Radio broadcasting from Hull is one hundred years old this week. Now that may come as a surprise to listeners of BBC Radio Humberside who probably thought the station was about half that age. This anniversary marks the opening of the BBC’s relay station in Hull on Friday 15 August 1924. But its life was short, closing just over six years later when it became part of the Northern Region based in Manchester. Here is its story.
In 1924 the BBC was operating main stations such as 2LO in London, 5IT Birmingham, 2ZY Manchester and 5WA Cardiff (eight in total with 2BE Belfast joining in October). It supplemented these with low-powered relay stations designed to fill in some of the gaps in coverage of the main stations. Receiving the broadcast signal via Post Office lines they would then transmit them on to wireless listeners in the locality. In the main they carried the London-based programmes from 2LO but could simultaneously broadcast the output from any other station (radio schedules of the time would often list ‘SB from.....’ to show these simultaneous broadcasts). The Sheffield relay station opened in November 1923 followed by a further nine in 1924 of which Hull was one.
The relay station for Hull was given the call sign 2HU in February 1924 with a planned operational date sometime in May. By the summer the launch was now earmarked for 1 August and just a fortnight before going live the call sign was now 6KH. (1) In the event the start date slipped on a fortnight, probably due to the BBC’s ambitious timetable for opening all the relay sites.
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| The Bishop Lane building that housed 6KH (photographed in 2018) |
A studio base was sought initially in Albion Street but they settled on 26-27 Bishop Lane, part of a Georgian terrace in Hull’s Old Town. (2) The transmitting station was about a mile north at Lion Mills on Wincolmlee with an aerial slung between the building and the chimney of the oil seed mill. (3) Like all the relay stations power was restricted to 200W and initially it radiated on 320 metres.(4) The station’s first director, Leslie Page (5), explained how it worked: “the sounds pass through the microphone, then the amplifier in the control room, and then an ordinary land line down to transmitter, where they are radiated. The transmitter generates the carrier wave, and the sound wave comes from the studio”.
At Bishop Lane the control room and studio was on the first floor, sound- proofed with thick carpet and heavy mauve and grey-fawn coloured curtains. The ground floor comprised four rooms used for offices and accommodation for artistes and callers, with a yard to the rear. The construction work was done by Messrs J. T. Taylor and Sons, of Saner Street.
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| Opening ceremony billing from the Radio Times |
The opening night of 6KH on Friday 15 August 1924 was a live relay of a concert from Hull City Hall between 8 pm and 10.30 pm. Aside from the speeches from the BBC chiefs and local dignitaries the entertainment was provided by the Band of the 1st battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, soprano Miriam Licette, bass Norman Allin and ‘mirth-maker’ Charles Penrose, best known for his rendition of The Laughing Policeman. There was also an unbilled performance by pianist Edward Stubbs, making him the first local artist to appear on the station. All the other BBC stations broadcast the speeches that were given around 9.30 pm.
The report in the following days Hull Daily Mail is positively effusive in its praise of the concert, though it notes some technical issues on the broadcast including the acoustics of the hall leading to an echo and a hum on the signal probably caused by the dynamo at the transmitter. It waxes lyrically about those that were listening-in whether in their parlour or in a garret. The paper also takes great delight that it coined the term ‘Prince of Broadcast’ for the BBC chief engineer Peter Eckersley, so much so that it repeats this fact at the end of the report.
With the front page boldly proclaiming Hull’s Hullo to England the station opening was hailed as an “epoch making event in city life” as four million and three thousand people heard the ceremony. The four million were “listening in” whilst the odd three thousand were inside the building.
Here’s what it had to say about the opening concert:
On the stroke of 8 o’clock Mr Leslie Page, the Director of Broadcasting for the Hull Relay Station, stepped towards the front of the platform and, in a quiet voice, which was probably more audible to people listening-in in their own parlours than to those at the back of the City Hall, announced:
“Hello, Hull Relay Station calling. Just commencing. The first items will be the Imperial March (Elgar) and the overture William Tell (Rossini), by the Band of the 1st Durham Light Infantry.
