Dating game

Lord Hall is to unveil his vision for the BBC over the next ten years or so in a speech at New Broadcasting House on Tuesday 8th October.

The date marks the 40th anniversary of LBC, the UK's first legal "commercial" radio station. (It's also not far from Tony's start date of BBC employment as a news trainee in that same year - 1973).

The anniversary they all want you to think about is 2022, the BBC's centenary. We should perhaps remember that, in that first 18th October 1922 incorporation, the BBC was a commercial company, set up to create a national radio network by radio set manufacturers, so that they could sell more radios. The first broadcast came on 14 November with a news bulletin, at 6pm. The next day, the bulletin carried first results from the 1922 General Election. The Times reported the following morning that, with no more than thirty thousand people holding wireless licences, perhaps the most interesting feature of election night "was the phenomenon of 'listening-in parties'."

And newspapers were really spooked; eventually they won a ruling that there should be no news bulletins until 7pm, and that the BBC should only use wire agency stories - each bulletin carried the line "Copyright news from Reuters, Press Association, Exchange Telegraph and Central News".

And whilst there were no ads, there were some sponsored programmes - some by supported by newspapers. The annual Radio Licence fee, from the Post Office, cost 10/- (ten shillings), of which the BBC got half.

Hmm, sponsored programmes. Halve the licence fee. Funding models can be cyclical...