Show Colonial Era Map, ca. 1939*
Malaysia Indonesia Singapore Myanmar Hong Kong Vietnam Thailand Cambodia The Philippines Brunei Laos Timor-Leste
The BBC has historically maintained a presence, to varying degrees, in the region now known as South East Asia. This site explores the BBC's role in South East Asia during Great Britain's late colonial and early post-colonial periods (1927-1961) through two primary avenues. First, we investigate the instances when the BBC produced broadcasts about the region, focusing on news coverage, occasional field recordings, and cultural programming intended exclusively for the audience in the United Kingdom. Second, we examine the BBC's presence within the broader historical context of the British Empire. The Empire categorized its territories into dominions and colonies, and the BBC Charter included an obligation to reach its expatriate audience in both. This encompassed dominions like Canada and Australia, as well as colonies such as India and those in Southeast Asia. The British colonies in South East Asia held a special place in both the content and the broadcasting history of the BBC. This region featured prominently in various BBC broadcasts, reflecting its strategic importance to the Empire. The BBC covered significant events, news stories, and cultural narratives from the British colonies of (Burma (now Myanmar), Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia), Singapore, North Borneo (now Sabah, part of Malaysia), Sarawak (now part of Malaysia) and Hong Kong, which while geographically and culturally distinct from South East Asia, is also included in this database as it played a significant role in British colonial history and the BBC’s regional influence during the period. highlighting their relevance to the British Empire. Other territories and nation-states in the region that were not British colonies experienced the BBC's presence in different ways. They received BBC broadcasts through occasional topical content or else received BBC broadcasts via shortwave transmission. Additionally, these regions were often included in BBC coverage due to their significant roles in historical events, particularly during the Second World War and the Cold War that followed.
Trace the BBC’s Presence in South East Asia BBC Empire Service December 1922 was when the British Broadcasting Company began its operations. A decade later, the BBC started to broadcast on shortwave to the Empire. BBC Transcription Service In 1932, the BBC approved in principle of the establishment of a Department to produce records for Empire distribution. Far Eastern Service In 1937, the BBC began planning a shortwave transmitting station to relay BBC Empire signals from the United Kingdom to the Far East. London Calling Asia A programme in English for South and South East Asia and the Far East. It was produced by the BBC’s Far Eastern Service and had its first broadcast on 13 May 1951 as a recorded transmission. BBC Field Recordings BBC produced incidental sounds from the field to use in broadcasts and transcription services. BBC Written Archive A resource page for the Written Archives of the BBC Empire Service
Soundbytes: Listen to Featured Sounds and their Stories Malaysia General Gerald Templer Extract from address to Malayan villagers after murder of government employee by Communist terrorists. With interpreter. Harmonizing with the Temiar At the beginning of December, 1941. the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation dispatched its experimental mobile recording unit on its first expedition. This article traces the entangled history of Broadcasting and anthropology. A Shipping Agent to South East Asia Mr. George Simpson is interviewed by Mr. Bill Dorward, covering Simpson's work in Singapore, British North Borneo, Penang, Malaya, and Hong Kong. <!-- <!~~ changed item to resource ~~><!~~ Inauguration of BBC Empire Broadcasting Service ~~> A Shipping Agent to South East Asia -->
*Map borders are approximate. Source: Pluvier, Jan M. Historical Atlas of South-East Asia, 1995. E.J. Brill. p48, 49, 53
À l'écoute des musiques d'Asie du Sud-Est Le site Pratinada Le site Pratinada donne accès à trois corpus d'archives sonores d'Asie du Sud-Est, situés en Europe, à savoir : La collection de cylindres de cire de Jaap Kunst (Pays Bas) Les archives d'Asie du Sud-Est du CNRS/Musée de l'Homme (France) Une série d'émissions de BBC Empire Service diffusée en Asie du Sud-Est (Royaume Uni) Ces corpus sont destinés à tous les auditeurs du monde, et en particulier aux auditeurs d'Asie du Sud-Est. Ils sont accessibles en plusieurs langues d'Asie du Sud-Est (thaï, lao, khmer, vietnamien, indonésien, filipino, tetun) et en deux langues européennes (anglais et français).
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With Soundbytes, we invite writers and artists to produce small exhibits and short stories responding to the BBC's sound collection and its written archive. Explore a series of curated exhibits based on some of the BBC's images, texts and sounds.
Harmonizing with the Temiar At the beginning of December, 1941. the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation dispatched its experimental mobile recording unit on its first expedition. This article traces the entangled history of Broadcasting and anthropology. General Gerald Templer Extract from address to Malayan villagers after murder of government employee by Communist terrorists. With interpreter. A Shipping Agent to South East Asia Mr. George Simpson is interviewed by Mr. Bill Dorward, covering Simpson's work in Singapore, British North Borneo, Penang, Malaya, and Hong Kong. George Orwell Though George Orwell is, by far, the most famous presenter to ever work for the Far Eastern Service, his actual speaking voice has never been found in any archive
The BBC in South East Asia is an expanding collection of primary source materials focusing on the British Broadcasting Company's significance in the region during Great Britain's late colonial and early post-colonial periods (1927-1961). Led by Cristina Juan, the project aims to gather BBC-produced sound recordings for and about these geographical entities (currently the nation-states of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma, Cambodia, the Philippines, Brunei, Timor-Leste, Laos, and Thailand. There is a special emphasis (and more materials) on The British Colonies in South East Asia which include Burma (now Myanmar) - Colonial period: 1885–1948 Independence: January 4, 1948; Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia) - Colonial period: Various states from the late 18th century, unified as the Federated Malay States in 1895 and later the Malayan Union in 1946 Independence: August 31, 1957; Singapore - Colonial period: 1819–1963 (joined Malaysia in 1963 and separated to become an independent nation on August 9, 1965); North Borneo (now Sabah, part of Malaysia) - -Colonial period: 1882–1963 (joined Malaysia in 1963); Sarawak (now part of Malaysia) - Colonial period: 1888–1963 (joined Malaysia in 1963); and Hong Kong, - Colonial period: 1841–1997, Handover to China July 1, 1997, becoming a British Special Administrative Region (SAR) which, while it is geographically and culturally distinct from South East Asia, is also included in this database as it played a significant role in British colonial history and the BBC’s regional influence during the period. These recordings are contextualized through related materials from the BBC written archives, The BBC Transcription Service, and the Kew National and SOAS archives. The sound recordings begin with the earliest surviving BBC broadcasts, now digitized and accessible at the British Library. They encompass diverse materials, such as a 1937 broadcast featuring an Englishman's reaction to the 1927 Krakatoa explosion, the inaugural address of the BBC Empire Service in 1932, and the initial broadcast in May 1951 of London Calling Asia, a programme transmitted to South and South-East Asia as part of the BBC's Far Eastern Service. Pre-1961 recordings of BBC broadcasts were expensive and only done for practical reasons. Consequently, the corpus of recorded material in the inventory is selective and incomplete. Yet the archive still enables us to listen to sounds that might otherwise remain unheard: commercially viable popular music, field recordings for ambient sound, speeches, and the social and ideological positioning of colonial subjects through voice inflections and sonic expressions. The soundscapes offer insights into both significant political events and the everyday lives of people within and beyond the British imperial sphere.
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SKP A History of BBC Broadcasting in South East Asia
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London Calling Asia
1937— the BBC began planning a shortwave transmitting station to relay BBC Empire signals from the United Kingdom to the Far East 1946 —The British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service began broadcasting at Jurong transmitting live programmes in English, Burmese, Indonesian and Thai from studios at Singapore's Cathay Building on Thomson Rd. 1949 —These studios moved to Caldecott Hill. B.F.E.B.S. shared the site with Radio Malaya (Singapore). Operations consisted of live broadcasting in English, Indonesian and Siamese, news editing and monitoring. Christmas Day, 1949 —The station was again moved to Tebrau on the mainland of Malaya, and control of B.F.E.B. S. was handed over by the Foreign Office to the BBC. 13 May 1951 - Inaugural broadcast of London Calling Asia August 1965 — BBC Far Eastern Service closed down its studio operations in Singapore. It became the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station in 1974, and it is still on the air.
London Calling Asia, (LCA) was a programme in English for South and South East Asia and the Far East. It was produced by the BBC’s Far Eastern Service and had its first broadcast on 13 May 1951 as a recorded transmission. The service transmitted daily between 13.15 and 14.00 GMT to South and South-East Asia and the Far East as a complement to English language programmes already being broadcast to these territories by the BBC's General Overseas Service. LCA was the maiden broadcast of the new and more powerful relay stations installed by the British Far Eastern broadcasting service in the U.K. and Singapore. LCA was conceived by Director General of the Overseas Service of the BBC, Major General Sir Ian Jacob and John Morris Head of the BBC’s Far Eastern Service. LCA’s programme aims were to "reflect ideas and activities of people in Britain" and will include cultural, scientific, and current affairs talks and discussions.” It was hoped that “Asian friendship for Britain will be fostered by this.” In the Inaugural broadcast of the LCA, Sir Ian Jacobs says that the LCA will be composed of items of particular interest to those inhabitants of Asia who understand English, and will thus serve a special need which the General Service cannot meet.
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The goal of the programme was to “.. build a strong link of friendship and understanding between the people of Britain and the people in the Asian countries who can hear the program. It was also hoped that “It will also help to link the peoples of the various Asian countries to each other because, before long we shall arrange radio exchange programs between speakers of different Asian centres.” The new program was not to include any news as there was already a world news bulletin everyday at 1300 GMT in the General Overseas Service (15 minutes before LCA started.) According to Jacobs: “the BBC tries in its programs to reflect the ideas and activities of people in Britain and stimulate understanding between the people of Britain and the people of distant lands. We therefore intend to try and interpret to our friends in Asia, the various trends of British policy and thought on current affairs and to project the different aspects of life in Britain today. We shall give you reviews of the British press and commentaries on international affairs. We shall give you a weekly review of material relating to Asian affairs which have been published or broadcast in Britain. We shall bring representative men and women in Britain to the microphone to give their views on a wide variety of subjects, including literary and scientific topics and accounts of important events in the social, academic and cultural life of Britain. “ The LCA thought up of few ways to draw in speakers and audiences from Asia. One was the plan to broadcast commentaries about Asian affairs recorded in the studios of the various national broadcasting organizations of the Asian countries as well as doing radio exchange programs between speakers of different Asian centres. The LCA was also keen to create “Audience Reports” in order to promote “.. a two-way flow of ideas and opinions and receive the views of our listeners.” The LCA had installed an Asian listening panel in order to distribute and collate answers to questionnaires that the LCA would send out. The BBC Written Archives at Caversham has several surviving samples of these LCA Audience reports. The LCA seemed to have flourished for several years but became more and more indistinguishable from the other programmes produced by the GOS. Interestingly, in a memo dated November, 1958, Acting Assistant Head of the Far Eastern Service, Sybil Hall, outlines the incorporation of London Calling Asia into the BBC’s General Overseas Service programming. Mr Hall describes LCA as being a popular part of the BBC’s “Eastern and Far Eastern Service, not only with Asian but also with many other listeners living in Asia” but proceeds to announce the incorporation.
Malaysia
1786 - 1795 British claim Penang and Malacca falls to Britain 1909 Unfederated Malay States in the Malay Peninsula organized, joining the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements as components of Malaya 1926 Malayan Wireless Committee submits recommendations for permanent government radio service. 1930 Reports of reception of shortwave frequencies from the BBC in London but peak listening hours in South East Asia did not synch . 1932 Empire Service transmissions to South and South East Asia began 1935 Authorization of the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (BMBC) granted. 1937 BMBC's first transmission 1940 Government-owned Malayan Broadcasting Corporation takes over assets of BMBC. 1953 The BBC establishes a relay station in Tebrau. 31 August 1957 Official Declaration of Independence from the British
In January 1930, an editiorial from the Straits Times expressed views of what might have been widely held among British expatriates of the day. At that point, the BBC was broadcasting on short wave for distant listeners from 1927 on an experimental basis from Chelmsford, but the poor reception of BBC broadcasts through relays was frustrating for those eager to use the medium. The B.B.C. is an institution of which we may well be proud. It gives by far the best wireless service to the world. Our only quarrel with it at the present time is that it has done little or nothing for those of us who live in Malaya. (A Threat to the BBC,1930).
A cartoon lampooning His Master’s Voice (HMV) gramaphone label to express the Malayan public’s frustration at having to wait for the government to start its local and Empire-wide broadcasting. All rights reserved, Omba Pende, September 1931, p. 17.
Complaints persisted through various articles and letters to the editor in newspapers published in British Malaya from 1930 onwards. In an article titled "Radio in Malaya" in the Malaya Tribune, the writer invites readers to listen to the King's Speech, noting that the BBC will broadcast it. However, the writer adds, "it will probably be very difficult to hear it in Malaya, for Chelmsford has been little more than a faint whistle for many days" (Malaya Tribune, 17 January 1930, Page 8). The article suggests there is a possibility that one or more Dutch stations might relay the program, in which case "Malayan listeners might hear the King quite well." The article also sarcastically critiques a review of the shortwave station in Chelmsford, where a Mr. Chattan assures his English readers that reception from the station compares favorably with other stations and that "reports from the Far East are equally favourable." The writer counters with, "where do these people get their information from? Batches of letters have gone to the BBC complaining about the disgracefully poor service of 5SW" (Malaya Tribune, 17 January 1930, Page 8).
