B.B.C. RADIO

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B.B.C. Radio

In 2015 a review the government s Equality & Human Rights Commission stated that employees who believed in the values of the B.B.C. were legally entitled to the same workplace rights as believers of established world religions.

Website: www.bbc.co.uk; www.bbc.co.uk/sounds

Broadcasting House

Staffordshire Blue Engineering bricks were used to try to ensure that Broadcasting House s studios were soundproof.

The Eric Gill carved Ariel and Prospero. The representation of Ariel s penis caused comment.

The light fittings and ashtrays were designed uniquely for Broadcasting House. The ashtray in the Listening Room was the world s largest.

During Second World War Broadcasting House had to be camouflaged because it was so distinctive. On 15 October 1940 a 500lb. bomb landed in the music library on the fifth floor of Broadcasting House. It killed several people. A number of items were placed on Portland Place; the following day the B.B.C. Librarian was arrested for looting.

Location: Broadcasting House, 2-22 Portland Place, W1A 1AA (red, yellow)

¹. In taxi slang Broadcasting House is known as the Tripe Shop .

Other Facilities

The B.B.C. had a number of facilities scattered across the West End. These included: the Command Studios (near Piccadilly Circus), the Odeon Hall, and the Paris Theatre.

Maida Vale Studios

In 1934 the B.B.C. s Maida Vale Studios became the home to the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra.

During the Second World War the B.B.C. s news operation was based at Maida Vale.

In 1958 the Radiophonic Workshop was established at Maida Vale. The unit s heyday was when it was led by Delia Derbyshire. Its best-known piece was its reworking of Ron Grainer s Dr Who theme tune.

It is reputed that a frequent sight in the Maida Vale canteen was visiting American musicians misapprehension custard for cheese sauce and pouring it liberally over savoury food. They would appreciate their error upon tasting its unanticipated sweetness.

Location: 120-129 Delaware Road, Maida Vale, W9 2LG

Website: www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/buildings/maida-vale

Savoy Hill

The Savoy Hill building was a conversion.

In 1923 the B.B.C. started to broadcast dance music performed by the Savoy Orpheans.

Location: 2 Savoy Place, WC2R 0BL (purple, red)

Website: www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/buildings/savoy-hill

B.B.C. London

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_london

Charlie Gillett

Charlie Gillett (1942-2010) studied economics at the University of Cambridge and then took a Masters in the sociology of education at Columbia University in New York City. He wrote a thesis on Black music in the United States and how it had been appropriated by white singers. He was fascinated by backroom talent and small labels, especially those of the America s Southern states. Subsequently, he came to view the dissertation as being an attempt to justify to himself the amount of time he spent during his youth listening to music. Seeing The Velvet Underground perform left him with a strong distaste for attitude.

In 1966 he returned to Britain, where he tried to secure a job in radio or music press but did not meet with success. He took a job teaching social studies and film-making at Kingsway College of Further Education (subsequently Westminster Kingsway). In his spare time he concentrated on expanding his thesis into a book about the history of rhythm & blues and how it had metamorphosed into rock n roll. He also started to do some journalism. In 1968 he was given a weekly column in Record Mirror. His book The Sound of The City: The Rise of Rock and Roll was published in America in 1970 and in Britain the following year.

Following the book s acclaim, broadcast media started regarding him as a music expert and furnishing him with offers of work. He turned down an opportunity to succeed Richard Williams as the presenter of B.B.C.2 Television s The Old Grey Whistle Test. He did this because he could not envisage himself conducting worthwhile interviews with bands whose music he was indifferent to. He was always to be passionate and sincere about what he championed.

During the early 1970s the B.B.C. established a series of local radio stations, the one serving London was called Radio London. In 1972 Gillett used his Record Mirror to complain at the station s choice of music, especially the way in which it was ignoring American Soul. He was invited onto Robbie Vincent s show as a guest. He proved very popular with the listeners. In early 1972 Gillett started presenting the Sunday lunchtime Honky Tonk on the station on which he played the likes of Bobby Charles and J.J. Cale. This proved the beginning of a stop-start radio career. His broadcasting style was not slick and never became so. Nearly every show that he presented involved him making a gaffe such as announcing the wrong track or playing a correct one at the wrong speed. However, this artlessness had the effect of compounding the affection in which his listeners held him. Despite only being heard in London and parts of the south-east, he became the most influential disc jockey in Britain after John Peel.

In 1974 Gillett and his dentist Gordon Nelki set up Oval Records, a music label and music publishing business. It was run from the basement of his South London home and drew its name from the local Underground station. While he was never ruthless, he acquired a reputation for shrewdness in commercial matters.

