Property of the BBC ..... on the wireless ..... all this week

Today at 3.45.

"In a week of programmes for the BBC Centenary, historian Robert Seatter selects three objects from the BBC’s archive store and tells the stories behind their creation - what they tell us about the changing history of the organisation, about expansion of the media and the nation at large. 

The iconic BBC microphone, 1944

Robert’s choices are unexpected, revelatory and sometimes, with the cruel benefit of hindsight, funny. 

Today Robert examines three maps which played key roles in broadcasting: one of the earliest Shipping Forecast maps – dating back to July 1925 before it began formally on the BBC in October 1925; the Football Grid – a small grid of a football pitch, with goals marked either end and headed ‘Radio Times Listeners’ Plan for Broadcast Running Commentary’'; and the Coronation Map for radio listeners from 1953, the year of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

In this edition Robert explores themes of vital communication, the transition from audio to visual and disinformation and trust. With special guest, the poet and shipping forecast super-fan, Imtiaz Darker

Producer: Mohini Patel"

Location; Radio 4 

Picture; The iconic BBC microphone. Designed in 1944, and formally called the AXBT microphone, this was the first high-quality microphone studio use. It became an iconic symbol of the BBC, 2012. Source, Flickr: Author, Feeling My Age, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Front cover of the Radio Times, 25 December 1931, Source, https://twitter.com/bbcgenome/status/947493801265733633

Radio Times, 1931

*Three Maps, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001f4xn