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Saturday 21 November 2020

2BP, Ireland's First Licensed Radio Station in 1923, 'A New Terror of Existence'

Just three months after the end of a bitter Civil War that itself had followed on from a prolonged War of Independence, the first licensed radio station took to the airwaves in Dublin. History shows that 2RN, the original RTE Radio, officially went on the air on January 1st 1926 but in August 1923, the first Irish radio station, 2BP, was entertaining Dubliners until the new Irish Government suddenly intervened and shut it down without warning or explanation.

On August 15th 1923 an advertisement appeared in the Freemans Journal newspaper stating,

‘The Postmaster General invites applications from Irish persons or firms who are prepared under license from him to undertake the establishment and operation of a ‘Broadcasting’ station in Dublin for the supply to the public by means of Wireless Telephony of concerts, lectures, theatrical entertainments, speeches, weather reports etc, No applications will be considered which has not been received on or before the 20th August.’

On the same day in the Irish Independent one of the first advertisements of its kind appeared in the newspaper,

The newspapers were daily talking about ‘wireless’ and speculation was mounting as to how a station would be opened by the new Free State. Newspaper adverts by wireless set dealers were announcing that, ‘we can give immediate delivery of the cosmos’.

 

 In advance of the Dáil tackling radio broadcasting, in August 1923 the Marconi company, who had hoped that they would be chosen to run a commercial broadcasting service in Ireland, applied to the Post Master General J.J. Walsh, for a temporary license to broadcast programmes for the during of the famous RDS Horse Show. The plan required a studio, transmitter and an aerial to be erected at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire and receivers set up in the RDS for visitors to ‘listen-in’ to this novel attraction.



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The annual RDS Horse Show was a major showcase event in the capital and in 1923 it took on added significance as this was the first show held since the creation of the new Irish Free State. The show would be held from August 14th – 17th and while the sale of horses and the show-jumping events took centre stage, the Irish Art Industries Exhibition would be held alongside the main events. This was a showcase for producers and manufacturers to sell to the thousands that would attend.

Some of the stands from the 1923 RDS Exhibition

Once permission had been received, the Marconi Company dispatched Louis Wilson to the city to set up the operation. A studio with a piano forte was established on the ground floor of the hotel, a transmitter was imported from the UK, where it had been successfully used in London and Glasgow and an aerial erected in the bell tower of the hotel. The receivers were originally placed in the West Hall of the RDS in Ballsbridge but when test broadcasts were carried out, nearby telegraph lines were causing severe interference and the receivers were moved outdoors to the Industrial Fairs exhibition area.

(c) The RDS Archives 

With the exhibition officially declared open, on Tuesday August 14th 1923 it was time for the radio station to begin broadcasting. Just after 11a.m., a voice, ‘clear and distinct’ greeted listeners,

‘2BP speaking.’

 

2BP was a call sign that the Marconi company had previously used when carrying out radio broadcast experiments. 2BP was first used in London at a Motor Show. According to Jonathan Hill in his book ‘Radio Radio’

 

In November at the Olympia Motor Show, Marconi’s and Daimler carried out experiments intending to exploit the commercial possibilities of car radio. An experimental receiver was mounted adjacent to the back seat of a limousine to pick up programmes sent from a temporary Marconi transmitter (call-sign 2BP) set up in Olympia for the duration of the show’

 

The broadcasting station, proving its mobility, was then transported to Glasgow, where on 415m medium wave on January 23rd 1923, the next 2BP went on the air. The station continued to broadcast until February 3rd 1923. The studios were located at a Daimler garage on Hughenden Road, Kelvinside. According to Scottish radio archives,

‘2BP was the call-sign of Scotland's first broadcast radio service, a temporary station established in Glasgow in January 1923 by the Marconi Company and the Daimler Motor Company. It was necessary for the purposes of promoting Daimler-Marconiphone car radios at the Scottish Motor Show of January 1923, given that the British Broadcasting Company's own station in the city, 5SC, would not be launched until March of that year. Recognising the pent-up local demand for a regular broadcasting service, 2BP's sponsors decided to extend the programme for the benefit of those who had invested in domestic receiving sets. With a regular, published programme schedule, it qualifies as Scotland's first radio station.’[1]

1923

According to Tim Wander’s book ‘2MT, Writtle, The Birth of British Broadcasting’ some of the radio callsigns assigned to the Marconi company included 2BN used for general testing. 2B0 Writtle later to be changed to 2MT, 2BP was assigned to Marconi publicity broadcasts and 2BQ also used for general testing. Their 2BP transmitter broadcast in Dublin was to be found on 390m medium wave.

 

The Marconi company had proved their abilities to set up and exhibit the new modern technology of radio broadcasting and it was a coup that Dublin would be their next location.

Once the announcer had greeted listeners ‘2BP speaking’, he introduced the first act.

‘The next item on the programme will be a piano forte solo by Miss Clarke Barry’.

