Long live the radio stars
24 August 2010
In the intimate theatre I sat, excited, bemused, enthralled. The lights went up and the rapturous applause commenced.
A tumultuously appreciative audience cheered as Terry Wogan walked on stage.
I was fortunate enough to be at a recording of Weekend Wogan in London at the BBC’s Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House.
As I marvelled at the show that was taking place in front of me, equanimity prevailed and I gazed in awe at the amount of work that goes on ‘behind the scenes’. The number of production staff and technicians, the recording technology, and the broadcasting equipment, everything was happening all around me. And everything I was witnessing was being broadcast across the country, as well as being streamed live on the Internet for the rest of the world to enjoy.
When Marconi made that first leap, did he ever conjure up an image of what I was seeing? A radio show beamed around the world from a small theatre packed with eager, excited, chortling guests? Radio has truly been transformed since the first ever broadcast.
In 1895, Marconi began laboratory experiments at his father's country estate at Pontecchio, and he sent wireless signals over a distance of around one and a half miles. It was 1897 when Marconi submitted British patent 12,039; ‘Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals, and in apparatus therefor’, and then in 1909, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Braun for his contributions to radio communications. But the enabling abilities of contemporary broadcasting technology teamed with the facilitation of the internet has brought the world considerably closer together, and innovation is undeniably impressive.
At the start of the 20th century Marconi demonstrated long distance communication, and just before that he established wireless communication between France and England across the English Channel, but the sheer extent to which all this has advanced is just staggering. The pure clarity of the output we enjoy today must have been Marconi’s ultimate dream.
On a similar vein, innovation has been recognised in the nominations for this year’s e-Legacy awards. Voting has now closed, so I’d like to say thank-you to everybody that took the time to vote, and I look forward to meeting you all at the awards next month!
Contact Details and Archive...
Most Viewed Articles...