John Reith, the BBC and Guglielmo Marconi

John Reith was born on 20th July 1889. He founded the British Broadcasting Corporation, formerly the British Broadcasting Company, in 1927. His vision was to establish the corporation as a means of entertaining, educating and informing the population. Reith began his career with the BBC in 1922, on seeing an advertisement in the ‘Morning Post’ for a general manager. He was offered the position the next day, despite having a complete lack of prior experience in broadcasting. He was even quoted as saying, “The fact is I hadn’t the remotest idea as to what broadcasting was.” In 1927 Reith became the Director General, thus cementing his status in the British Broadcasting Corporation.

During his sixteen years working for the BBC, Reith was determined to run things abiding by his ideas, which centred on the concept of holding the public’s interests at heart. He fought off politicians who wanted to influence the type of broadcasting he relayed to the nation and resisted allying his corporation with a political party. In his quest to provide the nation with newsworthy broadcasts, he tried unsuccessfully to televise all of the wedding of the Duke of York – later George V. Reith even changed the day-to-day mechanics of the BBC, as demonstrated by his decision to replace the call ‘2LO’ (where LO represents London) to the much simpler, and perhaps more effective, ‘London calling’. The Radio Times and the concept of television listings were another innovation of Reith’s, born out of his desire to make it easier for the public to access broadcasting.

Arguably, Reith’s time at the BBC was incredibly successful as the number of licence fee payers increased, but he was left feeling unfulfilled stating: “What I was capable of compared with what I achieved is pitiable.” In fact, Reith was notably disappointed with his knighthood, which he was honoured with in 1926, saying that he was insulted with an “ordinary knighthood’. The reasons behind Reith’s departure from the BBC in 1928 are unclear, even to this day. It appears that he made his decision after a meeting with Neville Chamberlain, at which it is speculated that the Prime Minister asked him to leave and accept the position of chairman with Imperial Airways. It is widely accepted that Reith had the opportunity to refuse, but chose instead to accept the new occupation.

Whilst Reith dominated the BBC, Guglielmo Marconi dominated the wireless system of communication. He invented the wireless telegraphy system and pioneered the radioing of ships at sea – a vital achievement, particularly in warfare. On the topic of wireless telegraphy Marconi is quoted as saying it was “So elementary, so simple in logic” - a demonstration of his scientific knowledge. By 1897 Marconi had shown his patented system to the armed forces and the General Post Office. Throughout his life, Marconi paid witness to the success of his invention. A notable occasion in 1910 saw Marconi’s wireless system aid police in the arrest of a murderer.

Bibliography:
www.wikipedia.com
www.marconicalling.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/in-depth/reith_1.shtml