1931 in British radio explained

This is a list of events from British radio in 1931.

Events

• 10 January–4 April – Behind the Screen, a serial written by members of the Detection Club, is broadcast on the BBC National Programme.
• 17 May – Moorside Edge transmitting station in west Yorkshire begins broadcasting the BBC North Regional Programme on 626 kHz and, from 12 July, the BBC National Programme on 995 kHz.^[1]
• 8 September – W. B. Yeats makes his first BBC talk, an introduction to his version of King Oedipus broadcast from its Belfast studio.^[2]
• 13 September – Westerglen transmitting station begins broadcasting the BBC Regional Programme for Scotland.
• Autumn – The BBC subsumes all its adult education radio broadcasts under the title The Changing World transmitted in the early evening and lasting around 25 minutes each; presenters will include T. S. Eliot, Harold Nicolson, Julian Huxley and William Beveridge who also author accompanying pamphlets.^[3]

Births

• February – Patricia Greene, actress
• 2 February – Les Dawson, comedian (died 1993)
• 18 February – Ned Sherrin, broadcaster and entertainer (died 2007)
• 7 June – Michael Bakewell, radio and television producer and scriptwriter (died 2023)
• 9 December – Ian McIntyre, Scottish journalist and BBC Radio executive (died 2014)
• Edward Taylor, scriptwriter

Notes and References

1. Web site: Development of the BBC A.M. Transmitter Network. 2007-05-28. Clive. McCarthy. bbceng.info. 2019-07-22.
2. Yeats Annual. 5. 195-199. W. B. Yeats’s Unpublished Talk on His Version of King Oedipus Broadcast from the BBC Belfast Studio on 8 September 1931. Warwick. Gould. 1987. 10.1007/978-1-349-06841-8_14.
3. Jones, Allan (2013). "The Changing World: The BBC’s educational response to the economic crisis of 1931". In History of the Media in Transition Periods, 4-6 Sep 2013, Catholic University of Portugal/Lisbon, ECREA – European Communication Research and Education Association. via Open University.