Book:  On Air - A History of BBC Transmission

Introduction

The BBC’s services were broadcast by its own transmitters from 1922 until 1997 - a lifetime.  Thousands of people were involved in transmitting* the programmes and hundreds of millions of people benefited through the information, education and entertainment that they received.

The book On Air celebrates a lifetime of achievement in the world of broadcast transmission engineering and includes many anecdotes from the lives of people involved.  100 hardback and 500 paperback editions of On Air were printed in June 2003 and they were all sold by early 2004.  A re-print was made available in January 2006 and they sold out in February 2009.

The idea for On Air arose in 1997 when BBC Transmission was privatised and two new companies were formed: called Crown Castle and Merlin Communications.  It was the end of an era and a natural point for reflection on past achievements.  The result is a book of some 80,000 words, edited by Norman Shacklady and Martin Ellen.

The tower at Crystal Palace (as shown on the front of the book) is a well known landmark in south London, but it is only one of around 1400 sites used for the broadcasting of BBC services. Masts and towers are the most obvious aspect of BBC Transmission, but visitors are usually amazed at the size and complexity of the associated infrastructure.

In the beginning there were medium wave domestic radio services, but these were followed by higher quality stereo VHF/FM services, data services such as RDS and digital radio.

Television developed from 405 to 625 lines, then colour, teletext and NICAM stereo sound, followed by digital television.

"Short wave" overseas broadcasting started with UK based medium power transmitters that needed many staff to operate them and developed into a worldwide network of high power transmitting stations with fully automatic operation.

This book describes the technological and organizational developments that took place, but over half of the book is devoted to the personal reminiscences of the people involved.  They were geographically spread, but there was a tremendous sense of community and the unusual aspects of the work generated many stories. These stories are best told over a pint of beer and this was often the case, but many people felt that it would be worth trying to get some of the anecdotes into a book, so here it is............

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The picture shows the first print of the book (July 2003) in both paperback and hardback form.

The January 2006 reprint wass only available is paperback form.  Due to difficulties with our original supplier, the book had to be regenerated and as a result it differs slightly from the original.