The Birth of Television: Introduction (BBC Comes To Life)

Baird Vs BBC		Fools On The Hill
“Gentlemen, you have now invented the biggest time-waster of all time. Use it well.” – Isaac Shoenberg, head of the Marconi-EMI TV development team. John Logie Baird is rightfully regarded as the father of television, but the experimental “low definition” transmissions on medium wave that the BBC...		“I believe viewers would rather see an actual scene of a rush hour at Oxford Circus directly transmitted to them than the latest in film musicals costing £100,000” – Gerald Cock, Director of Television, in the Radio Times of 23 October 1936. When the decision was made – not without difficult questions being asked...



Baird's Television		London TV Station
In mid-1932, around the time that the BBC began regular 30-line transmissions from Studio BB in the basement of Broadcasting House, things had begun to change at Baird Television Limited. In severe financial difficulties, control of Baird's television company had, earlier that year, been passed to a subsidiary...		From a hill 306 feet above sea level, the BBC's new television station dominates London and a large portion of the Home Counties. It is built into the south-eastern corner of Alexandra Palace - a North London landmark and pleasure resort for more than sixty years - and from the large bay windows of the...

Opening of BBC TV		TV is coming Back
BBC ANNOUNCEMENT: The B.B.C. regular television service will begin on November 2. It will be opened by the Postmaster General and Mr. R.C. Norman, the Chairman of the B.B.C., and Lord Selsdon, Chairman of the Television Advisory Committee will also take part in the ceremony, which will be televised. Regular programmes...		This article originally appeared in the BBC Year Book, 1946: In the summer of 1939, some 23,000 people in the south of England had their own television sets. They saw the Derby, the Theatrical Garden Party, the return of the King and Queen from Canada, Peggy Ashcroft in 'The Tempest', 'Me and My Girl' from the Victoria Palace...



Oh, That Symbol
Fifty years ago, on December 2, 1953, the BBC unveiled a new symbol for its Television Service, replacing, for most occasions, the BBC Crest that had introduced television programming since the service had restarted in 1946. RICHARD ELEN tells how the symbol – the first animated on-screen television...

Articles Republished with Permission