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BBC Radio & Music Production Bristol
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BBC Radio & Music Production Bristol
Since 1934, Bristol has been the home of radio programmes transmitted throughout the UK and the world via BBC World Service. The BBC Radio & Music Production unit (a.k.a. Bristol Network Radio) operates separately from the BBC Radio Bristol (part of the BBC local radio network), which serves listeners in and around the city. The network production team makes programs for the UK and a global audience. The genre focus in Bristol includes a wide range of topics, such as food and farming, environmental journalism, natural history, investigative documentaries, human interest, Bristol R&M Production readings, drama, poetry, conversation, and political debates. In 2017, the team in Bristol began producing podcasts for the BBC. It has been located in Broadcasting House, Bristol since 1934, which is also home to the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC West, and BBC Radio Bristol, in addition to BBC Network Radio Bristol.
The Bristol BBC operations were important during World War II, when the London-based directors of the World Service chose to move the "morale boosting" parts of the operation away from London. This was because of their fear of attacks during the Blitz, which ultimately led the BBC Symphony Orchestra, all school and children's programmes, religion and variety teams – comprising 700 people in total – to the location in Bristol.
By 1940, six studios were operating at the BBC Broadcasting House, located in Whiteladies Road, however, the BBC also made use of other locations around the city for concerts, music recordings, and public performances. These included Redland Park Hall, All Saints Hall, College Road, the Chapter House, Clifton Parish Hall, and the Co-operative Hall. This was the start of a partnership between the BBC and Bristol's public bodies. The partnership was formalized in 2009, being the first Memorandum of Understanding between the BBC and a UK city.
With the fall of France, Bristol's location meant that it sat within bombing range of the Luftwaffe. Therefore, it was decided to not only extend the BBC broadcasting to Wales in the West, but also to set up emergency underground broadcast studios in the Clifton Rocks Railway caverns. A transmitter, a studio, and a radio control room (complete with an ozonator to combat the smell of the River Avon) were all concealed in the rock cliffs at Clifton Down inside a railway tunnel. As a result, the BBC HQ in London had the control to swiftly switch broadcasting to the Bristol center, sometimes mid-news bulletin when the capital was under air attack, therefore continuing a constant news programme.
Political debate programme Any Questions?, first broadcast in 1948, was developed by the BBC in Bristol in the post-war years. In this weekly programme, members of the public asked their political representatives questions on different matters important to them.
The programme was first transmitted on the West of England Home Service. It was only meant as a six-week stopgap but is still running today and was the inspiration for the BBC television programme Question Time. The programme is produced by a three-person team in Bristol who, for fifty weeks a year, travel to venues in cities, towns, villages, and hamlets at the invitation of community groups, schools, and local organisations across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. On 10 April 1970, the Friday broadcast moved from the BBC Home Service to BBC Radio 4 and it is that network which has been broadcast to both the live and recorded repeat of Any Questions? since that date. It has a weekly audience of about 1.5 million.
The BBC Radio Production Department is the birthplace of Poetry Please. on BBC Radio 4. Currently presented by Roger McGough, CBE it is thought to be the longest-running poetry programme broadcast anywhere in the world. There have been various attempts to find another contender but, so far, without success. Faber, who published a series of Poetry Please anthologies, have also confirmed this.
The poems featured on the programme come from BBC Radio 4 listener requests. The format was refreshed slightly after two years, from straight requests with actors reading the poems to an interview format featuring both established and up-and-coming poets who go through listener requests to share the poems that have equally inspired them to write and talk about their own adventures in poetry.
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BBC Radio & Music Production Bristol
Since 1934, Bristol has been the home of radio programmes transmitted throughout the UK and the world via BBC World Service. The BBC Radio & Music Production unit (a.k.a. Bristol Network Radio) operates separately from the BBC Radio Bristol (part of the BBC local radio network), which serves listeners in and around the city. The network production team makes programs for the UK and a global audience. The genre focus in Bristol includes a wide range of topics, such as food and farming, environmental journalism, natural history, investigative documentaries, human interest, Bristol R&M Production readings, drama, poetry, conversation, and political debates. In 2017, the team in Bristol began producing podcasts for the BBC. It has been located in Broadcasting House, Bristol since 1934, which is also home to the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC West, and BBC Radio Bristol, in addition to BBC Network Radio Bristol.
The Bristol BBC operations were important during World War II, when the London-based directors of the World Service chose to move the "morale boosting" parts of the operation away from London. This was because of their fear of attacks during the Blitz, which ultimately led the BBC Symphony Orchestra, all school and children's programmes, religion and variety teams – comprising 700 people in total – to the location in Bristol.
By 1940, six studios were operating at the BBC Broadcasting House, located in Whiteladies Road, however, the BBC also made use of other locations around the city for concerts, music recordings, and public performances. These included Redland Park Hall, All Saints Hall, College Road, the Chapter House, Clifton Parish Hall, and the Co-operative Hall. This was the start of a partnership between the BBC and Bristol's public bodies. The partnership was formalized in 2009, being the first Memorandum of Understanding between the BBC and a UK city.
With the fall of France, Bristol's location meant that it sat within bombing range of the Luftwaffe. Therefore, it was decided to not only extend the BBC broadcasting to Wales in the West, but also to set up emergency underground broadcast studios in the Clifton Rocks Railway caverns. A transmitter, a studio, and a radio control room (complete with an ozonator to combat the smell of the River Avon) were all concealed in the rock cliffs at Clifton Down inside a railway tunnel. As a result, the BBC HQ in London had the control to swiftly switch broadcasting to the Bristol center, sometimes mid-news bulletin when the capital was under air attack, therefore continuing a constant news programme.
Political debate programme Any Questions?, first broadcast in 1948, was developed by the BBC in Bristol in the post-war years. In this weekly programme, members of the public asked their political representatives questions on different matters important to them.
The programme was first transmitted on the West of England Home Service. It was only meant as a six-week stopgap but is still running today and was the inspiration for the BBC television programme Question Time. The programme is produced by a three-person team in Bristol who, for fifty weeks a year, travel to venues in cities, towns, villages, and hamlets at the invitation of community groups, schools, and local organisations across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. On 10 April 1970, the Friday broadcast moved from the BBC Home Service to BBC Radio 4 and it is that network which has been broadcast to both the live and recorded repeat of Any Questions? since that date. It has a weekly audience of about 1.5 million.
The BBC Radio Production Department is the birthplace of Poetry Please. on BBC Radio 4. Currently presented by Roger McGough, CBE it is thought to be the longest-running poetry programme broadcast anywhere in the world. There have been various attempts to find another contender but, so far, without success. Faber, who published a series of Poetry Please anthologies, have also confirmed this.
The poems featured on the programme come from BBC Radio 4 listener requests. The format was refreshed slightly after two years, from straight requests with actors reading the poems to an interview format featuring both established and up-and-coming poets who go through listener requests to share the poems that have equally inspired them to write and talk about their own adventures in poetry.