the strikes to spread, as the government would intervene, but it could not be seen as too pro-government, or the BBC would lose its credibility among the many which supported it and the strikers may have closed it down. Reith came up with a solution to accommodate both sides: adopting a neutral stance. In its broadcasts, the BBC explained what was happening and what the citizen could do, but not why the strike had came about. “The tone in which the strike was reported was cheerful and conciliatory throughout.” This stance taken by Reith was enormously effective, and greatly enhanced the status of the BBC, and by the end of the strike, millions had come to depend on the accuracy of the BBC’s information. As Williams states in “Get Me A Murder A Day:” “For Reith, the General Strike in particular was a chance to prove to the government that it could be trusted to report controversial matters, as well as maintain a commitment to impartial reporting.” By 1927, the government recognised in principle the BBC’s right to broadcast its own news.
Although it is clear that John Reith was influential on the early BBC, there were other social, political and cultural factors that affected and shaped the Corporation throughout the 1920s, to a greater extent than Reith.
Firstly, the BBC was not the personal creation of John Reith, as he did not found the company, he was simply appointed its first general manager in 1922. As the number of radio sets in circulation grew, the Post Office sought to prevent the problem which had arisen in America, where radio had developed years early, where insufficient restriction had resulted in kind of “aerial anarchy:” too many stations crowded the waveband, some on pirated frequencies and some using stronger signals to drown out their rivals. Its solution was to invite the leading wireless manufacturers (six large companies and severall small ones) to form a broadcasting syndicate. The service they collectively provided would stimulate the sales of the receivers they made. As a result, the manufacturers created the British Broadcasting Company to which the Post Office granted a de facto monopoly of the airwaves and began transmission on 14th November 1922.
The BBC was also greatly influenced by technological advances, which greatly increased the company’s audience. The introduction of valve wireless completely transformed listening habits. Listening had previous been personal, through headphones, but the value wireless’s much-improved reception by way of a loudspeaker transformed listening into a group activity. The invention of valve wirelesses also marked the transition of radio receivers as the playthings of eccentrics, to commercial objects. These changes introduced a massive new audience to broadcasting to the BBC, women, who, as they were housebound for most of the day, comprised an important section of the BBC audience. Mass production techniques also reduced the cost of radio sets, therefore widening the audience for the BBC, as people of the lower social classes could now purchase radio sets, and be educated by their programming. The first valve sets cost £17 10s 0d in 1923, but mass production reduced the price to little more than £5 within two years. Therefore, technological advances were important to the development of the BBC, as they combined to greatly increase the audience for the corporation’s programmes.
In 1927, as explained earlier, a general strike erupted which lasted from 3rd to the 12th May 1926. Since most of the press was affected the restrictions on the BBC’s news coverage was temporarily lifted: it was allowed to – and needed - to report the strike. The company broadcast news of the strike in five daily bulletins. This social crisis greatly influenced the development of the BBC as it provided the BBC with the opportunity to prove it could be trusted as a biased news source, as well as forcing people to appreciate radio’s power as a rapid news medium. In their own homes, people could hear about news within an hour of it happening, as opposed to reading about it the next day in newspapers. As Asa Briggs points out: “Broadcasting had become a major force in the nation’s life, it could no longer be dismissed as a novelty for amateurs and enthusiasts.” Thus, if the social-political crisis had not occurred, the BBC would not have been presented with the opportunity to report the news, and the corporation’s status would not have been enhanced.
Social-political factors also aided Reith to create his vision of the BBC as a “public service,” free from government intervention. Williams argues “Reith could not have exploited the concept of public service broadcasting without the support of a number of external interests, most importantly the British state…Reith’s vision of broadcasting based on a rejection of the market and direct state control corresponded to the ‘turn and temper’ of the age.” The First World War had laid the foundations for acceptance of a public corporation. Insurance, the coal industry and food rationing had been organised and operated centrally as part of measures imposed to fight the war. The widespread concern around the country about the inefficiency of the free market in the distribution of resources meant that Reith’s ideas for the BBC to act as a “public service” were more easily adopted. Thus, if the social-political climate had not been correct, Reith’s may not have succeeded in transforming the BBC as a “public service.”
The BBC in the 1920s can also be viewed not as John Reith’s personal creation as he was accountable to others. It was the Postmaster General, who through an act of 1904 was given control over wireless telegraphy and telephony, had the final say over the company.
In conclusion, it is apparent that a variety of factors shaped the early development of the BBC in the 1920s. Although Reith was very influential on the BBC, namely through shaping its course of programming and its function according to his own values, and through guiding it through a major crisis, to enhance its status and credibility, the BBC cannot be seen as his personal creation. This is because there were a number of social and political factors which also shaped the BBC, and in some cases, combined with Reith’s ideas to help them work, or provided Reith with the opportunity to exploit them to aid the corporation’s development.
Bibliography:
Williams, Get Me A Murder A Day, 1998, London.
Crisell, An Introductory History of British Broadcasting, 1997, London.
Curran and Seaton, Power Without Responsibility, 1997, London.
Briggs, The Birth of Broadcasting – Volume One, 1961, London.
Power Without Responsibility
Power Without Responsibility
The Birth of Broadcasting – Volume One
An Introductory History of British Broadcasting
Power Without Responsibility
An Introductory History of British Broadcasting
An Introductory History of British Broadcasting
The Birth of Broadcasting – Volume One