Gillett made a major effort to acquire a number of cajun masters. Oval released the compilation Another Saturday Night (1974). This introduced the Louisiana music to Britain. Johnnie Allan s version of Chuck Berry s Promised Land became a turntable hit.

His second book was Making Tracks: Atlantic Records and The Making of A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry (1974).

He acted as a mentor for numerous musicians and writers.

For a period, he managed Kilburn & The High Roads. The band, along with Lene Lovich and Costello, signed to Stiff. Oval continued to own some of their publishing rights.

Gillett took to champion the music of a number of new British artists, the likes of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. In June 1977 he played a demo called Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits. Numerous A&R men immediately expressed an interest in the band. Dire Straits signed to Phonogram.

At the end of 1978 Honky Tonk ended.

The American label A. & M. decided to develop an involvement in British New Wave. In the late 1970s it and Oval developed a working relationship. This led a series of deeply undistinguished records.

In 1980 Gillett joined Capital, London s principal commercial station. Initially, his show was known as Undercurrents (later The Alchemists), it featured music on labels that were being issued by independents. In 1983 the station axed Gillett s show. This prompted an outcry by his listeners. The station reinstated the disc jockey and gave him a freer hand. Gillett responded to his new situation by focusing on World Music with a show entitled A Foreign Affair (subsequently A World of Difference).

The artists whom he championed included: King Sunny Ade, Youssou N Dour, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Salif Keita, and Mariza. Many of them went from his being the first person to broadcast their music to playing the Royal Albert Hall.

In 1984 Youssou N Dour played in Britain. Gillett credited this tour with being the catalyst for the growth of interest in World Music in Britain.

His championing of soca music helped Arrow s Hot Hot Hot become a hit.

In 1985 Paul Hardcastle s track 19 furnished Oval with a global hit.

In 1990 Gillett stopped broadcasting on Capital.

In 1995 G.L.R. (formerly Radio London) gave Gillett a show on Saturday. This featured an hour-long segment called Radio Ping-Pong in which the host and a guest would alternate the records that were played, talking about why they liked the music.

The B.B.C. s national and international stations only ever employed Gillett to deputise for other disc jockeys and to present short-run series. In 1999 the B.B.C. World Service gave him a half-hour show called Charlie Gillett s World of Music.

In 2000 Gillett issued the first of a series of annual double c.D.s that featured the most popular music from his shows.

In 2006 Gillett retired from B.B.C. London 94.9 (formerly G.L.R.). In 2007 he became one of the three alternating presenters of the World On 3 show.

In 2010 a stroke prompted Gillett to stop presenting his World Service show.

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsns/episodes/guide www.wrasserecords.com/Gillett_Charlie_62/Sound_Of_The_World_150l

The B.B.C. World Service

The B.B.C. Empire short-wave service was launched in 1932. This acted as the base for the Corporation s wartime services and the Overseas Division. The service evolved into the B.B.C. World Service.

The B.B.C. World Service is the only part of the Corporation to receive a government grant. In 1938 the Foreign Office started funding it, retaining prescription rights over which languages should have priority and how many hours might be broadcast in them. The Arabic Service was the first of the B.B.C. World Service services to start broadcasting. In 1940 the B.B.C. first took office space in Bush House (1935).

The World Service will probably pass down to history as one of the 20^thC s principal literary patrons. Its past British employees included George Orwell.

In 1956, during the Suez Crisis, the World Service declined to broadcast a message by Robert Menzies (1894-1978), the Prime Minister of Australia, that supported Prime Minister Eden s conduct in the matter. This triggered a series of forceful exchanges between the British government and the B.B.C..

In 1991 there was an attempted coup in Russia. During it, the conspirators placed Mikhail Gorbachev under the house arrest in The Crimea. Subsequently, Gorbachev stated that during his imprisonment the World Service had provided him with a lifeline to the outside world.

Location: Bush House, Aldwych, WC2B 4PH. Former home. (blue, purple)

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service

Arabic Service

Rich brat and anti-social entity Osama bin Laden (1957-2011) was an avid listener to the B.B.C. s Arabic Service.

In the mid-1990s the B.B.C. closed its Arabic Service. In 1996, with the aid of a U.S.$150m grant from the Emir of Qatar, Al-Jazeera was launched.

Website: www.bbc.com/arabic

Bush House

The Nation Shall Speak Onto Nation tag derives from the building having been intended to be a World Trade Center. The venture failed as such.

In 2012 the B.B.C. left Bush House.

