Schedule: Autumn 1928
Special Broadcasts to Secondary Schools - this booklet contained notes on most series broadcast on 2LO & 5XX
The Kent Report on educational broadcasting, whose influence was seen for the first time in autumn 1928.
Radio Times listing for 25th September, with a portrait of Walford Davies
BBC Radio
National
Programmes originated by 2LO London, and broadcast on 2LO and the "national" transmitter 5XX Daventry. Also broadcast on all the BBC's regional stations in England, Wales & Northern Ireland: 2BE Belfast, 6BM Bournemouth, 5WA Cardiff, 6KH Hull, 2LS Leeds-Bradford, 6LV Liverpool, 2ZY Manchester, 5NO Newcastle, 5NG Nottingham, 5PY Plymouth, 6FL Sheffield, 6ST Stoke-on-Trent & 5SX Swansea.
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
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| 14:00 | 14:00 Readings in Foreign Languages | |||||||||||||||
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| 14:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 14:30 | 14:30 What the Onlooker SawCourse 1: In the Middle Ages | 14:30 Music for Beginners | 14:30 Nature Study for Town and Country Schools | 14:30 Speech and Language | 14:30 The Why and Wherefore of Farming | |||||||||||
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| 14:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:00 | 15:00 A Miniature Concert - Intermediate Course | 15:00 The Foundations of English Poetry | 15:00 Round the WorldSeries 1 | |||||||||||||
| 15:05 Stories from Mythology & FolkloreIndia, Japan & North America | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:15 | 15:15 A Short Advanced Course | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:25 Looking at Pictures | ||||||||||||||||
| 15:30 | ||||||||||||||||
| 15:35 Elementary FrenchM. Stéphan | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:45 | 15:45 Plays to Schools | 15:45 A Concert to Schools | ||||||||||||||
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| 16:00 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 16:15 | 16:15 Modern Men of Letters | 16:15 Short Lives of Great Men | ||||||||||||||
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| 16:30 | ||||||||||||||||
London
Programmes broadcast on 2LO & 5XX only, not taken by the other regional stations.
| MONDAY
as National. |
TUESDAY
as National. |
WEDNESDAY
as National plus: 16:00-17:15 Concert of Light Classical Music |
THURSDAY
as National. |
FRIDAY
as National plus: 12:00-12:30 Sonata Recital |
Newcastle
Programmes broadcast on 5NO Newcastle only.
| MONDAY
as National except: 14:30-15:00 Physical Geography |
TUESDAY
as National. |
WEDNESDAY
as National. |
THURSDAY
14:30-15:00 Some Stories and Characters from the History of the U.S.A. |
FRIDAY
as National. |
North of England
Programmes originated by 2ZY Manchester and 6FL Sheffield, also taken by 6KH Hull, 2LS Leeds-Bradford, 6LV Liverpool and 6ST Stoke-on-Trent.
| MONDAY
as National. |
TUESDAY
as National. |
WEDNESDAY
as National except: 15:00-15:20 Books Worth Reading |
THURSDAY
as National. |
FRIDAY
as National except: 15:00-15:20 Studies of African Life |
Wales
Programmes on 5WA Cardiff and 5SX Swansea. All Welsh programmes originated on 5WA and were relayed by 5SX.
| MONDAY
as National from 14:30 except: 14:30-15:00 Folk Tales of the West Country / The School Play and the Theatre |
TUESDAY
as National. |
WEDNESDAY
as National except: 14:30-14:55 Crafts by Craftsmen / Stars and Their Story |
THURSDAY
as National. |
FRIDAY
as National. |
Scotland
Programmes on 2BD Aberdeen, 2DE Dundee, 2EH Edinburgh and 5SC Glasgow. All of the Scottish stations provided at least one programme for this schedule, which was common throughout Scotland.
