The ±«Óãtv’s motto,‘Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation’, adopted in 1927, reflected the ±«Óãtv’s ambition and purpose at that time. But what about the nations that formed the UK? Did they speak peace unto each other or with London, the centre of corporate power?
Newly-released oral histories from the ±«Óãtv’s archives shine a light on relations between the regions and the ±«Óãtv in London. Wales provides a fascinating case study to explore some of these issues.
The Welsh historian, John Davies, once argued that Wales was an artefact created by broadcasting and that nowhere in Europe had radio and television played a more important role in defining the nation, to itself and to those outside. Geraint Stanley Jones, a former Controller of ±«Óãtv Wales (1981-86), Director of Public Affairs, and Director of Nations and Regions in London (1986-89) underlined this point:
±«Óãtv broadcasting in Wales began on 13 February 1923 at 5pm, when the British Broadcasting Company opened its 5WA station in Cardiff. As elsewhere in the UK, broadcasting began on a local basis, but that soon changed when, after the change to a Corporation, the ±«Óãtv began to centralise overall control in London whilst introducing a scheme whereby "regions" were created throughout the UK.
Gerald Beadle, who was appointed ±«Óãtv station director in Belfast in 1926 and went on to become Director of Television in the mid-1950s, drew attention to one issue raised by this move in his 1963 book: "The regional controllers opposed this form of centralization as damaging to the proper reflection of local life and talent…"
Wales formed part of the so-called "West Region", sharing a transmitter with the west of England. This created tensions on both sides of the Bristol Channel and Alun Oldfield-Davies, Controller of ±«Óãtv Wales between 1945 and 1967, reflected on this in an interview for the ±«Óãtv Oral History Collection in 1987:
"That was because of the shortage of transmitters, a shortage of wavelengths. And it was a very unhappy marriage on both sides. West resented it as much as Wales did. Especially since it was confined to South Wales largely, and North Wales depended upon Liverpool and that was true not only of the early days of broadcasting but the early days of television as well when they looked to Granada to serve them with television instead of looking to Wales as a whole. So that has always been a bit of a problem. How to get an independent separate service for Wales as a whole."
The 1930s witnessed increased pressure from many parts of Welsh society (most notably the University of Wales and local authorities) for the ±«Óãtv to recognise Wales as a nation with its own cultural and linguistic needs. Much of the anger was targeted at the ±«Óãtv’s insistence that both the geography of the country and the scarcity of wavelengths made establishing a separate Welsh region difficult (see below).
In 1935 Wales was given regional status although the transmitter in Penmon which effectively allowed the new region to operate on a technical level was not opened until February 1937. As Asa Briggs notes:
"When eventually the split between the West Country and Wales was about to take place in 1937, the ±«Óãtv itself referred publicly to 'the zest with which the West Country and Wales have demanded separate treatment … Nothing except technical difficulties … has prevented the speedier dissolution of this mutually uncomfortable partnership'."
±«Óãtv Television arrived on Welsh soil in August 1952 when the Wenvoe transmitter in the Vale of Glamorgan opened for the first time. However, given that television signals do not respect national boundaries, once again, Wales was tied to the West of England in television terms - a case of one step forward and two steps back?
Such was the level of ill-feeling in the Bristol area with viewers having to endure programming in a language that was alien to them, that one evening newspaper began a "Ban Welsh Telly" campaign. Not only that, but non-Welsh speaking viewers in South Wales got very irritated when network television programmes were replaced by regional opt-out programmes, very often in the Welsh language.
The situation was eased somewhat by the creation of ±«Óãtv Wales Television in 1964, partly as a result of a recommendation of the Pilkington Committee report (1962) whereby the ±«Óãtv would produce 7 hours of Welsh-language and 5 hours of English-language programming a week for the nation.
Alwyn Roberts, who was National Governor for Wales between 1979 and 1986 recalls that period and suggests that the answer lay in a separate fourth channel for Wales:
The 1970s witnessed a concerted effort on the part of Welsh cultural and political groups for a separate Welsh language channel. This solution would satisfy both Welsh speakers and non-Welsh speakers as Geraint Stanley Jones, S4C Chief Executive between 1989 and 1994, explains:
When, in 1982, S4C was launched, the ±«Óãtv provided Welsh-language programming to the channel and re-branded ±«Óãtv Wales as an English-language service.
The story of the ±«Óãtv and its oxymoronic-sounding "national regions", as they were once called, is a fascinating and often complex one. On the one hand, one might argue that the ±«Óãtv in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland played a key role in nation-building in these countries by providing programming (including news, current affairs, drama, talks) tailored to the specific needs of audiences in these countries.
There is no doubt that the ±«Óãtv has played a major role in the political and cultural life of Wales, whether that be through the National Orchestra, the broadcasts from the National Eisteddfod, or its reporting from the Senedd (the Welsh Assembly) in Cardiff. Certainly the new ±«Óãtv Charter places emphasis on the importance of reflecting life in the nations and regions.
On the other hand, one could argue that the ±«Óãtv has also played a role in an attempt to preserve a "united kingdom" by ensuring that overall control still rests in Broadcasting House in London. As media historian Kevin Williams has argued, Reith’s major contribution to British broadcasting was "the imposition of a certain set of cultural values on the whole of Britain and the centralisation of these values at the expense of local, regional and national differences".
The promotion of a unified sense of national (i.e. British) identity was at the heart of the Reithian endeavour and some might argue is still there at the heart of the ±«Óãtv. Calls for the devolution of broadcasting powers by nationalist groups in Wales and Scotland have so far been ignored by the ±«Óãtv and Government.
The visibility of the non-English nations on network radio and television is a concern at the highest level within the Corporation and concerted efforts are being made to ensure that the nations really do speak to each other, and respect each other, over the airwaves.