Friday 14 November 2008

Weather Notes from the Sick Bay (and Stubble 4)

On this day in 1922 (I remember it well - foggy it was, a right pea-souper), 2LO, the radio station of the British Broadcasting Company, made its first official broadcast on medium wave from Marconi House, launching with the first radio news bulletin. This was read by Director of Programmes Arthur Burrows, who a month later played Father Christmas in the first radio play, and became one of the original 'Uncles' (yes, Uncle Arthur) on Children's Hour. You don't get that kind of multi-tasking versatility in the BBC these days...
Along with the first newscasts came the first weather forecasts, which predicted more of the same, having grasped immediately that this is always the safest way to forecast the weather. (I'm not sure of the figure, but 'much the same as today' has a surprisingly high accuracy rate, not far short of the computer-assisted Met Office's current performance.) The fog persisted - and so, on an epic scale, did the BBC, becoming the vast, monstrous, sclerotic entity that looms over today's broadcasting landscape, and is run by a man with a stubbly face. Would Arthur Burrows have worn stubble? Would Lord Reith? They would not. Nor, come to that, would that fine old-school weatherman Jack Scott, who sadly died yesterday...

4 comments:

  1. Glad to see you've survived the night Nige and are blogging through a fog of pain and empty night nurse bottles. Consider this, where would we be without immigration, Marconi, Reith, Ferranti, Joe Loss, that burd that married Winston's dad, AA Gill (he is an aborigine, isn't he?).
    Stubble would have suited Reith, up there in his pulpit.

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  2. He is indeed Malty, but doesn't like to talk about it - the initials stand for Aboriginal Arse.

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  3. Sorry to hear you're rough, Nige, but go easy on the cough syrup. It's clearly making you rant nonsense. All this Gill bashing is nearly as bad as Malty's anti-Oddie talk that nearly had me quitting this blog.

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  4. It's the drugs Dick - I can't help myself...

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