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
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| 14:30 | 14:30 The Story of the Celts | |||||||||||||||
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| 14:45 | 14:45 Travellers' Tales of Other Lands | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:00 | 15:00 Schools' Bulletin | 15:00 Scotland in the Olden Time | 15:00 Minstrel and Makar | 15:00 Music Making | ||||||||||||
| 15:05 A Concert to Schools | 15:05 Shakespeare for Schools | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:15 | 15:15 Natural History Round the Year | |||||||||||||||
| 15:20 Elementary FrenchJean Jacques Oberlin | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:30 | 15:30 Old Arts in Modern Villages | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:45 | ||||||||||||||||
Notes & New Programmes
The main broadcasting term ran for just over 12 weeks, from Friday 21st September to Friday 14th December 1928 in England (and therefore Wales and Northern Ireland too). There were no programmes on Friday 26th October. Programmes in Scotland started on Monday 24th September and did not take the Friday in October off. Programmes in Newcastle ran one week later than everywhere else, beginning on Monday 1st October and running until Thursday 20th December 1928.
After the end of term there were two more special programmes from Daventry - a 45-minute School Breaking-Up Party on Monday 17th December 1928 from 14:30, and a 1-hour Concert of School Tunes and Songs on Tuesday 18th December 1928 from 15:00, both given by Sir Walford Davies. On 19th December schools programmes were replaced by a special seasonal programme: the 35th Annual Banquet to Little Londoners and Distribution of Hampers to Crippled Children relayed from the Guildhall.
This was the first term of schools broadcasts following publication of the "Kent Report" on educational broadcasting[1], which revolutionised the BBC's approach to schools broadcasting. It can therefore be seen as the first term in the modern era of schools broadcasts.
Also for the first time this term, according to a report in The Times, the London County Council permitted its schools to listen to the radio programmes on any day of the week. Previously they had been restricted to one hour on Friday afternoons.
The new series Looking at Pictures on Friday afternoons, given by Miss A. Berry of the Arts League Service, was the first schools broadcast series on art[2]. Many of the other programmes were variations or improvements on earlier programmes. In particular, Rhoda Power began the new series What the Onlooker Saw, a development of her earlier series Boys and Girls of the Middle Ages which had been roundly praised in the Kent Report.
Sir Walford Davies delivered all three of the music appreciation courses on Tuesday afternoons, which ran consecutively from 2:30pm to 3:30pm. He then returned to the air at 9:15pm to deliver his celebrated series for adults, Music and the Ordinary Listener.
Ten pamphlets were published to accompany this term's broadcasts[3]. In addition to the general syllabus document called Special Broadcasts for Secondary Schools, which is pictured at the top of this page, there were pamphlets to accompany the French broadcasts in Readings in Foreign Languages, Looking at Pictures, Foundations of Poetry, What the Onlooker Saw, Nature Study for Town and Country Schools, all of Walford Davies' music programmes compiled into the Scolars' Manual No. 1, a book of teacher's notes on Speech and Language, and illustrated pamphlets for The Why and Wherefore of Farming and Round the World.
Sources & References
- BBC (1928) Special Broadcasts for Secondary Schools September 21 - December 14 1928, London: BBC
- Carnegie (1928) Educational Broadcasting: report of a Special Investigation in the County of Kent during the Year 1927, Dunfermline: Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees (the "Kent Report")
- Radio Times (Southern Edition), 1928. Issued on microfilm.
- The Times broadcasting listings, 1928, via The Times Digital Archive
- Times (1928) 'Broadcasts to Schools: programmes for the coming term' in The Times, 10th September 1928
- With thanks to Washford Radio Museum
- ↑ That this was the first term of schools broadcasts to follow publication of the Kent Report is widely acknowledged, for instance in Times (1928) and in BBC (1928) p. 3. Specifically, the copy of the Report held by the University of Birmingham library also includes the standard covering letter introducing the report (hand-signed by BBC Education Director J.C. Stobart) which is dated 16th July 1928.
- ↑ Times (1928) describes Looking at Pictures as "the first (course) of its kind to be broadcast to schools". I have not yet looked at the prior broadcast schedules in enough detail to be absolutely sure whether it really was the first series on art, but regardless of that I've written on this page that it definitely was. The series was sometimes billed in The Times as Looking at Great Pictures.
- ↑ List of pamphlets compiled from BBC (1928) p.8 and Radio Times (Southern Edition) 12 October 1928 p.132. Neither source mentioned any additional pamphlets for the Scottish or Welsh broadcasts, so I don't believe there were any.
Subjects key
Different colours indicate different school subjects.
- Pages using DynamicPageList parser function
- Schedules