When the BBC finally launched its Empire Service in 1932 using dedicated short-wave technology transmitting from Daventry, the response was enthusiastic. It was considered a turning point for radio in British Malaya. By mid-June 1933, Malayan listeners could tune into Empire programmes for seven and-a-half hours each day. The programming included news bulletins, music (both live and from gramophone recordings), religious services, talks, and sports reports and the ubiquitous tolling of the BIg Ben. Additionally, a reliable radio schedule titled “Empire Radio To Night” was published in the daily press, marking a significant improvement over the earlier days when the Malaya Tribune relied on its readers to submit reception reports and schedules of “likely transmissions.” A letter from a listener on a Malayan estate recalls their experience of the first Christmas broadcast, describing how "as we sat down to dinner that night, Big Ben boomed through the house – and to an exile, that experience alone is far from being unmoving" (World Radio, 1933 c). Other listeners in Malaya, describing themselves as "five quite typical English people, rather less, than more, emotional than most." wrote in to express the significance of the King's inaugural speech: "Nothing we could say would adequately express what it meant to us .. to hear the King speak, as if he were actually standing beside us here in our tropic garden.. We have little to hold on to these days .. and we lose the sense of belonging anywhere .. in the space of a few minutes all that is altered - faith in the King and a sense of belonging to him, loyalty and pride of race, as well as a feeling of unity, restored what we were losing." (World Radio 1933c E4/6)
The relay of radio signals from Daventry to parts of what is now Malaysia, continued through the 30's to the early 40's. World War II The outbreak of World War II in Europe and the impending threat of Japanese aggression in Asia introduced new challenges. The British Ministry of Information established the Far Eastern Bureau in Singapore to combat enemy propaganda in Asia. The proximity of Singapore In 1947, the Straits Times announced Britain's plans to increase the "range, volume and variety of radio broadcasts to the people of South East Asia" by building in Malaya 5 or 6 transmitters of equivalent power to the BBC's shortwave overseas transmitters in South Johore. The article also says that most of the British broadcast material to be transmitted from Malaya will be pre-recorded or relayed from London. The total cost to Britain to broadcast from Malaya would be from 15 to 20 Million dollars.(The Straits Times, 9 September 1947, Page 7) A BBC relay station, was built in Tebrau and was constructed on a huge rolling estate of several hundred acres in the year 1953. The original transmitters were six in number; four new units at 7.5 kW and two 100 kW units transferred from the old BFBS base at Jurong on Singapore island. In the early 50's, broadcasting activities in Malaya were operated from its temporary studio in Jalan Young (now know as Jalan Cenderasari) in Kuala Lumpur and later in 1956, were moved to the Federal House, Kuala Lumpur. It was here that broadcasting in Malaysia grew with the establishment of several stations throughout the country including Sabah and Sarawak. Commercial advertisements were first aired on radio in 1960. This became a new source of revenue for the Government. An interesting point to note is that 'deejays' began to use the introduction "INILAH RADIO MALAYSIA" (This is Radio Malaysia) to greet listeners. Broadcasting further carved another milestone when Television services were introduced on 28 December 1963 from its studio, Dewan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Ampang. Broadcast operations then moved office to Angkasapuri Complex which began its telecast on 6th October 1969, Radio and Television were merged under the Ministry of Information. The growth of the first channel, Rangkaian Satu encouraged the second channel to be established on 17th November 1969.
Read More Malaysia Indonesia Singapore Myanmar Hong Kong Vietnam Thailand Cambodia The Philippines Brunei Laos Timor-Leste
Harmonizing with the Temiar: An Exploration of British Malaya Radio History and Indigenous Music
Temiar Dream Songs album cover from Smithsonian Folkways
By Abdul Azeem Shah Bin Akbar Shah The history of radio in Malaya traces back to 1921 when A.L. Birch, an electrical engineer working for the Johor Government, introduced the first radio set to the region. This introduction led to the founding of the Johore Wireless Association, pioneering radio broadcasts through 300-meter waves. Subsequently, similar associations were established in Penang and Kuala Lumpur. In 1930, Sir Earl of the Singapore Port Authority introduced shortwave broadcasts, occurring every two weeks on Sundays or Wednesdays. The Malayan Wireless Association, broadcasting from Bukit Petaling in Kuala Lumpur, also adopted this practice, utilizing 325-meter waves. Notably, in 1937, Sir Shenton Thomas inaugurated the Studio of Broadcasting Corporation of Malaya, along with its transmitter at Caldecott Hill in Singapore. The Empire Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was introduced in December 1932, broadening the spectrum of programs available to local residents. The British government granted a monopoly license to the newly established British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (BMBC) in the preceding year. This marked the inception of a significant commercial radio station in Singapore, with initial test transmissions commencing in January 1937. BMBC undertook a substantial endeavor to serve the extensive population of Singapore and southern Johor by constructing new studios and transmitting and receiving stations at Caldecott Hill. The radio service, inaugurated on March 1, 1937, employed medium wave bands, making broadcasts accessible to a broader audience with more affordable medium wave radio sets. Additionally, in 1938, shortwave transmissions were introduced to extend the broadcaster's reach to the entirety of Malaya. During a mission in December 1941 to record military activities and performances across the Malay Peninsula, the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation utilized an experimental mobile recording unit. Interrupted by the outbreak of war with Japan, the expedition resulted in valuable recordings of the "dream" music of the Ple-Temiar aborigines, who reside in the central mountain range of Malaya. The idea of recording Temiar music was conceived about three months prior to the 1941 expedition during a visit to the Perak jungle by D.H. Noone, Field Ethnographer, F.M.S. Museums, and Protector of the Aborigines, Perak. Noone, who had dedicated years to studying the unique culture of the Temiar, was deeply impressed by the pivotal role of music and dance in their lives and the profound connection between these artistic forms and their shamanistic spiritual beliefs. Recognizing the significance of Temiar music and its educational value, the producer proposed the idea to the Chairman of the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation, Mr. Eric Davis, who wholeheartedly supported the initiative. Upon gaining approval, the mobile recording equipment was prepared, and plans were made for an extended tour of the Malay Peninsula. The expedition included visits to divisional headquarters and various army units in Kedah State, passing through Upper Perak, a region where Noone was actively engaged under the orders of Malaya Command which provided an opportunity to record Temiar music. Noone had two months to arrange for the gathering of prominent Temiar singers, and their dedication was evident as some traveled over a hundred miles across treacherous jungle-covered mountains to reach the rendezvous. Recording Temiar music presented various challenges, for instance, persuading the Temiar to sing on command. Typically, the Temiar only sang and danced when summoning their spirit guides, and these activities were inseparable. To maintain technical accuracy, it was crucial that the performers sang without dancing. However, D.H. Noone possessed the influence and rapport to persuade the Temiar to sing and dance in isolation from one another, making the recording possible. The value of Temiar music recordings goes beyond cultural preservation. These recordings offer a direct glimpse into the "dream culture" of the Ple-Temiar, a group of Malayan aborigines living in the remote jungle-covered mountains of the Malayan main range. The Temiar way of life is characterized by small communities, long-house living, shifting cultivation, and subsistence activities such as hunting with blowpipes, fishing, and collecting jungle produce, all organized along cooperative lines. Beyond the material aspects of their existence, the Temiar maintain a deep belief in a spiritual world. This belief not only sustains their interest in life but also inspires their motivation in cooperative endeavors. Their unique interpretation of reality transforms the mundane into the extraordinary. While previously dismissed as a form of animism, the Temiar religion is revealed to be far more intricate and profound. However, the Temiar people, part of Malaysia's indigenous communities, face a myriad of challenges threatening their unique cultural heritage and well-being. Their traditional lifestyle, deeply rooted in the rainforest, confronts encroachment from industries like logging and mining, leading to forced displacement, economic loss, and cultural dislocation. Land rights remain a pivotal issue, with slow implementation of indigenous rights leaving the Temiar vulnerable to corporate land grabs. Commercial deforestation not only deprives them of essential resources but also disrupts their cultural and spiritual ties to the land, exacerbating issues like biodiversity loss and climate change. Social stigma and discrimination restrict their access to education, employment, and social services, while the encroachment of modernity poses the risk of eroding their traditional knowledge and customs. The preservation of the Temiar community's well-being and cultural legacy necessitates a concerted, collaborative effort involving the Malaysian government, civil society organizations, and the international community. Essential focus should center on safeguarding land rights, preserving cultural heritage, and enhancing socioeconomic conditions. Recognizing and respecting indigenous rights isn't merely an issue of justice; it's pivotal for Malaysia's diverse cultural heritage and its sustainable future. Urgently addressing these concerns is vital in upholding principles of equity, and cultural preservation for the Temiar people and other indigenous communities facing similar challenges. Simultaneously, the recordings of Temiar dream music, captured under challenging circumstances, stand as invaluable artifacts for anthropology and musicology. They unveil the intricacies of a culture deeply intertwined with spiritual beliefs, where music serves as a vibrant reflection of their spiritual world. These recordings provide a unique insight into the historical development of the Temiar culture and offer a priceless repository for future exploration and study. As the world rapidly changes, these recordings play an indispensable role in preserving the heritage of a people for whom inspiration remains a vivid and integral aspect of their daily lives. Understanding Temiar music enriches our understanding of the elements that have molded the Temiar culture over history.
Telei Bah Peb (Spirit of the Wild Banana Fruit) Song from the Ulu Telem in Pahang. The spirit of a wild banana warns the 'hala' [shaman] that his group must make haste and collect the ripening fruits before the civet cats eat them Your browser does not support the audio element. Siku (Spirit of Siku Mountain) While the Temiar were helping to clear the jungles for the hill station of the Cameron Highlands, the Spirit of the Siku mountain warned the 'hala' [shaman] of the possible dangers of contact. The verse of the song runs - " White strangers come from Kuala Lumpur, From Singapore they come, From Ipoh in their motor cars up the Batang Padang, But with them comes disease" Your browser does not support the audio element. Ajin (Spirit of the Tiger) Song was given by a tiger spirit to a chief in Ulu Nenggiri in Kelantan. Its message led his group to make a new settlement at Ajin, just over the border of Cameron Highlands Your browser does not support the audio element. Dalam Guni (Spirit of the Hills) Dalam guni, or inside the sack, conveys the message when the spirit of the hills told a 'hala' [shaman] in the Ulu Perak that once upon a time a sack of rice was buried in the ground, and a very rich plantation resulted Your browser does not support the audio element. Alus (Spirit of the Tiger) In the Ulu Nenggiri in Kelantan dreamed this song when he and his group were felling a new clearing for cultivation. The spirit of the tiger gave him a song because - "we tigers here are amazed and not a little frightened of the power of you fellows - you even fell the biggest trees. We leave you in peace and give you this song as a token" Your browser does not support the audio element. Hanjoi Title is a play upon words based on the disappearing form of a man who has dived into a pool to catch fish. His body gets smaller until it disappears. This is a variation on the higher the fewer. Your browser does not support the audio element. Chinchem Mixed chorus (male and female), drums and idiophone. Your browser does not support the audio element.