Miss Clarke Barry was the daughter of a well-known Dublin orchestra leader John Clarke Barry, who happened to be performing on the grounds of the RDS as his daughter mastered the new medium. Another daughter, Billie, would go onto found the Billie Barry Acting School which was for many decades associated with a variety of shows staged at the Gaeity Theatre.

 

Other acts to appear included Lionel Cranfield leader of the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society whose lead soprano May Doyle also entertained and music discs were provided by Pigott and Co, Dublin. According to the Irish Independent journalist who was amongst the reporters given a sneak preview of station studios in Dun Laoghaire,

‘These demonstrations were for the purpose of bringing home to the Irish people the wonderful strides made in England in this branch of scientific invention and giving them an insight into the methods adopted by the British Government, which controlled broadcasting and prevented the state of chaos which prevailed in America by reason the fact that everybody there is allowed to transmit.

He (Louis Wilson) explained the powers of the instrument being used and said thousands of people with 30 miles of the broadcasting station could listen in by means of a crystal machine at the cost of a few pounds.’

The radius of 2BP from their transmitter site in Dun Laoghaire

While the broadcasts from Dun Laoghaire entertained during the morning for anyone who could listen between 11am and noon, visitors to the RDS in the afternoons were treated to the broadcasts from the stations in Manchester and Newcastle between 2.30pm and 5pm. While Wilson looked after the transmissions from Dun Laoghaire, Frank Clark, also from the Marconi headquarters in London, looked after the reception at the RDS.


The broadcasts proved extremely popular not only in the RDS grounds but around the city. Listeners at Dixon and Hempenstall’s shop on Suffolk Street and Hogan’s Wireless store on Henry Street gathered in large numbers and were also able to tune into the 2BP broadcasts. The novelty of hearing performances through the ether was causing quite a stir. As artists performed in front of the Royal Marine Hotel microphones, the Government of the new Irish Free State were suddenly getting cold feet after allowing a commercial company access to the Irish airwaves. This came at a time when the Dail’s appointed ‘Wireless Committee’ were discussing the merits of whether an Irish station should be State controlled or in the hands of commercial companies.

 

According to Louis Wilson, the Marconi engineer he said in a letter to the Irish Independent published on the 17th under the heading ‘Abandoned by Order’ referring to the previous day,

‘Owing to a request we received from the Postmaster General we were obliged today suddenly to abandon the wireless demonstrations we were giving on behalf of the Dublin Horse Show. The request took us completely by surprise and through of course we had to accede to it, I regret that the suddenness should have resulted in any disappointment to visitors to Ballsbridge. Equally I do regret that several ladies and gentlemen who so kindly came, as arranged, to Dun Laoghaire to assist us in our efforts to demonstrate to the Irish public the possibilities of broadcasting should have been inconvenienced.

 

Your Dublin artistes, amateur and professional have placed us under a deep debt of gratitude. Indeed since our arrival, we have received on all sides nothing but kindness and willingness, perhaps I should call it eagerness, of all of whom we called to assist us will be forever remembered by my colleagues and myself. It was for most of us our first experience of Irish hospitality, we shall never forget it.

 

It may interest your readers to know that amongst the artistes who have assisted us we have discovered several who possess ideal voices for wireless transmission and this fact it will give me great satisfaction to report to the broadcasting authorities in London. I feel that if such a programme as we gave for instance this morning could be transmitted from London, it would be enthusiastically received by our listeners.’ [2]

 

Wilson seemed to suggest that if the Marconi company could not gain permission to broadcast in Ireland, that Irish artists could travel across the Irish Sea and perhaps transmitters based in the UK could broadcast back into Ireland similar to how the offshore pirate ships did in the 1960’s.


2BP only broadcast for two days but it’s power and the power of radio had demonstrated to the Government that careful consideration would have to be given as to how and who should run an Irish broadcasting service. One newspaper commentator at the time wrote,

 

‘There is least one benefit of science from which we in the Saorstat are at present immune, and that is broadcasting. Broadcasting in England has added a new terror of existence. You cannot escape it from it anywhere, If you call into a café in the morning for a cup of coffee, you will hear it, harsh, metallic, worse than the worst gramophone, worse even than the tinniest orchestra, At lunch you cannot escape it, not at dinner. In the barber’s shop or the Turkish Baths (once a haven of rest) it will grate on you.’[3]

SOURCES

The RDS Library and Archives

The National Archives Ireland

The Marconi Company Archives

The Irish Independent

The Freeman’s Journal

“MT Writtle by Tim Wander

The Irish Newspaper Archives

The British Newspaper Archives



[1] 'Scotland's first broadcasting station', The Courier, 25 January 1923, 

 

[2] Irish Independent Letters Friday August 17th 1923

 

[3] Freeman’s Journal correspondent September 1st 1923



LISTEN TO THE STORY OF 2BP HERE, INCLUDING AN INTERVIEW WITH ONE OF THOSE WHO APPEARED ON THE STATION







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