From: me@yahoo.com   
      
   On 2024-11-15 10:20:14 +0000, Ross Clark said:   
      
   > It was the British Broadcasting _Company_ at this time, owned by a   
   > consortium of wireless companies, who feared the "chaos" attendant on   
   > the expansion of radio broadcasting in the USA at the time.   
   >   
   > Business-wise it did not work out very well, and in 1927 it was taken   
   > over by the government and became a "Corporation", with a   
   > public-service "charter".   
   >   
   > "Its first operating license restricted broadcasting to news and   
   > information from just four news agencies. Daily broadcasts began in   
   > Marconi's London studio, 2LO...in the Strand. A news bulletin went out   
   > at 5:33 p.m., along with a weather report, spoken by the Director of   
   > Programmes, Arthur Burrows, in an authoritative RP accent."   
   > Burrows also played Father Christmas in _The Truth About Father   
   > Christmas_, thought to be the first broadcast drama. And he was the   
   > first "Uncle Arthur" on _The Children's Hour_.   
   >   
   > So the RP accent became known as "BBC English". The Advisory Committee   
   > on Spoken English was set up in 1926 to provide approved pronunciations   
   > for new words and foreign names, and as an authority to support news   
   > readers against the inevitable complaints. A fascinating body in which   
   > both Daniel Jones and George Bernard Shaw were involved.   
      
   My recollection is that John Reith spoke as you'd expect a Scottish   
   Calvinist to speak, but he insisted that people who spoke on the   
   wireless ("radio" was lower class) should speak RP.   
   >   
   > My impression is that it was not until the 1970s that a wider range of   
   > accents began to be heard.   
   >   
   > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC   
      
      
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