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MM 26*25 .©aB6589M
RADIO BROADCAST
Vol. 7, No. 2
June, 1925
The Story of Broadcasting in
England
The Growth of the Radio Giant in Great Britain Compared With that in America — How John Bull Regulates Broadcasting— The New Radio Import and Licensing Regulations
By F. J. BROWN
Late Assistant Secretary of 1he British Post Office
BROADCASTING in Great Britain began in a very small way by a halfhour's transmission of a musical program once a week from a station belonging to the Marconi Company at Writtle, in Essex. This was authorized as a concession to the two or three thousand amateurs who at that time had received experimental licenses from the Post Office, and who wished to test the efficiency of their apparatus by picking up Writtle's signals. They were mainly gramophone records, but occasionally more ambitious programs were introduced.
This was the limit of development in the winter of 192 1-2, when I visited Washington as Expert Adviser on Communications to the British Delegation at the Arms Conference. At that time, the broadcasting boom in America had just begun. Fortunately, I was in a position to receive full information as to its progress from my friends General Squier, Doctor Austin and Doctor Cohen; and through their courtesy I was present at some of the meetings of Mr. Hoover's first Radio Conference, where I met other world-famous Ameri
can radio authorities. An extract from a letter which I wrote to one of my colleagues in London on the subject in February, 1922, may be of some historical interest:
The thing which has made the most remarkable progress here recently is broadcasting. The number of receiving sets which are being used is marvelous. The Westinghouse people gave it a great impetus. They have put up several broadcasting stations, and are stated to be selling receiving sets (varying in price from $30 to $150) at the rate of 25,000 a month, and are then quite unable to meet the demand. Other people are following suit, and it is likely that there are now between 200,000 and 300,000 receiving sets in use, though the number can't be stated exactly, as licenses are not issued for reception. The sending stations broadcast on 360 meters. They probably interfere to some extent with ship-and-shore work, and they certainly tend to interfere with one another. I heard a program from one of them last Sunday afternoon at Dr. Frank B. Jewett's home, by means of his boy's receiving set. Both speech and music were quite clear. The opinion is growing here that broadcasting is the main sphere of wireless in the future.
On my return to London in March, 1922, I