BBC

On May 18th 1922 the Post Office met representatives of eighteen companies, each with a single purpose in mind. Until now officialdom had refused permission for regular broadcasting of radio transmitters in Britain, worried that they would interfere with essential services such as the armed forces. After five months of deliberation a company to be known as the British Broadcasting Company was to set up eight stations in major cities around the country. Thus the BBC was born.

The British Broadcasting Company started daily transmissions on November 14th 1922, by which time more than one million ten-shilling (50p) licences had been issued. In 1927 the company was restructured as a public corporation -the BBC that we know today- by its founding father, John (later Lord) Reith, but by this time an even newer technology was being developed -television.