1932 in British radio

The following is a list of events from British radio in 1932.

Broadcasting House

Events

• 15 March
  • First BBC radio broadcast from the new Broadcasting House in London; ^[1] all programmes transfer from 15 May.
  • The BBC Dance Orchestra first broadcasts under the direction of Henry Hall. ^[2]
• May – Radio Luxembourg begins high-powered longwave test transmissions aimed directly at the British Isles (which prove, inadvertently, to be the first radio modification of the ionosphere). ^[3]
• 15 October – First performance before an audience in The Concert Hall of Broadcasting House. ^[4]
• 17 October – Novelist J. B. Priestley delivers a radio talk "To a Highbrow" (urging listeners to be "broadbrow"), part of an attack on Virginia Woolf and her circle. ^[5]
• 30 November – The BBC begins a series of radio broadcasts to mark the 75th birthday of composer Sir Edward Elgar.
• 19 December – The BBC Empire Service, later known as the BBC World Service, begins broadcasting ^[6] using a shortwave radio facility at its Daventry transmitting station. ^[7]
• 25 December – Inaugural Royal Christmas Message delivered by King George V from Sandringham House; scheduled for approximately 3:05pm; ^{[8] [9]} the text has been written by Rudyard Kipling.

Births

• 19 January – George MacBeth, Scottish-born poet and radio poetry producer (died 1992)
• 28 January – Norman de Mesquita, sports commentator (died 2013)

Deaths

• 23 November – Percy Pitt, BBC Director of Music (born 1869)

References

1. Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 375–376. ISBN   0-7126-5616-2.
2. "The Man Behind the New BBC Dance Band". Radio Times. 11 March 1932.
3. "Operations News". Gakona HAARPoon. Alaska. 19 February 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
4. Beckwith, Roger (11 September 2013). "Lower Ground Floor". Broadcasting House in the 1930s. Old BBC Radio Broadcasting Equipment and Memories. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
5. Popova, Maria. "The Malady of Middlebrow: Virginia Woolf's Brilliantly Blistering Response to a Patronizing Reviewer". The Marginalian. Retrieved 15 January 2026.
6. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN   0-14-102715-0.
7. Tomalin, Norman (1998). Daventry Calling the World (PDF). Whitby: Caedmon. ISBN   0-905355-46-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
8. "Listings | National Programme (Daventry) | 25 December 1932". BBC Genome. BBC. Archived from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
9. "Daventry | Christmas Day". Radio Times. Vol. 37, no. 482. 23 December 1932. p. 910.^{[ dead link ]}