The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) marks a significant milestone in 2025, its 100th anniversary, and Oxford’s Bodleian Library is celebrating the milestone in an exhibition that examines BBC Radio’s role in shaping Britain over the past century.
British Radio began in June 1920 and in October 1922 the British Broadcasting Company was formed. It evolved from a ‘company’ to a public service broadcasting ‘corporation,’ funded by a licence fee, in 1925.
Coinciding with the BBC’s centenary, the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford are hosting an exhibition titled Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home. The exhibition explores the impact of radio on family life from 1922 to 1939, a period when radio listenership grew from 150,000 to 34 million.
Curated by Beaty Rubens, a former BBC radio producer, the exhibition delves into the personal stories of early radio listeners, using rare first-person testimonies to highlight how radio transformed home life.
“Histories of radio tend to focus on the broadcasters, but the stories of those who experienced this massive cultural shift are also worth telling,” says the introductory explanation in the exhibition, making the point that the advert of radio was as impactful as the coming of the printing press.
Audio on Demand and Podcasting are transforming how and where we listen, the exhibition asks “might the experiences of our grandparents help us better understand how we listen today?”
The exhibition features a soundscape where visitors can listen to extracts from unpublished interviews conducted by Winifred Gill and Hilda Jennings in 1938. These interviews reveal the complex dynamics within households, including how radio sometimes reinforced gender imbalances. For instance, stories of husbands controlling access to the wireless reflect the societal norms of the time.
Although radio did not necessarily transform women’s lives, Listen In considers how it enriched home life and made it less lonely, as captured in the covers for the Radio Times. Beginning at a time when the majority of British women did not have the vote, the wireless gave them access to a wider world: not only advice about cookery, parenting, and gardening but also, once all women obtained the right to vote in 1929, to information about politics and public life. However, these benefits masked the ongoing gender imbalance, including coercive control and domestic abuse.
Other themes covered in the exhibition included the important role radio played in unifying the nation during the world wars and after the Blitz the role it played in recovery.
In the 1930s radio was also seen as an educational tool for the rural workers, a “Rural University” and for children.
Families gathered around the radio, but an interesting point to note, especially in British homes of the time, is that radio was not the only reason why families would gather together in the main sitting room. British homes before the second world war were not well heated, the main living room and kitchen were warm, but the bedrooms and rest of the house was often chilly. Radio, joined sewing, knitting and reading as something to do in the warm living room during cold London winters.
The exhibition also showcases cartoons and advertisements from the era, providing a sometimes humorous and insightful look into the challenges and joys of adopting this new technology. If you think getting your family away from their technological devices for dinner is a new phenomenon, a notable cartoon from the Radio Times in 1922 depicts guests at a dinner party wearing headphones and sitting in silence, instead of speaking to one another.
Exhibition curator Beaty Rubens says: “Nowadays, we consider radio a familiar old companion, but in the 1920s and 1930s, it was the radical, disruptive new technology. The early history of radio is almost always told from the broadcasters’ point of view, so it’s been truly fascinating for me to mine the Bodleian archives and reveal the impact of radio on the first ever listeners – our own parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.”
John Reith, appointed as the company’s general manager in December 1922, played a pivotal role in shaping the BBC’s early years. Reith’s vision was to create a service that would “inform, educate and entertain” the nation, setting a high moral tone and avoiding commercial advertising. This ethos has remained central to the BBC’s identity.
The BBC has been instrumental in shaping British culture, from its coverage of royal events to its role in popularizing music festivals like Glastonbury. Its commitment to public service broadcasting has ensured that it remains a trusted source of news and entertainment for generations.
About the Author
radioinfo’s Steve Ahern is on assignment in Europe and visited the exhibition last month before heading to Athens for RadioDays.