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Explore our current catalogue of radio broadcasts, music and field recordings for and about the geographical region currently known as South East Asia gathered from the BBC Listening archive at the British Library. Through the DECOSEAS project, we have been able to request for the cataloguing and digitization of over 200 items of BBC in South East Asia materials which we identified from BBC written compilations, Radio programmes, PasBs etc. (there is currently no public online catalogue of all the BBC broadcast recordings.) These identified recordings are now available to listen to - in situ - at the British Library. As of May 2024, the BBC has granted the DECOSEAS project only 45 distinct permissions to download BBC recordings and upload them to this database. Where we did not have permission to upload the sound file, we have provided transcriptions and brief descriptions of the broadcasts. You can also look at original telegraphs, handwritten notes and letters tracing the establishment of the BBC in South East Asia in either the Written Archives section or the Resources section of the site.ExtraWord The scarcity of recorded broadcasts and the stringent restrictions on their use are explained in detail ( from BBC Archives - Wiped, Missing and Lost): 1. No recording was ever made In the early years of radio and television, broadcasting was mostly a live activity and there were initially no, and then very limited, means of recording broadcasts. 2. Recordings were made for short term broadcasting reasons, not for the long term When recording technology was more available, it was often used for a practical purpose such as for playing out a programme at another time or, when a recording had been made on location away from the studio. The idea that some recordings were important to keep for longer term re-use or historical reasons developed gradually and inconsistently across the BBC. 3. Making recordings was very expensive In radio before tape was widely used, to keep a recording beyond immediate use, a temporary acetate disc of limited playing-life needed to be processed to a more durable format outside the BBC. The £5 per disc cost is the equivalent of £200 in 2018. In television, videotape recording began to be available in the 1950s; machines could cost the equivalent of £300,000 and 2” tape stock up to £2,000 each at today’s prices. These costs were an incentive to record over existing programmes. 4. There was no requirement to build an archive The Advisory Committee on Archives, chaired by the BBC’s official historian Asa Briggs, reported in 1979. A key recommendation was that a requirement to keep archives was included in the BBC Charter and this was done for the first time in 1981. Although collections of recordings had built up by this time, before this there was no regulatory or legal requirement to keep archives in the BBC. 5. Changing views about re-use value and commercial opportunities With more limited outlets to repeat programmes, there wasn’t necessarily the drive to keep programmes – even popular ones – to fill future schedules with repeats. Commercial exploitation such as overseas programme sales or the domestic retail market did develop but even when established, operations could be entirely separate from domestic broadcasting or fledgling archiving processes so recordings did not necessarily become available to retain in a library or archive. In recent years, private collectors have tracked down some significant programme from sales copies long forgotten in the stores of overseas broadcasters. With the advent of colour television, black and white programmes could be seen to have less value as audiences increasingly expected to see programmes in colour only. Recordings with a perceived reduced re-use value could be more liable to disposal. 6. Re-use rights The BBC has not always been able to easily or cost-effectively re-use programmes because of contractual and copyright restrictions. The BBC has rarely owned programmes completely, with actors, writers, musicians, contributors and others retaining rights and needing to be paid for re-use. Generally, the longer ago the contract, the fewer and narrower re-use rights the BBC retained. Recordings of programmes that were expensive or difficult to re-use could be hard to justify taking up space and time to maintain in an archive and therefore not retained. 7. Lost, missing, stolen and damaged In an operation of the scale of the BBC, with in TV alone many thousands of tape movements a week in pre-digital times, accidental loss and damage has sometimes happened. The once common practice of lending single-copy masters – the expense and space constraints meaning we only had one copy of many programmes, could mean an increased risk of loss. 8. Archive and Library policies and practice Across the BBC, different departments had responsibilities for storing and documenting recordings so polices and practice could vary considerably. It was generally accepted that it was not possible to keep all programmes indefinitely. Selecting from the film, VT and audiotapes held for the permanent archive was a highly selective process – combining factors of understood re-value of the time; costs of processing; space; availability of recordings; the views and cooperation of production and ease or otherwise of re-use. In a large and complex organisation like the BBC, the processes for making and managing recordings after broadcast were not always well defined, resourced or secure. This sometimes led to programmes not being received, or technical faults not spotted at an early stage. In some cases – Local Radio is one example - central departments had no remit to manage the archive, and with scant resources to spare in production teams, selecting output for archiving could be limited and rely on the personal interest of staff leading to some great collections, but patchy coverage in the archive. 9. External deposit Some broadcasts have been deposited in other institutions – e.g. the National Film and TV Archive of the BFI or the British Library. Some production areas have deposited material externally directly, with or without the knowledge of the BBC’s archives department (e.g. Local Radio deposits with their local authority or regional TV News with regional archives; the German Service with the DRA German National Radio Archives) 10. Secure the Past for the Future The BBC does however retain one of the largest multi-media archives in the world dating from the 1920s with over 15 million legacy items ranging across Television, Radio, Commercial Music, Documents, Photos, Sheet Music and artefacts. There have been a number of preservation and digitisation initiatives as the BBC transitions to a modern ‘open’ archive, fit for an internet first BBC in a fully digital world. BBC Archives’ mission remains to “Secure the Past for the Future” whilst looking after the BBC’s cultural memory and fulfilling our charter obligation. View more + View less -
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The BBC Empire Service
19 December 1932 Inaugural broadcast of the BBC Empire Service on shortwave from Daventry's Borough Hill. 25 December 1932 King George V becomes the first monarch to deliver a Christmas Day message by radio, on the Empire Service 3 January 1938 The first foreign-language service was launched in Arabic. 1 November 1939 Empire Service was renamed the BBC Overseas Service 2 September 1940 Burmese programming begins. 27 April 1941 Thai programming begins. 2 May 1941 Malay programming begins. 28 August 1944 Dutch for Indonesia and French for South-East Asia programming begins. 30 October 1949 Hebrew and Indonesian programming begins. 6 February 1952 Vietnamese programming begins. 3 April 1955 French for South-East Asia programming ends. King George V delivering his Christmas speech in 1932, broadcasted over the BBC Empire Service (Image: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Before the Empire Service A full decade before the BBC launched its Empire service, the BBC had already been broadcasting its programmes from London and reaching short-wave receivers in parts of South East Asia. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it became a public corporation through a 10-year, renewable Royal Charter and gave its first broadcast as the British Broadcasting Corporation on New Year's Day 1927. The signing of the 1937 Royal Charter renewed the first objects for incorporation, but now included: "(b) To develop and exploit the said broadcasting service and any such Licence as aforesaid in any such other directions and by any such other means and methods, as may for the time being be agreed with Our Postmaster General for the time being and in particular for the benefit of Our dominions beyond the seas and territories under Our protection and from time to time to obtain or agree to a renewal or extension or of any modifications of the terms and conditions contained in any such Licence as aforesaid as Our Postmaster General may from time to time be willing to gi'ant or agree to. (c) To acquire any stations, plant and a~sets whi h may be necessary or convenient for carrying out the objects of the Corporation." Within the time period of the signing of the new Charter, the BBC had already launched its Empire Service on 19 December 1932, helped by new short-wave radio technology and a new dedicated transmission tower in Daventry that allowed signals to be broadcast over vast distances. In John Reith's 1924 book, "Broadcast Over Britain," he had already imagined potential listeners across the Empire. (Robertson, 2012). In the book, Reith thought that great events and speeches coudl be "heard and shared alike by the favoured few who are present as by others hundreds or thousands of miles away , and as in due time by our countrymen in the very outposts of Empire." ( Reith, 1924 p, 220-1). The Empire service was meant to connect a "national community of listeners cattered across the world - a British diasporic audience. " ( Robertson, 2012). British Imperialism had sent millions of native born citizens overseas, populating white settler dominions ( Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) or its varied colonial territories ( India, Carribean and parts of South East Asia). In a lecture in 1933, Captain Graves articulated the key purpose of the Empire Service: "to keep in touch with the isolated men in the back-of-beyond to whom any contact with this country would be a good thing." ( BBC WAC 1933c). Despite gloomy predictions from the BBC's director-general John Reith - "The programmes will neither be very interesting nor very good", the broadcasts received praise, and were further boosted by the support of a Christmas message from George V (the first ever) to the Empire a few days later. The BBC broadcast on short wave for distant listeners from 1927 on an experimental basis from Chelmsford, and from December 1932 through a regular Empire Service from Daventry.
A milestone in radio history: Lord ( then Sir John) Reith and the Rt Hon J H Whitley at the opening of the first Empire Broadcasting Station.
The "native audience" and funding for the Empire Service It was not until the lead-up to World War II that addressing the "native audience" in the colonies became a significant focus. Even then, the General Overseas Services continued to prioritize the well-being of their initial target audience, the "white British exiles." But by the end of 1942, the BBC had started broadcasts in all major European languages. The Empire Service was renamed the BBC Overseas Service in November 1939, supplemented by the addition of a dedicated BBC European Service from 1941. Funding for these services—known administratively as the External Services of the BBC—came not from the domestic licence fee but from government grant-in-aid (from the Foreign Office budget.) Clearly, it would be unthinkable for Broadcasting House to be broadcasting to Europe, at the taxpayer's expense, doctrines hopelessly at variance with the foreign policy of His Majesty's Government; but for reasons which I hope will commend themselves ... it appeared to the Government to be equally undesirable that the Foreign Office should themselves become responsible for the foreign services. In the first place, the conduct of a broadcasting service requires a different sort of experience and imagination from the conduct of diplomacy... Secondly, broadcasting is a fulltime job. Thirdly, and most important of all, we believe that the foreign services will better retain the respect of listeners abroad and of the public at home if, like the Home Services, they are removed as far as possible from the danger of being used to push the interests of political parties instead of the nation as a whole" (Hansard, House of Commons Debates, vo1.425, co1.1087, 16 July 1946). The Cold War In the 50's, an interesting angle for the independence of the BBC's Empire Service broadcasting especially to South East Asia , was given a lot of airplay in the House of Common Debates. A good example of the issues involved is a transcript of the debate on Thursday 29 June 1950 on the use of the relay stations in Ceylon. Some excerpts: Meanwhile, the British Broadcasting Corporation is broadcasting from a low-power station which is already in existence at Singapore, and the additional transmissions from the powerful station in Ceylon are a valuable supplement to the B.B.C.'s services to South-East Asia and the Far East generally. It will also include the broadcasting of programmes for the British Forces serving in that part of the world. Since 1st April, 1949, the Ceylon Government have provided all the technical facilities for transmitting the programmes which are prepared by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The cost of the service will be paid by the Corporation out of its grant-in-aid for the overseas services. The present operations of the B.B.C. in Ceylon are covered by an interim agreement made in correspondance between the Corporation and my Department. The Agreement which is before the House is intended to provide for the continuation of the existing service until such time as the new station. Radio Malaya. is available. The Agreement applies to the services from Ceylon, with necessary adaptations, the provisions relating to the operations of the overseas services from the United Kingdom which are contained in the British Broadcasting Corporation's Licence and Agreement dated 29th November, 1946, and approved by the House on 11th December, 1946. The Licence and Agreement relate solely to stations operating in the British Isles, and for the reason that the existing agreement deals only with stations operating in the British Isles, there has to be this new Agreement to deal with Radio Ceylon, which is now before the House for approval. Ceylon (Broadcasting) Volume 476: debated on Thursday 29 June 1950 What becomes clear is the seeming inability of the BBC to control what was broadcast using the Ceylon relay station, as opposed to the stations in Singapore and Malaya. Mr. Grimston: The other point to which I wish to refer is the very large issue which is raised by the Agreement of the whole question of our broadcasts to the Far East. It is almost superfluous, particularly at present, with what must be in the mind of every hon. Member to over-stress the importance of broadcasting in the Far East. Paragraph 3 (2) of the Agreement sets out the way in which the Government responsibility for overseas broadcasts works. I think I should be giving a fair picture if I said that the Government take responsibility to prescribe the languages and times to be used for foreign broadcasts. It is laid down that the B.B.C. must consult such Departments as are specified by the Postmaster-General. Within this framework, the B.B.C. must then produce broadacsts which are in the national interest. The question we now have to ask ourselves is what is the paramount national interest at present in the Far East. I would suggest that it is that the power of the radio should be used to the uttermost to stem the advance of Communism in the Far East. I do not believe that anyone on either side of the House would dispute that. This raises the question of what type of broadcast is the most suitable and effective for this purpose. I do not pretend to be an expert, but I ask the House for a moment to look at what is now happening in the way of these broadcasts. I understand that the B.B.C. project Britain, as one might term it, in accordance with what was laid down in the Government White Paper on Broadcasting Policy (Cmd. 6852) of July, 1946. That is the line upon which the B.B.C. is working, and I think it will be useful if I quote to the House exactly what that White Paper lays down. It says: "As far as the content of the overseas services is concerned, the Government consider that great care should be taken to ensure the complete objectivity of the news bulletins which will form the kernel of all overseas broadcasts. The Corporation's reputation for telling the truth must be maintained and the treatment of an item in an overseas news bulletin must not differ in any material respect from its treatment in current news bulletins for domestic listeners." I think it is important that the House should take note of the framework under which the B.B.C. are at present performing these broadcasts. What we have to note here is that under any reasonable definition this would exclude propaganda. Further Reading: Webb, A. (2009). London calling: BBC external services, Whitehall and the cold war 1944-57 (Doctoral dissertation). https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30695768.pdf
Myanmar
1937 The first broadcasts in Burma were by the British, who started transmitting programs on a Marconi transmitter which had been used for wireless communication between India and Burma (Taw Daw Shin 1971). The broadcasts could be heard only as far as the Rangoon suburbs. 1939 British set up 10-kw. transmitter near Rangoon, at Mingaladon, for propaganda broadcasting in English, Burmese, and Hindustani. 1942-45 The Japanese carried out both medium-wave (10-kw.) and short-wave (5-kw.) broadcasting in Burmese, Japanese, English, Hindustani, Bengali, and Chinese. 15 February 1946 BBS, known then as the "Voice of Burma" (or Myarma A-Than), was born when the facilities were turned over to the pre-Independence Burmese Civil Government August 1948 Burma gains its independence from Britain.
