Broadcast to Schools (5SC)

	Cwrs y Byd
	BBC Schools Radio
	1942-1952
	Citizenship

	Quinze Minutes Plus
	BBC Schools TV
	1997-2007
	Languages

	Diwylliant Cymru
	BBC Schools Radio
	1942

📻BBC Schools Radio

companyBBC

started26th Feb 1924

ended7th Mar 1930

7 school years

episodes

duration15 mins & 20 mins

subject 🏫Miscellany

age rangeSeniorAge 11-13 & Age 13-16

languageen/frIn English & In French

1920s Local StationsNext series: Special Broadcasts for Schools (2LO)

Broadcast to Schools (5SC) is a BBC Schools Radio series from the 1920s, covering various topics for secondary school pupils.

The BBC's radio station in Glasgow, known as 5SC, was the first to make a transmission specifically for schools (or at least, for one school as an experiment) in February 1924.

This predates the first schools broadcasts in England, from the London station 2LO, by more than a month, and was more immediately diverse than the first London offerings as 5SC's programme covered several different subjects in a single day's broadcasts.

A regular service of schools broadcasts on 5SC was picked up in the early summer of 1924 and continued to expand so that by 1925 there were schools broadcasts on four days a week during term time, and by 1928 on five days a week.

Schools broadcasts from Glasgow continued, united with programmes from other Scottish cities, in the Scottish Regional Service after the 5SC name ceased to be used in 1930, with many long-running programmes such as Elementary French and English Literature (Scotland)

First Broadcast

The very first broadcast was made on the afternoon of Tuesday 26th February 1924. It was transmitted by 5SC but not listed in advance in the Radio Times or newspapers and was in fact designed to be received in just one school on an experimental basis.

The programme consisted of three talks and a musical performance, introduced by 5SC's Station Director and announcer Herbert Carruthers.

J. R. Peddie of Glasgow University spoke on Scottish ballads.
Professor Charles Martin also of Glasgow University read a classic French text.
Pierette Grizel gave a talk, likely on a historical topic
And a musical performance was given on the violin.^[1]

The broadcast was officially received at the nearby Garnetbank School in central Glasgow, where pupils attempted to listen from the echoey school hall, courtesy of "a crystal radio set with a two-valve amplifier (and) an indoor aerial of two 20-feet stretches of wire, about five feet apart, and earthed to the heating apparatus."^[2]

Joining them were officials from the BBC (at that time the British Broadcasting Company) and the local Education Authority, the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Association and School Inspectors. The afternoon's broadcasters also travelled to the school - just a couple of streets away from the 5SC studio - after they had finished speaking "to receive the plaudits of the children."^[3]

Those plaudits may have been more polite than anything else, as journalists present at the school reported that the listening conditions were challenging, "the reproduced speech was very thick and difficult to follow, the tone resembling that given by the older type of gramophone."^[4]. The musical item, given by a violinist who was apparently "very nervous"^[5], was judged to be the success of the experiment^[6]. These challenges in understanding speech in the early days of listening in school halls were very commonly reported and likely explain the prevalence of musical performances in schools broadcasts of the 1920s.

Regular Service

The next broadcast to schools to be listed in the Radio Times listings magazine came on Friday 6th June 1924 but newspapers such as the Dundee Courier detail broadcasts to schools resuming on Friday 9th May 1924 with introductory remarks by Sir Charles Cleland, chair of the Glasgow Education Authority^[7] suggesting that this was indeed the inauguration of a new service.

5SC's service consisted of 15 to 20 minute items covering discrete areas of the curriculum. The 9th May 1924 broadcasts also talks on Scottish History and Musical Appreciation and a French talk by Monsieur le Grip. Albert le Grip would remain 5SC's French language contributor until the Elementary French series took over in 1928, presented by Monsier and Madame Oberlin. The Oberlins would later move to the nationally-broadcast series Intermediate French and continue broadcasting French lessons until the end of the 1940s.

The schools programmes expanded to other afternoons as the 1920s progressed, and incorporated simultaneous broadcasts from the Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee stations.

In 1930 the local stations were united into a 'Scottish Regional Programme' of the BBC, where the schools broadcasts continued.

However the Glasgow station was not only the first to make a schools broadcast in Britain, but its model of 15 to 20 minute talks on a variety of subjects, present from the very beginning in February 1924, is remarkably familiar as the successful model that would remain for the subsequent 94 years of schools broadcasts in Britain.

