From New Technology to New Industry: The Emergence of Radio Broadcasting in the UK

The history of radio in the UK begins with the history of radio technology and the work of Marconi on the long-distance transmission of radio waves before the emergence of broadcasting and then a broadcasting industry which was initiated by manufacturers of radio sets. Commercial companies steered radio technology towards a new broadcasting industry which would become a sole public service broadcasting model in the shape of the BBC. Illegal competition then emerged in the form of stations such as Radio Lyons, Radio Paris, Radio Toulouse, Radio Athlone, Radio Hamburg, Radio Rome and Radio Berlin, but the two main competitors to the BBC would be Radio Normandy and Radio Luxembourg in the 1930s. Devlin examines the history of radio as a technology, the emergence of broadcasting, the early history of the BBC and the arrival of continental radio stations.