The first broadcasts in Burma were by the British, who in 1937 started transmitting programs on a Marconi transmitter which had been used for wireless communication between India and Burma (Taw Daw Shin 1971). The broadcasts could be heard only as far as the Rangoon suburbs. In 1939, the British set up 10-kw. transmitter near Rangoon, at Mingaladon, for propaganda broadcasting in English, Burmese, and Hindustani. During the Japanese occupation (1942-45), the Japanese carried out both medium-wave (10-kw.) and short-wave (5-kw.) broadcasting in Burmese, Japanese, English, Hindustani, Bengali, and Chinese. In the later stages of the war, especially in early 1945, the Burmese resistance movement set up secret "Burmese Revolutionary Army Broadcasting Station" and carried programs in Burmese, English, and Hindustani, especially news and music for the resistance forces. Later in 1945, with the arrival of the Psychological Warfare Team of the returning British Civil Administration for Burma, the British took over the broadcasting operations once more. These were on two 7.5-kw. and one 5-kw. Marconi transmitters for short-wave and medium-wave broadcasts, respectively, and as before, there were daily transmissions in Burmese, English, and Hindustani. BBS, known then as the "Voice of Burma" (or Myarma A-Than), was born 15 February 1946, when the facilities were turned over to the pre-Independence Burmese Civil Government (Provisional). Although Burmese broadcasting in the late 1940s was not unlike that of other countries in the region, most others greatly expanded their radio facilities programming efforts and started television stations during the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, Burma remained content with its single Rangoon radio station, its modest level of programming, and its complete isolation from the growing influence of television. This relative non-development has been due not so much to a a lack of technical resources or trained personnel, as to a conscious policy by the Burmese government (GUB) particularly takeover of power by Ne Win's Revolutionary Council in March 1962 apply the bulk of its resources for information activities to other programming, especially the print media. BBC Audience Reports An interesting snapshot of how the relayed broadcasts from either Daventry or Singapore is documented in the various Audience panels that the BBC Far Eastern Service would convene. One particularly scathing assessment is from RANGOON dated 1st of July 1 1954 ( BBC Written Archives). Reactions to London Calling Asia from Rangoon locals. “I am continually amazed at the miscomprehension of the oriental mind displayed by the BBC” such fatuous programs – all simple minded!"
Cambodia
1867 to 1953 Cambodia was a protectorate of France administered as part of the colony of French Indochina 1941-1945 Occupied by the Japanese empire. 9 November1953 Cambodia won its independence from France on November 9, 1953, officially ending eight decades of colonial control. 1953–1970 Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father to participate in politics and was elected prime minister upon his father's death in 1960.
Indonesia
16 June 1925 The first broadcast of music and entertainment was attempted by Batavia Radio Vereniging (BRV) from a hotel room in Batavia.Programs in the Dutch language went on the air for three hours daily. 16 June 1925 Sultan Pangeran Mangkunegara VII sponsored the first Indonesian-languagebroadcasts from Surakarta through Solose Radio Verenging (SRV).These broadcasts were intended to promote Javanese music, arts, and wayang (shadowplay) programs. 1930 The Dutch colonial government issues a license for station, Netherlandsch-Indische Radio Omroep a government-sponsored (NIROM), which soon after had branch stations in number of Indonesian urban centres. 17 August 1945 Indonesia declared independence from the Dutch. Sukarno became president of the new republic which fought against Holland until a unitary state was proclaimed 15 August 1950. Sukarno's government was ended by military takeover by President Suharto in mid-1966.
Philippines
1922— Three small stations owned and operated by an electrical supply company went on the air in Manila and adjoining Pasay City. Used mainly for demonstration purposes, the stations were operative for about two years before they were replaced by the 100-w. KZKZ station. 1931 —The Radio Control Law was passed, enabling the secretary of commerce and industry to watch over the medium. A regulatory body, Radio Control Board, was a result of the. law and functioned until martial law in 1972. 1942 All radio stations were shut down except for KZRH which was renamed PIAM and used as the Japanese broadcast outlet. 2 July 1946 Congress enacted Commonwealth Act 729 giving the President a four year right to grant licenses.
The BBC in the Philippines (by Elizabeth L. Enriquez) The BBC did not have a strong presence in the Philippines during the first few decades of the 20th century when the technology of radio broadcasting quickly developed around the world. It understandably targeted the populations of the British Empire, of which the Philippines was not a part. As a United States colony at the time, Filipinos were more tuned in to American radio, which was influential in the development of broadcasting in the archipelago. Nevertheless, with the advancement of shortwave radio in the 1930s, the BBC as well as other broadcast stations around the world were heard in Manila. However, when World War 2 erupted, the signal of the BBC became one of the reliable sources of war information in the Philippines. Both the Allies, international military coalition to which both Britain and the United States belonged, and the Axis powers, the other international military group that started the war, which counted Germany and Japan among its collaborators, engaged in intense propaganda on all existing media platforms at the time – print, cinema, and radio broadcasting. Under Japanese occupation, Filipinos were forbidden to listen not only to American shortwave radio but also to the BBC and radio broadcasts from the Allied countries. But not a few persisted in listening to forbidden radio signals and risked their lives by the mere possession of shortwave radio. Perhaps more significant was the growing maturity and intelligence of audiences in the face of suppression. They listened to the newscasts on the American military station KGEI and on the BBC. Many Filipinos hid their radio sets and avoided registration, so that less than half of the estimated 80,000 sets—which another estimate put at 100,000—were registered.(1) This implies that as many as 40,000 to 50,000 sets may have tuned in to KGEI and the BBC in the Philippines during the war, not counting the guerilla groups in the rural areas. Several clandestinely transcribed BBC and KGEI broadcasts for underground circulation. (2)
World War II — Japanese Santo Tomas Internment Center, Manila (1945). Many of the Allie internees have built huts, called shanties, to escape crowded conditions in the dormitories
At the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or STIC, in Manila where about 4,000 civilian Americans and other foreigners were kept during the war, there were shortwave radio receivers in the camp hidden by some internees who regularly listened to KGEI, the BBC, and other overseas shortwave stations. The camp’s clandestine receivers received Radio Chungking at night, when it came in strong, BBC early in the morning, Radio New Delhi at midnight, and KGEI at 7 o’clock in the morning. (3) People listened to everything their sets would receive. However, they were not uncritical listeners. Former STIC internee Myron Wiener reported after the war that KGEI was the American station best received and most listened to because of the good reception, but BBC programs were preferred for its “higher quality.” He said, the news of the BBC was understood to be “more factual, more detailed, more precise, more meaningful; statistics are given; less bombastic and dramatic and never overstated, (with) fewer adjectives (and) superlatives, less dramatized; the British get emphasis by understatement.” Wiener, an American, commented that the BBC sounded like it had a definite propaganda policy, while the Voice of America propaganda seemed to have no policy, and the points tried to be made were clumsy.”4 In 1945, following the end of the war, Filipinos once again favored the American brand of broadcasting, which was commercial in design, but listening to the BBC also became a habit for some. *** ___ (1) 1940 Upped Philippine Radio 200 Percent, The American Chamber of Commerce Journal, January 1941, 24. (2) Ricardo T. Jose, “Underground Writing During the Japanese Occupation: Resistance and Humanity,” in Panahon ng Hapon: Sining sa Digmaan, Digmaan sa Sining, ed. Gina V. Barte (Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1992), 62. (3)A.V.H. Hartendorp, The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, Vol. I, p. 470, Manila: Bookmark, 1967.
Timor-Leste
Brunei
15th century— Islamic sultanate of Brunei nominally in control of Borneo, including Sabah and Sarawak states of Malaysia, and some parts of the Sulu islands in the Philippines. 1841 — Sultan of Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddin II rewards British army officer James Brooke for helping to quell a civil war by granting him control of Sarawak. 1888 —- Brunei becomes a British protectorate. 1906 —Brunei administered by a British resident, with the sultan having nominal authority. 1950 -Omar Ali Saifuddin III inaugurated sultan 1957 - Plans to set up the first Brunei Broadcasting Station 1959 - Sultan Omar introduces Brunei's first written constitution which enshrines Islam as the state religion and keeps Britain in charge of defence and foreign affairs. 1963 - Brunei decides to remain a British dependency rather than join the Federation of Malaysia. 1967 -Hassanal Bolkiah becomes sultan following the abdication of his father, Sultan Omar, who nonetheless remains chief adviser. 1984 - Brunei becomes independent and is inducted as the 49th member of the British Commonwealth
Broadcasts in Brunei by John Lent Brunei, a British protectorate since 1888, occupies 2,226 square miles, divided into four districts, within the boundary of Sarawak, East Malaysia. Its 145,000 people are mainly Malay (65%) and Chinese (23%), who have, after Japan, the second highest income per capita in Asia. Most of the money comes from Brunei's rich oil deposits. The nation does not have a daily newspaper, although there is a government radio station. Brunei Broadcasting Service (BBS) operates a network with medium-wave transmitters at Tutong (10 and 20 kw.), Berakas (10 kw.), South W. Lichty and Kuala Belait (0.6 kw.). On 2 January 1957, the Straits Times announces that Brunei was to have its first through a contract with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company. The scheme provided for the buildling of a modern broadcasting house in Brunei Town, a trasmitting station at Tutong and an additional small studio at Seria. A receicing station was also planned where relays of the BBC's Overseas service news bulletins from London in Malay, Chinese and English would be broadcasted. Special serials were also to be used for the reception of the BBC and Australian broadcasts and those of "less distant stations such as Radio Malaya, Radio Saba and Radio Sarawak." The receiving station was to occupy a land area of 15 acres. (The Straits Times, 2 January 1957, p,10) By February of 1962, the government expands their broadcasting capabilities by installing a 10 KW transmitter to beam shortwave signals much like the capacity of North Borneo and Kuching (The Singapore Free Press, 23 February 1962, Page 2) BBS broadcasts mainly in Bahasa Malaysia (13 hours daily), English (½ hour), Chinese (5 hours), and Churkhali (1 hour). Of Radio hours of weekly programs, over 80% are of national origin, the Brunei's categories 180 being light entertainment and news and information (UNESCO 1975, main p. 261). The number of radio receivers is 22,000. No receiver license fee is required, and low-cost receivers are made available by the government on easy terms for poor families. A major phenomenon is that Brunei, in March 1975, started color-television transmissions, using the most modern equipment in the area and doing it quite rapidly - the whole operation was designed and built in less than seven months. Ironically, the best equipment will be catering to the smallest television audience Asia; only 5,000 receivers are expected to be sold in the first two years. In 1975, there were 5,000 registered owners of black and white receivers who picked up less adequate reception from neighbouring Sabah, The equipment for the transmitter is British. ALso , only British-made colour TV have been approved for import into Brunei.
Singapore
1930— the BBC began planning a shortwave transmitting station to relay BBC Empire signals from the United Kingdom to the Far East 1932—Empire Service transmissions to South and South East Asia began 1935— Authorization of the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (BMBC) granted. 1940 BMBC's first transmission and Government-owned Malayan Broadcasting Corporation takes over assets of BMBC 1946— The British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service began broadcasting at Jurong, transmitting live programmes in English, Burmese, Indonesian and Thai from studios at Singapore's Cathay Building on Thomson Rd. 1949 —These studios moved to Caldecott Hill. B.F.E.B.S. shared the site with Radio Malaya (Singapore). Operations consisted of live broadcasting in English, Indonesian and Siamese, news editing and monitoring. Christmas Day, 1949—The station was again moved to Tebrau on the mainland of Malaya, and control of B.F.E.B. S. was handed over by the Foreign Office to the BBC. August 1965— BBC Far Eastern Service closed down its studio operations in Singapore. It became the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station in 1974, and it is still on the air.
Radio Broadcasting in Singapore began a decade before the first official broadcasting company in Singapore was estbalished in 1935. Much like in other parts of South East Asia, broadcasting began with the efforts of amateur enthusiasts and the support of commercial enterprises specializing in radio equipment. These pioneers were instrumental in establishing amateur radio stations, advocating for improved broadcasting regulations, promoting the medium through diverse channels, and educating the public on the technicalities of wireless reception. ( see this feature for a history of the AWSM and other private companies in SIngapore). Also similar to Kuala Lumpur, there were many complaints made to the British Colonial Office and the BBC over its transmissions from its shortwave station at Chelmsford in England, which were too weak to be received in Singapore. Omba Pende carried strongly worded editorials and satirical cartoons on the matter. The society’s main grouse was the lack of reliable transmission, whether Malayan or British, and to make matters worse, listeners were asked to pay $5 for a receiving licence. (Malayan Radio Review, 20 Nov 1932). According to Dr Chua Ai Lin, the turning point for Radio Broadcasting in Singapore " took place on 19 December 1932, when the new Empire Service of the BBC was launched. By mid-June 1933, Malayan listeners could tune into Empire programmes for seven-and-a-half hours each day."