Broadcasts

Year	Term	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Channel	Details
1923-24	Spring 1924		Tuesday, 3:00pm				5SC	26 Feb
1923-24	Summer 1924					Friday, 3:00pm	5SC
1924-25	Autumn 1924			Wednesday, 3:30pm		Friday, 3:30pm	5SC
	Spring 1925			Wednesday, 3:30pm		Friday, 3:30pm	5SC
	Summer 1925			Wednesday, 3:30pm		Friday, 3:30pm	5SC
1925-26	Autumn 1925		Tuesday, 3:30pm	Wednesday, 3:30pm	Thursday, 3:30pm	Friday, 3:30pm	5SC
	Spring 1926		Tuesday, 3:25pm	Wednesday, 3:25pm	Thursday, 3:25pm	Friday, 3:25pm	5SC
	Summer 1926		Tuesday, 3:25pm	Wednesday, 3:25pm	Thursday, 3:25pm	Friday, 3:25pm	5SC
1926-27	Autumn 1926		Tuesday, 3:20pm	Wednesday, 3:20pm	Thursday, 3:20pm	Friday, 3:20pm	5SC
	Spring 1927			Wednesday, 3:20pm	Thursday, 3:20pm	Friday, 3:20pm	5SC
	Summer 1927		Tuesday, 3:20pm	Wednesday, 3:00pm	Thursday, 2:30pm	Friday, 3:20pm	5SC
1927-28	Autumn 1927		Tuesday, 3:15pm	Wednesday, 3:15pm	Thursday, 3:15pm	Friday, 3:15pm	5SC
	Spring 1928		Tuesday, 3:15pm	Wednesday, 3:15pm	Thursday, 3:15pm	Friday, 3:15pm	5SC
	Summer 1928		Tuesday, 3:15pm	Wednesday, 3:15pm	Thursday, 3:15pm	Friday, 3:15pm	5SC
1928-29	Autumn 1928	Monday, 3:00pm	Tuesday, 3:00pm	Wednesday, 3:00pm	Thursday, 3:00pm	Friday, 2:30pm	5SC
	Spring 1929	Monday, 3:00pm	Tuesday, 3:00pm	Wednesday, 3:00pm	Thursday, 3:00pm	Friday, 2:30pm	5SC
	Summer 1929	Monday, 3:00pm	Tuesday, 3:00pm	Wednesday, 3:00pm	Thursday, 3:00pm	Friday, 2:30pm	5SC
1929-30	Autumn 1929	Monday, 2:40pm	Tuesday, 2:40pm	Wednesday, 2:40pm	Thursday, 2:30pm	Friday, 2:30pm	5SC
1929-30	Spring 1930	Monday, 2:40pm	Tuesday, 2:40pm	Wednesday, 2:40pm	Thursday, 2:30pm	Friday, 2:30pm	5SC

Links

Scotland on Air - Scottish schools broadcastingAn overview of Scottish schools broadcasts from the wonderful Scotland on Air site which also, elsewhere, holds fascinating background to the 5SC station and its first director (and technically the first person to broadcast to schools in Britain) Herbert Carruthers

Sources & References

Courier (1924) 'Broadcasting in Schools' in The Courier 27 February 1924. p.5
Fawdry, Kenneth (1974) Everything But Alf Garnett: A Personal View of BBC School Broadcasting, London: BBC. ISBN 0 563 12763 5 p.43
Radio Times listings. London: BBC.
Scotsman (1924) 'Broadcasting Educational Subjects' in The Scotsman 27 February 1924. p.8
Walker, Graham (1992) 'The Orange Order in Scotland Between the Wars' in International Review of Scottish History volume 37, issue 2. DOI 10.1017/S0020859000111125 pp.177-206

↑ The account of the broadcast in Fawdry (1974) and points given by Scotsman (1924) provide details of the programme and the speakers. The account in Fawdry omits Mlle. Grizel's contribution entirely, and the Scotsman says only that she gave "and English talk". Courier (1924) notes that the programme consisted of "French and English talks, Scottish poetry, history and music" and as history was a common topic in later talks it is possible that the third item was a history talk - though the reference to history may equally refer to the content of Peddie's talk on ballads.
↑ Scotsman (1924) describes the reception arrangements.
↑ Fawdry (1974) quotes "a participant" describing this broadcast, who by elminiation of the way they refer to the other speakers must by J. R. Preddie: "When the show was over we repaired to the school to receive the plaudits of the children."
↑ Scotsman (1924)
↑ Fawdry (1974) quoting presumably Preddie, "then the violinist (very nervous I remember) played his 'piece'
↑ Scotsman (1924)
↑ Cleland is presented without context or introduction in newspaper listings, but Walker (1992) p.182 says that in 1919 "Sir Charles Cleland, an Orangeman and a leading Conservative, became Chairman of the new Education Authority."

Topics

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Scotland

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[1] The account of the broadcast in Fawdry (1974) and points given by Scotsman (1924) provide details of the programme and the speakers. The account in Fawdry omits Mlle. Grizel's contribution entirely, and the Scotsman says only that she gave "and English talk". Courier (1924) notes that the programme consisted of "French and English talks, Scottish poetry, history and music" and as history was a common topic in later talks it is possible that the third item was a history talk - though the reference to history may equally refer to the content of Peddie's talk on ballads.

[2] Scotsman (1924) describes the reception arrangements.

[3] Fawdry (1974) quotes "a participant" describing this broadcast, who by elminiation of the way they refer to the other speakers must by J. R. Preddie: "When the show was over we repaired to the school to receive the plaudits of the children."

[4] Scotsman (1924)

[5] Fawdry (1974) quoting presumably Preddie, "then the violinist (very nervous I remember) played his 'piece'

[6] Scotsman (1924)

[7] Cleland is presented without context or introduction in newspaper listings, but Walker (1992) p.182 says that in 1919 "Sir Charles Cleland, an Orangeman and a leading Conservative, became Chairman of the new Education Authority."

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