Robin Warren (a.k.a. Howlround) was a studio manager for B.B.C. World Service. As the Corporation was in the process of leaving the building, he recorded a number of sounds late at night. These were reworked to create an album that he entitled The Ghost of Bush (2013).

Website: www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/buildings/bush-house

The Home Service

The Brains Trust

The Brains Trust was a panel show that was first broadcast at the start of 1941. It consisted of public intellectuals giving answers to listeners questions. In 1955 the programme moved to television. In 1961 it ended.

C.E.M. Joad was an academic philosopher at Birkbeck College. He was bearded, had a high-pitched reedy voice, and wore tweeds. He figured in cartoons, jokes, and songs. The Ministry of Food promoted a recipe called Joad-in-the-hole . Numerous boys were named Cyril after him.

Pubs

In the 1940s The George and The Stag s Head were pubs that were used by features writers and producers based in Rothwell House, e.g. Laurie Lee, Louis MacNiece, and McLaren Ross.

Location: The George, 55 Great Portland Street W1W 7LQ (red, pink)

The Stag s Head, 102 New Cavendish Street, W1W 6XW (purple, turquoise)

Website: https://thegeorge.london

Radio 1

Radio London supplied most of Radio 1 s first D.J.s.

In the late 1960s and 1970s a large proportion of Radio 1 s D.J.s were more interested in personal appearances than in playing new music. They tended to be found on the fourth floor of Egton House. The one below tended to where the likes of John Peel, Bob Harris, and Pete Drummond. When the building was redeveloped it was named the John Peel Wing.

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_one

John Peel

The song that the presenter John Peel disliked the most was Peter Sarstedt s (1941-2017) Where Did You Go To (My Lovely)? At the time of his death, Mr Sarstedt was reputed to be making 60,000 a year from it.

Location: Peel Wing, Broadcasting House House, 2-22 Portland Place, W1A 1AA (red, yellow)

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel

Jimmy Savile

In 1942 in Belle Vue Road, Leeds, Jimmy Savile organised a record dance using two turntables and an amplifier that has been designed by David Dalmour (d.2007). He played eight records over an hour and a half. Twelve people attended.

In 1964 Savile hosted the first Top of The Pops television show.

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cz8596rk269t/jimmy-savile-sexual-abuse-scandal

Radio 2

Location: Wogan House, 99 Great Portland Place, W1W 7NY (purple, red)

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/radio2

Jimmy Young

As a toup e-wearing singer Jimmy Young s (n Leslie Young) (1921-2016) first hit was Too Young (1951). He had two No. 1 singles in 1955 - Unchained Melody and The Man From Laramie. He was the year s second best-selling act. However, the rise of rock n roll killed off his performing career. In 1960 he was in a suicidal state. Out of desperation, he took his first job in radio broadcasting - a fortnight presenting Housewives Choice. He spoke in a jocular manner with a slight burr of his native Gloucestershire, off being pronounced orft . He spent most of the 1960s working for Radio Luxembourg. In 1967 he became one of Radio 1 s inaugural d.j.s..

In 1973 the J.Y. Prog. moved to a mid-morning slot Radio 2. He was able to combine affability with seriousness. His large Middle England audience meant that he could secure interviews with politicians whom political journalists had troubled accessing. He became renowned for using a polite manner to ask direct questions. He disapproved of an adversarial style, commenting that You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar . The Labour politician Roy Hattersley described Young s technique as courtesy with a cutting edge , while the Conservative M.P. Matthew Paris termed it cunning patient courtesy . Personally, he warmed to those politicians whom he found to be fun. He liked Tony Benn but did not think that Margaret Thatcher had much of a sense of humour. In 2002 he was knighted. The same year the B.B.C. terminated his broadcasting career. He made it clear to his listeners that he did not wish to leave the Corporation.

Website: www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/radio-reinvented/the-d.j./jimmy-young

Radio 3

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_three

Radio 4

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_four

Desert Island Discs

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr/episodes/player

Just A Minute

The first person to speak for a whole minute without being challenged for speaking without hesitation, deviation, or repetition was the actress Andr e Melly (1932-2020).

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5dp/episodes/player

Terrorism

Airey Neave, a Conservative M.P., was a close associate of Margaret Thatcher. At the start of the 1979 general election campaign, he was killed in the Palace of Westminster by a bomb that had been planted by members of the Irish National Liberation Army terrorist group. Subsequently, a B.B.C. journalist interviewed a representative of the organisation about the matter. The decision about whether or not the interview should be broadcast passed through the B.B.C. s management. Ultimately, Ian Trethowan, the Corporation s Director-General, sanctioned its transmission. The Northern Ireland government at Stormont learnt of this and made known its opposition.

David Backhouse 2024