The BMBC On 21 July 1935, a broadcasting licence was awarded to the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (BMBC), a Singapore-based company established by a “small band of wireless enthusiasts”. The cost of running the station came from receiver-set licence fees, which were increased from $5 to $12 each per annum, of which 90 percent was channelled to the BMBC. The British government reserved the right to censor all broadcasts. BMBC was British Malaya's first large-scale commercial radio station. Test transmissions began in January 1937. To undertake the significant task of serving the entire population of Malaya and southern Johor, the company constructed new studios and transmission and receiving stations at Caldecott Hill. On 1 March 1937, the radio service was officially launched by Shenton Thomas, the Governor of the Straits Settlements. Unlike earlier local stations that used shortwave bands, BMBC broadcast on mediumwave bands, making it accessible on the more affordable mediumwave sets. In 1938, shortwave transmissions were added to extend the broadcaster’s reach to the rest of Malaya. Caldecott Hill Estate The Caldecott Hill Estate flourished with the establishment of BMBC. As many as 70 new houses were built within 100 acres of land at the residential estate in 1937, in a project launched by a private company named Fogden, Brisbane and Co., to accommodate the personnel working at the new broadcasting service. However, BMBC was not a sustainable operation, and internal and external factors soon led to its downfall. The company failed to raise the necessary funds through share sales, had been incurring losses since its inception, and the revenue from receiver-set license fees was insufficient to cover operating costs. A government subsidy had been previously provided to keep the station afloat. Second World War The British government acquired BMBC in 1940, restructuring it as the Broadcasting Station, Posts and Telegraph Department, Singapore and the Federated Malay State). A year later, the operation was taken over by the new Malayan Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), a joint venture between the governments of the Straits Settlements and the United Kingdom. News of the Second World War and potential Japanese aggression in Southeast Asia soon filled up the radio airtime as thousands of listeners anxiously waited for the latest updates. When the enemies inched in by early 1942, the Caldecott Hill radio station and studios were quickly abandoned with the radio mast and transmitter destroyed. When Singapore fell, the Japanese military took over the station and repaired it, changing its name to Syonan Hoso Kyoku. A Caldecott Hill camp was also set up nearby, where the Japanese imprisoned, interrogated and tortured many Australian prisoners-of-war. During the war, the British Ministry of Information carried out broadcasting to enemy-occupied territories in the Far East through a confidential British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service (BFEBS). It came under the British Foreign Office after the war and had its office briefly at Caldecott Hill, operating with sixty European directors, technicians and announcers. It later became known as the Voice of Britain and its facilities were used as a relay station for BBC. Radio Malaya, under the charge of Department of Broadcasting, later shared the Caldecott Hill premises with BBC when they left their Cathay Building headquarters and moved into the new $430,000-building in 1951. Television Singapura Radio Malaya split into two in 1957, when the Federations of Malaya achieved independence from the British. One branch was relocated to Kuala Lumpur, retaining the name Radio Malaya (changed to Radio Malaysia in 1963), and went on air in 1959. The other was renamed as Radio Singapura, and operated from the original studio at Caldecott Hill. Singapore wanted to explore the feasibility of a television service in the early sixties. A Japanese Colombo Plan team of experts was invited to survey the situation and make recommendations to the Singapore government. The report convinced the government to inaugurate a television service, and the Ministry of Culture was assigned to lead the project. After three years of study, Television Singapura ran its first pilot television service on 15 February 1963. Although the television telecast lasted only an hour, it was nevertheless a great achievement and significant milestone. In August 1965, with the independence of Singapore, both entities of Radio Singapura and Television Singapura were combined to form the Radio and Television Singapore (RTS). Sources: Broadcasts, Dramas and Dreams… Caldecott Hill in 80 Years https://remembersingapore.org/2017/04/16/caldecott-hill-broadcasts-dramas-dreams/ The Story of Radio Singapore https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/files/pdf/vol-12/v12-issue1_Radio.pdf
Vietnam
1937— the BBC began planning a shortwave transmitting station to relay BBC Empire signals from the United Kingdom to the Far East 1946 —The British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service began broadcasting at Jurong transmitting live programmes in English, Burmese, Indonesian and Thai from studios at Singapore's Cathay Building on Thomson Rd. 1949 —These studios moved to Caldecott Hill. B.F.E.B.S. shared the site with Radio Malaya (Singapore). Operations consisted of live broadcasting in English, Indonesian and Siamese, news editing and monitoring. Christmas Day, 1949 —The station was again moved to Tebrau on the mainland of Malaya, and control of B.F.E.B. S. was handed over by the Foreign Office to the BBC. August 1965 — BBC Far Eastern Service closed down its studio operations in Singapore. It became the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station in 1974, and it is still on the air.
Thailand
1931 Broadcasting started in 1931 as a a state monopoly operated by the Thai government. Originally, there were four broadcasting stations: Thai National Broadcasting Station and the experimental stations of the Post and Telegraph Department, the Military Signal Corps, and the Territorial Army. The National now the Broadcasting Station, under the Government Publicity Department Public Relations Department (PRD) - operated a medium-wave Thai service, a medium-wave experimental station, and a short-wave overseas service (see Rowland 1973, pp. 4-5). 1938 The PRD is entrusted with the coordination of broadcasting policy. The National Broadcasting Station is financed by government grants and advertising revenues. Originally, income from receiver licenses ten cents per receiver - went to to the government. 1952 The radio license fee was lifted on the assumption that broadcasting is a free service to the public. 1955 — the Committee of Radio Broadcasting and Communication of Thailand National Board of Broadcasting. One of the committee's first acts was to to recommend in 1966 the banning of all commercial advertising from stations operated by the PRD
Laos
1893 - Laos becomes a French protectorate until 1945, when it is briefly occupied by the Japanese towards the end of World War Two. 1946 - French return following the surrender of Japan. 1950 - Faced with an increasingly difficult war against the Viet Minh across much of French Indochina, France grants Laos semi-autonomy as an associated state within the French Union. 1954 - Laos gains full independence as a constitutional monarchy as French withdraw following defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh. 1960 - Fighting breaks out between the Royal Lao Army and the communist North Vietnamese and Soviet Union-backed Pathet Lao forces, leading to civil war.
Radio in Laos (by Lawrence W. Lichty and Thomas W. Hoffer)* The first radio station in Laos was established in 1950, broadcasting on short -wave with 1 kw. of power from a transmitter donated by the French. Not until April 1952, when the station was opened officially by Prince Souvanna Phouma, was broadcasting done on a regular basis. External broadcasting is nonexistent, but at least one regular domestic program was entitled "For Lao People in Enemy Hands." Also, a major activity of the Ministry of Information, Propaganda, and Tourism appeared to be rebutting Radio Hanoi and Radio Peking. While Lao National Radio (LNR) is the only official broadcasting system in the country, several unofficial stations operated by the army, some with the backing of Thai businessmen (So Woon 1971b; UNESCO 1967b). In addition, at least three propaganda or "psywar" stations each using 20-kw. medium-wave transmitters - were operated by the Force Armée Royale (Lao Army) at Vientiane, Savannakhet, and Pakse. Another station was run by the CIA-supported army of General Vangpao at Long Cheng. It used two 5-kw. transmitters on both medium- and short-wave and broadcast in Lao, Vietnamese, Meo, Thai-Dam, and Yao. As in other parts of Indochina, the United States became heavily involved in Laotian broadcasting, donating a second transmitter in 1954. The two transmitters then in operation were under Lao National Radio. The United States loaned Laos a 5-kw. medium-wave transmitter 1957 and donated two additional 10-kw. short-wave transmitters in 1960. The British government gave additional transmitters in 1964 which were subsequently destroyed in the coup d'état of February 1965. A 50-kw. transmitter was donated by USAID after the coup and additional transmitters were given by Australia in 1965. In 1966 the Lao National Radio station was on from about 6:30 A.M. until P.M. and from 5 P.M. until about 11 P.M. Programs included music, fare for the army, classical and modern songs, farm programs, and shows in Vietnamese and French; about 10% of the program hours were educational. By 1968, Radio Laos was operating with a new 25-kw. German short-wave transmitter from Vientiane and three medium-wave transmitters - in Vientiane (10-kw.), Luang Prabang (2.5-kw.) and Pakse (10-kw.). All programs originated carried on both short- and in Vientiane, and the same programs were medium-wave stations simultaneously. * Extract from Lent, J. A. (1991). Broadcasting in Asia and the Pacific: A continental survey of radio and television. Temple University Press.
In an early article about the plans of the BBC to reach the Far East ( London Calling No. 224, January 1944, p. 2 cont on p. 18 ) one gets an idea of the general scope and purpose of transmisisons to the Far Eastern region - a term that would, through time, become more and more synonymous with the nation states that would later be called South East Asia from WW II and onwards. London Calling text in full: ____ BBC PATHS TO INDIA AND THE FAR EAST There are two main audiences in India and the Far East for BBC programmes. They might well be classified as the "residents" and the "visitors": the "residents" denoting, of course, the inhabitants of the areas; the "visitors" comprising the Forces and civilians to whom Britain is literally "the Home Country." For both areas, therefore, there are twin programme services - the Eastern Service for the residents, the General Overseas Service for the visitors. India - here used to connote Ceylon, Burma, and Malaya as well as India herself - is a target of the General Overseas Service for ten and three quarters hours a day : from 04.00 to 07.15 (GMT), and from 10.00 to 17.30. From the engineer’s point of view, the maintenance of the early-morning (GMT) service is a considerable problem during the winter months in the Northern hemisphere. Those who read our article last week on the technical implications of the Pacific Service will remember that the short path to Australia leading there over India is not available during the early morning, and that therefore the service to Australia is obliged to use the long path over Central America. Hence the warning note that, at present, accompanies our Eastern Service Schedules on p.22 : "during the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere. Maximum signal strength in this area will not be reached until about 6.00 GMT" - that is, until about 12.30 p.m. I.S.T. Until about that time these adverse conditions make it difficult to give listeners in India a strong signal, irrespective of the wavelength used. The early-morning service opens according to the Indian clock at 10.30 a.m. - some hours after sunrise there, but several hours before sunrise in Britain, so that propagation conditions governing the path vary from one extreme to the other : the transmitting end is in darkness, the receiving end in daylight, and waves of different lengths are demanded by the respective conditions of darkness and daylight. The only solution is to use at the transmitting end the longest available wave (the lowest frequency) in order to ensure that the signal is adequately reflected from the ionosphere at the outset of its journey. Were a shorter wave to be used - that is, a wave more suitable to the conditions at the receiving end - it would escape through the ionosphere into outer space and no signal would reach India at all. The compromise adopted is the one that at least gives the signal a good send - off. Making its journey, as it does, in a series of gigantic hops, it must inevitably suffer losses of strength on the way, but; unless conditions are abnormally adverse, it should still be capable of providing serviceable listening when it arrives at Indian aerials. As dawn moves westwards the disparity in the density - or ionisation - of the electrified layers at the two ends of the circuit decreases, with a consequent and welcome levelling of the propagation conditions over the route. Shorter wavelengths can then be brought into use. Under the current frequency schedule, then, India, Ceylon, Burma, and Malaya are served by GRB (6.01 Mc/s 49.92 m.) - the longest available wave - until 05.30 ; half an hour before it is withdrawn GSB (9.51 Mc/s, 31.55 m.) comes on duty and is joined at 05.45 by the still shorter wave, GWC (15.07 Mc/s, 19.91 m.), this pair continuing together until the end of the transmission at 07.15. In directing this early-morning transmission to the Far East the problems of ensuring a reasonably good signal are intensified - so much so that it is technically impossible to provide a service much before 05.45 GMT, and no attempt is made to do so. By that hour conditions have improved sufficiently to permit transmission on the 31- and 35-metre bands, and listeners in the Far East - and the territories on their Eastern borders - should Service until 07.15 GMT on GSB and GSD (11.75 Mc/s, 25.43 m.). General Overseas Service The main transmission of the General Overseas Service begins at 10.00 and by this time conditions over the paths to both India and the Far East present no difficulty. The Service is available in each area from that hour and continues until the late afternoon, GMT. But as the day wears on the conditions that applied in the early morning begin to return. Through from 10.00 to about 12.15 a wave as short as 16 metres can be used satisfactorily, from that time a steady increase in wavelength becomes necessary : the 19-metre band is used until 13.45, the 25-metre band until 14.00, the 31-metre band until 15.45. Then it again becomes a matter of using the longest available wave, and to continue service until the end of the scheduled period of transmission to this area a 49-metre wave is brought to use. For the Far East a 25-metre wave is used until 12.00, a 31-metre wave until about 12.00, and for the last hour of the service to the Far East - that is, until late in the local evening a 41-metre wave is used. In the technical planning of the Eastern Service, the main considerations are the incidence of sunset at the listening end and the fact that during the course of transmission sunset spreads westwards over that route. The Eastern Service for India now begins at 11.30 GMT and continues, with two short intervals of less than an hour, until 15.45. At 11.30 wavelengths in the 16-metre and 19-metre band are used for India, Burma, Malaya, and for Indonesia (a comprehensive term for the Netherlands East Indies, Indo-China, and the neighbouring islands). At 13.00 a change to the 31-metre band becomes necessary, and an hour or so later the 49-metre band is brought into use, both continuing in service until the end of transmission at 15.45. The listener should… It will be seen that these arrangements parallel those for the General Overseas Service. It is therefore highly important that the listener should discriminate between the two services when they are being carried in the same waveband. Because the Eastern Service must cater for the local audience in the Far East, special periods are allocated to transmissions in the Far Eastern tongues. Apart, however, from the difference in the direction of transmission, the technical bases upon which the Indian frequency schedule is planned apply to the Far East, and the Eastern Service, like the General Overseas Service, cannot be maintained for Far Easter listeners after mid-afternoon in Britain during mid-winter. Because dawn in Britain means that the short-path route to Australia and New Zealand has become available, listeners in India and the Far East should be able to receive tha Pacific Service in the 19-metre band from 08.00 in India and 08.45 in the Far East until the close of the Service. So far we have dealt with the two main Services to the Eastern part of the world. But in the Indonesian area there is a considerable audience for the BBC Services in Dutch, French, and German. So, from 10.30 to 11.15 GMT and again from 11.30 to 12.15 GMT, additional transmitters are attached to the European Service to carry to the Netherlands East Indies and Indo-China broadcasts in those tongues. This article has described the situation at the time of going to press. On January 23 certain adjustments and expansions will be introduced in the Eastern Service and it is probable that corresponding modifications in the frequency schedule will be necessary. General Overseas Service listeners in India, however, are not likely to experience any radical alteration in their wavelength schedule until the Spring Equinox brings about the usual seasonal changes in wavelength. As much advance notice as possible of these changes will be given in our pages and at the microphone.
