The BBC's radio studio in Birmingham, from the BBC Hand Book 1928, which described it as "Europe's largest studio".

5IT was a British Broadcasting Company (later BBC) radio station which broadcast from Birmingham, England, between 1922 and 1927.

Birmingham was the first British city outside London to have a radio service from the newly formed British Broadcasting Company, with 5IT starting regular broadcasting from its Witton base at 17:00 on 15 November 1922,[1]: 207  one day after 2LO started daily BBC broadcasting from London[1]: 157  and one hour before the 18:00 launch of Manchester's 2ZY.[1]: 161  5IT pioneered many innovations in early broadcasting, launching Children's Hour in 1922,[2] developing sophisticated methods of programme control and employing the first full-time announcers in 1923.[3] The station's first announcer on its opening night was its general manager Percy Edgar,[3] who was to be the dominant figure in Birmingham broadcasting and the BBC's most influential regional director until his retirement in 1948.[4]: 311 

5IT moved its studios from Witton to a former cinema in New Street in 1923, moving again in 1926 to a completely new building in Broad Street with two studios – one of the largest the country,[5] if not Europe. The Broad Street studios now controlled and made programmes for a region stretching across central England from The Potteries to Norfolk.

From 21 August 1927 the low-powered city station 5IT was replaced by the 5GB (the BBC Midland Region) – the first of the BBC's regional services[6] – broadcast from the new high powered Daventry transmitting station at Borough Hill near Daventry.[4]: 282 

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hennessy & Hennessy 2005
  2. ↑ Crisell, Andrew (2002), An Introductory History of British Broadcasting, Routledge, p. 20, ISBN 0-415-24792-6, retrieved 31 December 2009
  3. 1 2 Briggs 1961, p. 190
  4. 1 2 Briggs 1965
  5. ↑ Hudson, Kenneth (1981), The archaeology of the consumer society: the second industrial revolution in Britain (illustrated ed.), London: Heinemann (published 1983), p. 100, ISBN 0-435-32959-6, retrieved 1 January 2010
  6. ↑ Briggs 1978, p. 80

Bibliography

  • Briggs, Asa (1961), The Birth of Broadcasting, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, vol. I, London: Oxford University Press (published 1995), ISBN 0-19-212926-0, retrieved 31 December 2009
  • Briggs, Asa (1965), The Golden Age of Wireless, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, vol. II, London: Oxford University Press (published 1995), ISBN 0-19-212930-9, retrieved 31 December 2009
  • Briggs, Asa (1978), Sound and Vision, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, vol. IV, London: Oxford University Press (published 1995), ISBN 0-19-212967-8, retrieved 1 January 2010
  • Hennessy, Brian; Hennessy, John (2005), The emergence of broadcasting in Britain, Lympstone: Southerleigh, ISBN 0-9551408-0-3, retrieved 31 December 2009


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