Behind the Wireless

Gender, Radio Broadcasting and the Role of the Public Intellectual: The BBC Career of Margery Fry, 1928–1958

“…As Murphy has demonstrated with regard to Hilda Matheson and several other early women employees and contributors at the BBC, Fry was a woman who was in a position to exercise individual agency, for example by successfully offering ideas for individual talks and multipart series, albeit as a freelance contributor rather than staff member. 85 Moreover, certain women had the attributes to prosper in the predominately upper-middle class world of early British broadcasting, and Fry was one of these. The BBC as an organisation was institutionally receptive to her social and cultural capital -her Oxford education, policy expertise and Bloomsbury connectionsto the extent that her gender was less of a structural barrier to success as a public intellectual than might be expected.…”

“…19 The comment on her 'good voice' probably alludes to more general concerns on the part of broadcasting executives that the pitch of women's voices were not as suited to microphones as men's, while 'attractive appearance' was not only a highly gendered remark, but one which seems rather irrelevant to radio work. 20 However, after this run of appearances in 1933-4 there appears to have been a hiatus in Fry's broadcasting career between 1935 and 1940. For part of that time she was a BBC governor.…”

Feminist avenues for listening in: amplifying silenced histories of media and communication

“…In organisations like the B.B.C., for instance, the departments related to archives and documentation were largely initiated or headed by women. 39 In various European settings, a significant number of young women entered into roles connected to library, archiving and sound technical work before, during and after World War II. 40 New assessments of the institutional archive have suggested a site of collaborative teamwork and 'distributed creativity' even if not officially credited as such.…”

Rhoda Power, la radio de BBC, et l’education universelle, 1922-1957

“…20 At the centre of the investigation into schools was Mary Somerville, the BBC's first female producer recruited by Reith in 1925, who became Director of Schools Broadcasting in 1929. 21 Following the Kent inquiry, the Central Council for Schools Broadcasting (CCSB) was formed in 1929. The CCSB was charged with both the educational responsibility for programme proposals at the transmitting end, and with helping schools at the listening end.…”