An Evolution of the Far Eastern Service through the PasBs Programmes as Broadcast (PasBs) are the official records of what was broadcast on any given day by the BBC. The Written Archives at Caversham, holds pre-1955 PasBs in typescript as hard copy only and PasBs for 1955 onwards are held on microfilm only. A scan of the these PAsBs gives an outline of the evolution of Overseas BBC programming first from the Empire Service, and later on to the more specific transmissions to South East Asia under the British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service. There are PasBs for the Empire Service from 19 December 1932-1 September 1939, and up to April - July 1940, there are no specific transmissions to what would later be designated as the Far East. Sometimes the programming included a Hindustani program, and some news features dealt with British Malaya or India. The Programmes were categorized as A B C D E — and Transmission I II and III , IV V — and the languages it broadcasted in were in European languages, with no Asian languages except Arabic. Starting 22 September 1940 , the PasBs list a Programme A for Pacific Transmission, with News in Arabic and Turkish . The programmes begin to have “London Calling” as part of the time slots at various times. By December 1940, Programme C Central Transmission Part I now has occasional Hindustani Program news reviews, and an Indian Programme- including one that interviews an "Indian writer" in the witness box - with Sir Hugh Walpole and Desmond Hawkins. By 1 March 1941 , the PasBs have an EASTERN Transmission (p. 3) doing a regular programme for “Calling British Forces in the Far East.” There is also a relayed broadcast of Jack Payne and his orchestra and an Hindustani Transmisison Program in English for Indian Listeners. In 14 April 1941, one begins to see that the Supplementary Hindustani services have a Burmese Newsletter, translated form English and read in Burmese by Nyat Tun Be. The 29th of April begins to show the "Colour" networks of the Empire Service. The Green Network has the Hindustani Programme Supplement. 2 May 1941 , the Suppplementary Program Hindustani Transmission begins to have a South East Asia slot. ( Burma, Malaya and S.E. Asia) There is a Newsletter read in Malay by O.T. Dussek. On May 4 and 5, a Thai Newsletter and a Burmese Newsletter are read through the Empire Service. 6 May 1941 PasBs have a Near East slot (which incorporates a Burma, Malaya and S E Asia programmes). Through 1941-1942, a few topical features would pop in and out of the Programmes that were related to South East Asia. “The Burma Road” was broadcasted in August 1942, “Through Eastern Eyes” was produced by Mr Akbari, a radio officer in the British merchant navy and broadcasted on 17 December 1941 (Grafton 8m45s), and "India's ties w Indonesia (written by Reginald le May) . On August 1944, The Far Eastern service is catalogued separately in the PAsBs. This is now called the PURPLE NETWORK, and is segmented as Middle East and Iraq, then later Central Med. Area and Japan, China and Indonesia. The Philippines was alternately included in the Pacific Network, and also in the Far Eastern Service transmission coverage. Greater focus on the nation came about with the coming of WW II with for example, a Message to the citizens of Manila by the lord mayor ( August 1941) and a talk “on the island of Luzon and General Macarthur” translated and broadcast by Bakaya. ( May 1945). The British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service By 1945, the transmission coverage of BBC Overseas was broken down into the following categories: o General Overseas Service (now World Service in English) o Colonial Service: South Africa & Rhodesia, West Africa, West Indies o Eastern Service: Eastern Service (India & Ceylon); Far Eastern Service (Burma, China, Japan, Malaya, Netherland East Indies, South-East Asia); Near Eastern Service (Arabic, Persian, Turkish) o Latin American Service: Brazil and Spanish o Pacific Service (including, until end 1948, North American and Africa) o North American Service (1949-1950 only, as separate sequence) The British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service, Singapore, started out as the SEAC (South East Asia Command) headquarters station. It began identifying as the Voice of Britain in 1946, and soon became BFEBS. It was run by the Foreign Office, and was the first BBC broadcasting facility outside the U.K. It served non-British areas throughout the Far East and relayed the Eastern, Far Eastern and Overseas services of the BBC. The first few years of operations of the Tebrau station coincided with the Malayan Emergency situation when a guerrilla war was being fought in the countryside. The complex was protected by armed security guards, and armed guards accompanied technical assistants whenever they had to go out into the aerial field to carry out array switching operations. It was a requirement that staff be resident on the site, and so there existed a self contained community within the perimeter fence, with housing and recreational facilities. A consolidated materials regarding the British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service , ( Folder 1948- 02-19) a brief description is given of the Service as it stood in 1948. ____ Mr. Sharp asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will give details of the British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service, including the centres of operation, the countries served, and the approximate number of British staff employed. Mr. McNeil: The British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service comprises a studio centre and short-wave transmitting station, broadcasting for seven and a halt hours a day, operated by the Foreign Office, in the Colony of Singapore. Its purpose is to give objective news and to explain the British standpoint to foreign countries in South East Asia. In consequence, its programmes (consisting largely of relays from the B.B.C.) are designed for reception by Asiatic audiences in Burma, Siam, French Indo-China and the Netherlands East Indies. There are thirteen United Kingdom British subjects and two Australians; in addition, there are some fifty-five British subjects normally resident in one of the Asiatic Dominions, Singapore or the Federation of Malaya. _____ Further Reading: Henry Price, ( 2015). On Air - A History of BBC Transmission. Accessible here: https://www.bbceng.info/Books/On%20Air/content/ON-AIR-version5.pdf McDaniel, Drew (1994). Broadcasting in the Malay World. Ohio University Press.
12 July 1932 Proposal Approved to set up the BBC Transcription Service 21 October 1932 Details were given in the issue of World Radio on B.B.C.'s proposals to supplement with recorded programmes the broadcasting service from the new Empire short-wave transmitter at Daventry. 16 November 1932 Mr Malcolm Frost, a member of the staff of the Empire Station Director, begins his World tour, bringing with him 11 specimen programmes. 16 6 June 1933 Mr Malcolm Frost returns to London, having gone to all over the globe including SIngapore, Hong Kong and Manila. 16 November 1947 The Transcription service continues,and the 78 rpm discs were replaced with 16-inch transcription discs running at 33⅓ rpm. Cover of BBC published material for the 60th anniversary of the BBC Transcription Service in 1990.
The idea of recording radio programmes in order to sell to broadcast stations outside of Great Britain, came from an enterprising radio broadcasting enterpreneur named Malcolm Frost. "I first envisaged the possibility of a British Transcription Service when working as a producer with the National Broadcasting Company in 1929/30. The World Transcription Service had just started up in America in competition with the NBC and Columbia Networks. After further work in the southern hemisphere, I returned to England and put to Sir John Reith the idea of a BBC Transcription Service. I had already been promised strong support from overseas, especially from Sir Ernest Fiske, Chairman of Amalgamated Wireless Australasia limited. I thus borrowed the money to start a company, . Colonial Radio Programmes limited, to produce Transcription programmes for Empire countries. The Dominion broadcasters were in those days short both of money and artistic resources, while Colonial broadcasting was only just beginning. There was therefore an avid demand for high quality syndicated programmes in record form. I received much help in starting the new company from the BBC staff of the day. With Paul England, Malcolm Frost had set up the private company and was getting the attention of Radio broadcasters overseas: From the The Sunday Despatch dated September 1931 EMPIRE RADIO PACT PLAN TO “BUY UP" PPROGRAMMES 29 STATIONS What is perhaps the most spectacular attempt that has yet been made to establish commercial broadcasting in the British Empire has just been started in London. A syndicate of wireless experts, entitled the Colonial Broadcasting Co., Ltd., has been formed with a 110- The object of the company is to " buy up " broadcasting programmes on 30 stations covering the most populous parts of the British Empire and sell back the programmes to leading commercial trusts. Already 29 stations, as far apart as the Fiji Islands, Victoria, Ceylon, and British Columbia have joined in a working agreement with the company and the first programmes will be sent out next month. NEW RECORDING. The two leading men behind this radio development are Mr. Malcolm A. Frost, who has spent two years travelling throughout the Empire co-ordinating various broadcasting companies in his scheme and Mr. Paul England, the British Broadcasting Corporation radio actor and producer who will be director of the programmes. Mr. England said yesterday that there was intense competition between American radio interests for the purchase of all available time on Dominion broadcasting stations. Mr. Frost, however, stepped in and reached an agreement with leading Dominion broadcasting stations whereby such programme time was only sold to English interests who, in turn, would be obliged to re-sell to English companies at a cheaper rate than they would sell to American. Mr. England added that the company had bought an option on a new process of electric recording which enabled them to record the programmes in London and despatch them to the Dominions in the ordinary way. The idea seemed to have caught on and several stations around the world began to use these pre-recorded broadcasts. One example is this listing in Bombay for a broadcast of a talk by Hugh Walpole on " English Novels at the Beginning of 1932." The broadcast was a recording from the Colonial Radio Programme.
In the middle of this growing interest of broadcasting recorded programmes, Malcolm Frost had earlier sent a letter (November 3, 1931) to then DIrector- General of the BBC, Sir John Reith to see "whether it would be possible to establish a regular liason and co-operate with the British Broadcasting Corporation." Frost lists the disadvantages of his private corporation, (lack of revenue sufficient to maintain a satisfactory broadcasting service, and secondly, lack of artists and material suitable for the microphone), and asks for BBC's support. Reith's reply on the 6th of November was not completely dismissive, and he suggested that he will connect Frost with the BBC's Foreign Director, as he is the one who is " thoroughly conversant with the broadcasting conditions in allparts of the world and will personally bevery much interested in your company." After the discussions, John Reith seemed to have initially rejected the idea for the time being, thinking that the Frost's proposition could prejudice the BBC's embryonic plan for an Empire Short-wave service. But within a year, the BBC had changed their mind and suggested to Frost that he could not possibly compete with the Corporation. and therefore asked him to join the Corporation in 1932 to start the BBC Transcription Service.
Proposals were made to set up a new Department at the BBC and was approved on 12 July 1932. RECORDING OF PROGRAMMES FOR OVERSEAS On 25th May the Board approved in principle of the establishment of a Department to produce records for Empire distribution. Sir Stephen Tallents gave hearty support to the scheme, and when he goes to Ottawa he would like to be empowered by the Corporation to inform the Dominion Ministers of the creation and intentions of this new Department of the B.B.C. It is proposed that the same Head of Department should be responsible for both programmes broadcast from the Empire Transmitter and for the recorded programmes. These two varieties of programmes are not alternative but complementary to one another, as stations in the Dominions and set owners are not by any means all equipped for reception from the new Empire Transmitter. The recording work would be done in close co-operation with the present Productions and Outside Broadcast Departments of the Programme Branch. The Empire Director would have on his staff a Programmes Officer and a liaison Officer (to travel and make contact with Empire stations). Some addition to the present Productions staff would be necessary, but there would be no special Producer set apart for Empire work. It will be helpful to use the recording work as a fresh field of enterprise in which Producers may each serve for some time and gain experience in a new technique. The projection of the life, art and industry of the Mother Country would be the aim of this recording. Farming, shipping, the countryside, songs, pageants, plays and the more picturesque callings, such as the law, the church and the army and many other things may be recorded. It is envisaged that in its work the Empire Department, at any rate on its recording side, might have the aid of an Honorary Committee which would meet from time to time to make suggestions for suitable programme material. This Committee would be composed of distinguished men and women who have shown themselves aware of, and who have added to, the cultural and artistic heritage of these isles, and who are willing to assist in this work, with possibly representatives of the Dominions and the Empire Marketing Board. Sir Stephen Tallents was greatly in favour of this suggestion. The sanction of the Board is therefore sought for the initiation of this work and the appointment of the necessary officials.
BBC Field Recordings
In 1982, Madeau Stewart compiled a guide to the BBC Sound Archives - recordings of what she categorized as folk, national, ritual, religious and classical music from all countries, excluding Great Britain. As the Telegraph writes “she took on the task of augmenting the BBC’s early music and non-British folk and indigenous music archives." After the war she got a job as a selector for the BBC's Sound Archives, which at that time consisted mainly of spoken material. Finding that there was a growing demand from programme-makers for appropriate theme and incidental music for period dramas and travel series, she took on the task of augmenting the BBC's early music and non-British folk and indigenous music archives, a job which involved travelling around the world to collect recordings from far-flung parts and gathering in material from itinerant contributors. Tom Hatfield, one of these ‘itinerant contributors’ describes how Madeau allowed him " whilst a penniless student, to go round France recording hurdy-gurdies" and lent him from the BBC engineering department what was then cutting edge technology, a device that recorded sound on tape(!), which apparently worked off batteries and weighed half a ton." He goes on to say what happened to some of these recordings. In this instance, he recounts how "Madeau’s skill and enthusiasm helped convert my hair-brained scheme into an eventual programme, which she produced, along with one I did ten years later on the music of the Tuaregs, which was broadcast at a particularly quiet time on the BBC Third Programme but nevertheless made quite a stir among connoisseurs of the genre. After she left, I made a fruitless proposal of a programme on pre-Columbian music to some suit who didn’t know the difference between a crumhorn and a Tibetan nose flute." Madeau Stewart's introduction to the BBC Sound Archive compilation gives further indication to what the BBC Field recordings were for and how they were obtained: CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ A guide to the BBC Sound Archives recordings of folk, national, ritual, religious and classical music from all countries, excluding Great Britain. All the recordings are ABR ( All Broadcasting Rights) therefore no payment is required when they are used.) A highly selective process has been exercised in creating this catalogue raisonné. Much of inferior musical or technical quality or of doubtful origin has been omitted. Poor or inadequate documentation has made it difficult to be sure that entries and descriptions are always accurate. Whilst the Catalogue was in preparation during 1979 /80 at least two countries achieved independence and changed their names - not always in time to correct the alphabetical list of entries; thus New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, retains its earlier name. The Catalogue includes material in the BBC Folk and National Music Recordings Volume 1, Foreign Countries, 1958. It is important to remember that collectors (a list will be found under COLLECTORS) exercise selection when recording and that the BBC exercised further selection when purchasing for Sound Archives. Thus, recordings from a country or a region should not necessarily be taken as being typical of that place. A special tribute should be paid to all collectors for their contribution to this collection and in particular to those who undertook hazardous journeys into remote regions to record and thereby preserve for parity music of incalculable value. Musicology or ethnomusicology has never had the international support that archaeology has enjoyed and most of the collectors hardly broke even let alone made a profit. SUMMARY OF COLLECTION The global turmoils of recent years which include industrialization and mechanisation, have destroyed both the need for and the belief in many musics. The Archive collection has, sadly, to be accepted as a record of the past, often a very deep past. As no plan was made and no discipline exercised as to who went where to record what, the collection as a whole is a random one and all the gaps show up clearly. In many cases these gaps can be filled by recordings held in the National Sound Archive, London.
The catalogue is categorized topically - either through the name of country with a summary of the material and list of subject entries, or through subject entries like "Panpipes" with the name of the ethnolinguistic group ( if known) - or otherwise the locality - followed by the name of country. The subject entries provide comparative tables. - thus under Panpipes, will be found all the countries where panpipes have been recorded. An example is Madeau Stewart's entry for Burma: Burma From 1951 until 1961 all archives contained of Burmese music was a curiously horrific series of 78’s ( 16643–16650) in which a Burmese actor age 69 called U Po Sein, sang a number of undistinguished songs to the accompaniment ofThet sein at the pianoforte. In 1961. Stewart Wavell of the BBC Burmese Service made a collecting trip to Burma. When I first heard the tapes, I felt very uneasy about the authenticity of the music and the proficiency of the instrumentalist in everything but the tribal music hearing collection after a gap of 20 years, my uneasiness is in no way dispelled. Much of the tribal music has a rather sinister character and can be monotonous. The classical music seems to express a tradition in decline. The following number of entries must no way be interpreted as an indication of the richness of the music, it is only an attempt to sort it all out in spite of feeble documentation into relevant categories. Animals Ballads Bells Buddhist Curiosities Dances Drone Drums general drums melodic Fireworks flute Funeral Gongs Gong, Orchestras Harmony Horns Instrumental groups Jaw’s Harp Harp National anthems Oboe Panpipes Pipes single Pipes double Political Processions Royal music Similarities Snake charmers Street musicians Tunes Violin Western influence Work Xylophone For Cambodia: A sad little Collection. One side of LP 23647 and one track on LP 31675. The former is from radio UNESCO and labels seem to provide all the documentation there is. see also Buddhist Drama, musical sung Fiddle Gong, Orchestra Hindu Lute
Under the Subject heading for Castanets: Known to ancient Egypt and probably before that. the prototype is said to be the bi-valve shell, A dancers' instrument. Prevalent in Spain, where the tradition was to play them in pairs, the higher pitch being female, the lower, the male a distinction to be found in the pitches of drums in various countries. Morocco: Qaraqeb (castanets) with drum 37944 Ft 3 * Philippines: dance accompanied bamboo castanets. 30816 Ft 6 Spain: Asturias: Pandero que toco: The higher sounding female castanet can be heard entering before the lower pitched male Ibiza: Three Christmas songs: Large castanets; rattling good towards end 18817 * Accessibility note: These numbers are the BBC Sound archive's catalogue numbers. In rare cases, these can be cross-referenced with the British Library's online catalogue and can then be requested to be digitized and listened to onsite at the British Library. ( This process can take up to four weeks). If the BBC accession number is not found the number needs to be submitted to the British Library's Listening Service , where they then go to the basement, physically look for the disc, catalogue it and then digitize it for the reader. This entire process can take up to 2 months.
Hong Kong
1928— The pioneer of Hong Kong broadcasting is Radio Hong Kong (RHK), goes on the air with the call letters ZBW and 250-w. transmitter, established and operated primarily in English by enthusiastic and dedicated amateurs. 1939 Government control of Radio Hong Kong, exercised in the very early years through a committee, was placed in the hands of the postmaster. 1951 The Japanese takes over the station and operates it during the war. The postmaster general regained control after World War II. Radio Hong Kong, now the official government station, is not regulated by any legislation although commercial radio and television stations are controlled by licenses issued in accordance with regulations of the Telecommunications Ordinance.
Radio in Hong Kong ( by F. Alton Everest) * Hong Kong was acquired by Britain from China between 1842 and 1898. Most of the land area of Hong Kong (365 of the total 398 square miles) is scheduled to revert to China in 1997, under terms of 99-year lease signed in 1898. The pioneer of Hong Kong broadcasting is Radio Hong Kong (RHK), first on the air in 1928 with the call letters ZBW and 250-w. transmitter, established and operated primarily in English by enthusiastic and dedicated amateurs. Hong Kong became known to listeners around the world as ZBW2, opened on the short-wave band. Broadcasts continued throughout the Japanese occupation of World War II but manned by Japanese. When the British resumed control of the colony, the station's equipment was found intact, though sadly run down. Amateurs took up their task once more and continued to operate the station until the first professional broadcaster arrived in 1947. Government control of Radio Hong Kong exercised in the very early years through a committee, was placed in the hands of the postmaster general in 1939. Three years later, the Japanese took over the station and operated it during the war. The postmaster general regained control after World War II. In 1951, the public relations officer was given the responsibility for Radio Hong Kong which was transferred to the Controller of Broadcasting in 1953. From that time on, the Broadcasting Department under the Director of Broadcasting has been charged with this responsibility. Because of its governmental sponsorship, Radio Hong Kong carries no advertising and takes a view of programming quite different from commercial stations, as indicated by this government statement: The aim of the Government broadcasting services is to provide balanced programmes, but with some emphasis being laid on information. About 25% of Radio Hong Kong's program material comes from foreign sources, including regular relays and rebroadcasts of BBC World Service and BBC Chinese Service, occasional ones of VOA, and syndicated material from Deutsche Welle, Radio Nederland, Radio Canada, Australian Broadcasting Commission, British Forces Broadcasting Network, and United Kingdom Central Office of Information. The monopoly of Radio Hong Kong came to an end in 1959 when commercial station commenced transmissions.A license had been awarded George Ho to to form a company to transmit a commercial service in English and another in Chinese. The Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Co., Ltd., known as Commercial Radio, broadcast its first programs on 26 August 1959. This action followed the general pattern in the United Kingdom where the Independent Television Authority was licensed in 1954 to provide a commercial program in competition with the BBC. * Extract from Lent, J. A. (1991). Broadcasting in Asia and the Pacific: A continental survey of radio and television. Temple University Press.
In this section, we provide original correspondence, brochures and other documents related to the establishment of the BBC's operations in South East Asia. All the scans have been vetted for Public use by the BBC Written Archives at Caversham, Reading. but retains BBC Written Archives Copyright. To search the sound archive, go here.
Mr. George Simpson, a Shipping Agent in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong from 1948-1980, is the focus of the Scottish Decolonisation Project collection at the National Library of Scotland. The collection includes three compact cassette recordings of interviews conducted by Mr. Bill Dorward, covering Simpson's work in Singapore, British North Borneo, Penang, Malaya, and Hong Kong.
The Malayan Emergency began in 1948. It was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces of the British Empire. In October 1951, the British High Commissioner in Malaya, Sir Henry Gurney, was assassinated in an MNLA ambush on Fraser’s Hill. General Gerald Templer arrived as the new High Commissioner in January 1952. During his two-year command, the British worked to reduce the levels of insurgency and terrorism in British Malaya. This sound clip is an extract from an address to Malayan villagers after the murder of a government employee by Communist terrorists. Recording note: Possibly an excerpt from a broadcast on the BBC Far Eastern Service (London Calling Asia).With interpreter. 1 disc 2 sides 30 cm 78 rpm mono. Broadcast Label: BBC ARCHIVE 19248. Look at the full metadata
BBC Timeline as resource material posted on the walls of the BBC Written Archives at Caversham. Photo taken by author in 2022.
Welcome to the BBC in Southeast Asia Resource Page. This expanding, annotated guide offers a curated selection of primary and secondary sources that explore the BBC's coverage and presence in South East Asia from Great Britain's late colonial and early post-colonial periods (1927-1961). Primary Sources Digital Archives and Repositories BBC Genome Project - Radio Times Written Archives This section of the BBC Genome Project provides access to the written archives of Radio Times, offering a detailed record of BBC radio and television listings from 1923 to 2009. It includes information on programs broadcasted by the BBC Empire Service and offers valuable insights into its programming history. BBC Sound Effects Archive A huge database of sound effects, many of which come from the BBC's Incidental Sound Recordings that were used for broadcast ambient sound. Licensing use is not as stringent (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/licensing), and some of the sound files can be traced to actual events/ field recordings done in South East Asia. BBC Archive The BBC Archive offers a collection of audio, video, and written materials from the BBC’s history, including content related to the Empire Service. British Library Sound Archive The British Library Sound Archive holds a wealth of audio recordings, including historical broadcasts from the BBC Empire Service. National Archives (UK) The National Archives contain records and documents related to the BBC and its broadcasting history, including the Empire Service. Internet Archive The Internet Archive hosts a variety of media, including recordings of BBC broadcasts and other historical audio and video materials. Media History Digital Library This site offers free access to digitized media publications and documents, which may include references to the BBC Empire Service. National Archives of Singapore - Archives Online The National Archives of Singapore hosts a collection of materials, including the Straits Times newspaper, which provides insights into the BBC's presence and coverage in British Malaya during the colonial period WorldRadioHistory.com WorldRadioHistory.com is an extensive online archive of historical radio-related documents, magazines, and publications from around the world. It contains a wide range of resources, including radio station yearbooks, industry journals, and broadcasting manuals, which may include references to the BBC Empire Service and its impact on global broadcasting history. BBC Television Broadcasts about South East Asia Zoo Quest for the Dragon ( Borneo) First transmitted on Fri 5th Oct 1956, 20:15 and Fri 12th Oct 1956, 20:45 on BBC Television, David Attenborough and the Zoo Quest team ventured to the islands of South East Asia in search of the legendary Komodo dragon.In this stretch of the journey, Attenborough has a close encounter with a crocodile, spends time with Dayak villagers and makes the acquaintance of Benjamin, an abandoned baby bear. (Part 1) https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/p00dgmd0 (29 minutes) (Part 2) https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/p00dgmd3 (24 minutes) _______________________ Zoo Quest for the Komodo Dragon ( Bali, Indonesia) First transmitted Fri 26th Oct 1956, 20:15 , David Attenborough's search for the legendary Komodo dragon reaches Bali, where he witnesses a procession in honour of an 'invisible god' and explores a temple that provides shelter to a colony of bats believed by the locals to be sacred. Back in the studio, Attenborough meets a fruit bat that is a resident of London Zoo (Part 1) https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/p00dgmd9 (29 minutes) (Part 2) https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/p00dgmdd (30 minutes) _________________________ Zoo Quest for a Dragon (Java, Indonesia) First transmitted Fri 19th Oct 1956, 20:15 , David Attenborough and his cameraman Charles Lagus explore the island of Java in their quest for the largest lizard in the world.They see gibbons having a leisurely breakfast in the treetops, stop off at the 8th century Buddhist temple Borobudur and take a glimpse into Bromo, a sulphur-spewing volcano. Attenborough also captures a fully grown python to bring back to London Zoo. This creature later makes a wriggly appearance as a guest in the studio. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/p00dgmd6 (24 minutes) Secondary Sources Books Briggs, A. (1979). The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press. Johnston, G., & Robertson, E. (2019). BBC World Service: Overseas broadcasting, 1932–2018. Palgrave Macmillan. Kitley, P. (2000). Television, nation, and culture in Indonesia. Ohio University Center for International Studies. Lent, J. A. (1991). Broadcasting in Asia and the Pacific: A continental survey of radio and television. Temple University Press. Nelson, E. S. (2013). Broadcasting in the Malay world: Radio, television, and nation building, 1923-2013. Praeger. McDaniel, D. O. (1994). Broadcasting in the Malay world: Radio, television, and nation building, 1923-2013. Praeger. Postill, J. (2006). Media and nation building: How the Iban became Malaysian. Berghahn Books. Potter, S. J. (2012). Broadcasting empire: The BBC and the British world, 1922-1970. Oxford University Press. Scannell, P., & Cardiff, D. (1991). A Social History of British Broadcasting: Volume 1: 1922-1939, Serving the Nation. Blackwell. Articles Potter, S. (2012). The BBC and the Empire: British Broadcasting in the 1930s. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 32(2), 231-248. Hajkowski, T. (2006). The BBC, the Empire, and the Second World War, 1939-1945. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 26(1), 1-22. Reports BBC. (2007). BBC Trust Review of the BBC's World Service. Retrieved from BBC Trust. Theses Murphy, K. (2010). The BBC, the Empire, and the Cold War, 1945-1975. (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).
Browse the records below which we have been given permission to present on the site.
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In a lengthy but entirely fascinating debate in the House of Commons about the role of the BBC in the Cold War, George Orwell is caricatured as an example for what not to say in BBC broadcasts to the Far Eastern Service: The contrasts between the Far Eastern section of the B.B.C, and the activities of Radio Malaya and Radio Hong Kong are very great indeed. We must obviously be careful lest anything which we say on the air is such as in any way to help the Communists in their plans. If it were possible for them to make direct quotations from any of our broadcasts, whether in the Far Eastern service or the Home service, but particularly in the Far Eastern service, we should obviously be broadcasting material which was not appropriate. I have in my hand the script of a Third Programme broadcast. Many of these are— Mr. Gordon-Walker: May I ask the hon. and gallant Member whether this went out over Radio Ceylon? Major Tufton Beamish: I dare say that the right hon. Gentleman does not like the line which I am taking, but these are important matters. My answer to his question is that, so far as I know, it did not actually go out over Radio Ceylon. It seems that the right hon. Gentleman Toggle showing location ofColumn 2612intends to ask whether I am in order. Perhaps he will let me take orders from the Chair and permit me to develop my argument. Anything which we say about the Far East, and that is what we are discussing, can have a damaging effect if it can be quoted back at us. The main question which I am putting is whether we would approve this Agreement if the money involved in it is to be wasted because that station is not going to carry out the propaganda which we want it to do. This is an example of the sort of thing said recently on the air by the B.B.C, and, for all that I know, repeated in the Far Eastern section. It is an example of the sort of thing which, I feel, should not be sent out on the air at this juncture. It is only one brief example; an extract from an amusing story called "Shooting an Elephant," by George Orwell. I will read only one or two sentences: "In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people—the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. I was sub-divisonal police inspector of the town." Then, later, it says: "I had already made up my mind that Imperialism was an evil thing, and that the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better." A little further on it states: "All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the Empire I served and my rage against the evil spirited little beasts which tried to make my job impossible. With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj…"(read Orwell's full essay here.) It is very good reading; I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I say that it is an example of the sort of thing which should not be said on the air at this stage, either here or anywhere else. I am not saying that this particular broadcast was typical, but it is one example which came to me; I do not think it was typical, but I do think that it should not have been made. I am not blaming the B.B.C. for the failure to carry out the right broadcast propaganda programmes; but I am blaming the Government for their spineless approach to the deteriorating situation in the Far East, because, without a proper foreign policy, our propaganda can never be really effective; and who knows what our policy is in, for example, China, where we are wandering around asking them on what terms we shall recognise them. The third question with which we have to concern ourselves is, why does the B.B.C. "project Britain" through its Far Eastern service, while Radio Malaya carries on a propaganda campaign mixed in with its ordinary programmes? Is Hong Kong doing propaganda, or is it not? Then, why should one Minister have one policy in the Far East, while another has a totally different policy? (Ceylon Broadcasting Volume 476: debated on Thursday 29 June 1950) The proceeding between Major Beamish, a British Army officer and Conservative Member of Parliament for Lewes, and Mr Hobson, the Assistant Postmaster-General speaking for the BBC, is a powerful case of the influential power of George Orwell - both as a novelist and a BBC broadcaster. For the purposes of this site, George Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) is a fascinating look into how the BBC saw and dealt with the Far East (a constructed regional name that then encompassed most of what is now South East Asia).
Blair pictured in a passport photo in Burma. This was the last time he had a toothbrush moustache; he would later acquire a pencil moustache similar to other British officers stationed in Burma.
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal Presidency (now Bihar), British India, into what he described as a "lower-upper-middle class" family. Blair's maternal grandmother lived at Moulmein, so he chose a posting in Burma, then still a province of British India. In October 1922 he sailed on board SS Herefordshire via the Suez Canal and Ceylon to join the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. A month later, he arrived at Rangoon and travelled to the police training school in Mandalay. He was appointed an Assistant District Superintendent (on probation) on 29 November 1922, (The India Office and Burma Office List: 1927. Harrison & Sons, Ltd. 1927. p. 514.) In Burma, Blair acquired a reputation as an outsider. He spent much of his time alone, reading or pursuing non-pukka activities, such as attending the churches of the Karen ethnic group. A colleague, Roger Beadon, recalled (in a 1969 recording for the BBC) that Blair was fast to learn the language and that before he left Burma, "was able to speak fluently with Burmese priests in 'very high-flown Burmese'." (A Kind of Compulsion, 1903–36, p. 87) After a series of illnesses, changes of mind and fighting in the Spanish War, Orwell obtained "war work" when he was taken on full-time by the BBC's Eastern Service. He supervised cultural broadcasts to India to counter propaganda from Nazi Germany designed to undermine imperial links. This was Orwell's first experience of the rigid conformity of life in an office, and it gave him an opportunity to create cultural programmes with contributions from T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, E. M. Forster, Ahmed Ali, Mulk Raj Anand, and William Empson among others.
Orwell spoke on many BBC and other broadcasts, but no recordings are known to survive.
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal Presidency (now Bihar), British India, into what he described as a "lower-upper-middle class" family. Blair's maternal grandmother lived at Moulmein, so he chose a posting in Burma, then still a province of British India. In October 1922 he sailed on board SS Herefordshire via the Suez Canal and Ceylon to join the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. A month later, he arrived at Rangoon and travelled to the police training school in Mandalay. He was appointed an Assistant District Superintendent (on probation) on 29 November 1922, (The India Office and Burma Office List: 1927. Harrison & Sons, Ltd. 1927. p. 514.) In Burma, Blair acquired a reputation as an outsider. He spent much of his time alone, reading or pursuing non-pukka activities, such as attending the churches of the Karen ethnic group. A colleague, Roger Beadon, recalled (in a 1969 recording for the BBC) that Blair was fast to learn the language and that before he left Burma, "was able to speak fluently with Burmese priests in 'very high-flown Burmese'." (A Kind of Compulsion, 1903–36, p. 87) After a series of illnesses, changes of mind and fighting in several wars, Orwell obtained "war work" when he was taken on full-time by the BBC's Eastern Service. He supervised cultural broadcasts to India to counter propaganda from Nazi Germany designed to undermine imperial links. This was Orwell's first experience of the rigid conformity of life in an office, and it gave him an opportunity to create cultural programmes with contributions from T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, E. M. Forster, Ahmed Ali, Mulk Raj Anand, and William Empson among others.
Venu Chitale (left) and other Eastern Service broadcasters, including Una Marson (seated centre) and George Orwell (standing), 1942. Photo BBC Copyright.
The Macguffin of BBC Sound For many years, an actual recorded George Orwell broacast has yet to be found. Perhaps the closest one can sidle up to listen to him is via this recording of Venu Chitale who began her career at the BBC in 1940 as secretary to author George Orwell. She later on became a Talks Producer in the Indian Section and became a prominent broadcaster on both the Eastern Service as well as the domestic UK Home Service. This absence of Orwell's recorded voice seems implausible as many of the broadcasts were played on relay and would have had to be recorded if the time slots for the Eastern and Far Eastern Service could be synchronized with the GMT. The conundrum is so baffling that some shcolars have pointed out this memo as a possible reason: Memo criticising Orwell's voice: Is George Orwell's voice suitable for broadcasting? Written: 1943 Synopsis: JB Clark, the Controller of Overseas Services, is the author of this memo wondering whether Orwell should be kept on the air due to the unattractive nature of his voice. Clark feared not only that the talks might be compromised by Orwell's vocal delivery, but also that the BBC could be criticised for giving airtime to somebody with such an unsuitable way of speaking. However, given the vast number of recordings at the British Library—only 40 percent of which is catalogued—and the even more extensive BBC Sound Archive in Perivale, there might still be a chance of discovering that elusive disc containing Orwell's voice.
Begin at the British Library (BL) which, since 1997, has been designated as the main public listening facility for BBC radio programmes. Make sure you get a British Library reader pass.(https://www.bl.uk/research/#reader-registration) Use either of two online catalogues Cadensa More complete metadata, but you can’t save any of the links BL Main Catalogue Not as comprehensive a search, but easier navigation and links can be reused Caveat— The BBC donated the entirety of its sound archives pre-1992 to the BL in 1986, but only 40% has been catalogued to description level into the British library system. The BBC archive online catalog used to be available to British library readers, but because of copyright issues the catalogue was shut down in 2007 and now has been strictly restricted for the use of a small number of British library staff So if you want to find out what is in the rest of the BBC sound archives at the British library, consult the paper archives! Stored on the open shelves of the Humanities II reading room, find various paper and bound volumes that contain chronological lists of the BBC sound archives. There are also bound copies of collated materials on news broadcasts, poetry, sports programs, field recordings, etc. Highlight what you need, copy the programme number and input into Cadenza. If you are lucky, it will show up in the British library catalogue, already described and digitised and you can listen to it immediately. But more often than not, it won’t show up online. From the paper archives, write down the programme number and any other data (it won’t have the BL accession number). Fill up this form (https://bl.libanswers.com/form?queue_id=2551)to send a request to the the BL's Listening Service (LS) LS Staff will go down to the basement and find the physical disc. In this photo, British Library BBC curator, Paul Wilson, shows the rows of uncatalogued 3 1/2 RPM discs in the BL basement. LS Staff will catalogue the material into the BL system LS Staff will digitize the material for free, but it will take 6-8 weeks and you can request only 10 maximum at a time An email will be sent to you once the sound file is available. Physically go to the BL and listen to the file in one of its computers with headphones If the British library does not have the physical disc in the basement, get the programme number and request the LS to email the BBC sound archive at Pervale.(https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/2011/10/the-new-bbc-archive-centre-at.shtml) (10 requests at a time and you cannot contact them directly.) BBC will digitize the file, and send it to the BL via the cloud. Once notified, physically go to the BL and listen to the sound file. There is no playback in the special machines for these types of files, so you need to call on the red phone beside you and request LS to rewind. Sometimes they are kind enough to burn the sound into a CD, but you will go to hell if you download or try to copy. (you can’t anyway). The BBC digitized sound file is expunged after your use, or if you want to use it again, you can request for it to be catalogued into the British library system for future users. BBC digitizing service is free and actually faster than the BL process - but you need to prove that the BL does not have the file in the basement. The Written Archives The BBC Written Archives are in Reading, UK, about an hour outside London. Make an appointment. It will take months to get one. https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/bbc-written-archives-centre/zdy9scw They will ask you to look at the very general finding aids, but there is no online catalogue for any of the materials Pray that the person assigned to you is helpful as you need to request specific material which you have no way of knowing until you go through tons of paper documents. If the material you want has not been vetted, they will let you know. Be prepared to go back after a month (or more). They will email you. Take a lot of photos which you are allowed to do, but you need to acknowledge BBC copyright.