These words carried in all directions for a five-mile radius around the City Hall, announced the commencement of the serious work of 6KH.
The playing of the band was full of enjoyment, a fact that was testified to by the loud applause.
What strange visions passed through our minds as that thunder of applause burst forth.
We saw listeners-in all over Hull saying excitedly, “Listen to that applause. Isn’t it remarkable?”
We saw the man with his £25 set, in a beautiful cabinet, seated in a comfortably furnished room, “listening-in”.
We saw the garret listener on the top floor back with “the set that cost 4s 2d, plus 1s 6d aerial, a pair of ‘phones which cost 12s 6d and wire wrapped round a goal post arrangement in the attic – “listening-in”. Both, no doubt, heard the same band and marvelled at the same applause. As both paid precisely the same price to hear the concert, we hoped they both enjoyed it equally well.
We were aroused from this dream of listening-in, both great and small, by the voice of Mr Leslie Page. “Hello, Hull Relay Station Calling!”. Mr Norman Allin, the well-known bass was announced. He sang with a beauty of expression and tone, the recit and air She alone charmeth my sadness from The Queen of Sheba (Gaunod), Old cloths and fine cloths (Martin Shaw) and The Yeoman of the Guard from German’s Merrie England.
Mr Charles Penrose, the ‘mirth-maker’, came to the stage in a tornado of laughter. He explained that he was suffering from “laughteritis”, the most awful of all the “itises”, and proceeded to demonstrate its contagious character. He laughed so heartily and so loudly that the audience could not help but join in.
Again our vision of the “listener-in” returned. Again we saw the laughing listener in the lavish parlour. Again we saw the excited enthusiast on the end of the wire in the garret. It was good that somebody not able to get to this great concert was able to enjoy the great fun that we were enjoying. What they missed, however, was the face of Charles Penrose, and, quite candidly it was a lot to miss”
“Hull Relay Station calling – “
The band of the 1st Durham had just finished Tchaikovsky’s broad strains of the Marche Slave and the voice of the director brought us back to the scenes around us. Miss Miriam Licette was announced. Her first item was the Aria Vissi d’Arte (Tosca), which was one of the test pieces at this year’s Hull Musical Festival. Miss Licette’s singing was full of interest, her voice being one of exceptional purity and charm. Go not, happy day (Frank Bridge) and Sometimes in my dreams (Guy d’Hardelot) were other items which afforded considerable pleasure.
After the band had played other items the Director announced that there was still some time in hand. That was about 9.15 and the next item was scheduled for 9.30 pm. Accordingly Mr Penrose gave other humorous items, and a pianoforte sole was given by Mr E Stubbs, who is thus the first local artist to be broadcast by 6KH.
The opening speeches of Rear-Admiral C.D. Carpendale, CB (Controller of the BBC) and the Lord Mayor of Hull [Councillor E.E. Keighley, JP] who performed the opening ceremony, were broadcast to all stations in the British Isles.
“Hull Relay Station calling the British Isles”, commenced the Rear-Admiral. “I open our new station in this city. It may be peculiar that I, as a stranger, should come here to introduce your own Lord Mayor, but I hope you will forgive me what I say that besides this vast audience here, there are about four million people listening to these speeches.”
Proceeding, he said that on this very day, August 15th, he was in Hull as a mid-shipman in HMS Ruby, the old sailing ship, barque-rigged, with auxiliary steam. He was then 15 years of age. This was the 15th broadcast station the BBC had opened. (Applause).
“For the benefit of those listening in outside,” he remarked, “i would like to describe the scene or, so to speak, ring up the curtain. I am speaking in the City Hall, Hull. Before me is a vast audience. The house is packed. There is standing room only. On the stage, behind artistic floral decorations, are the band of the 1st Durham Light Infantry, seated beneath the huge organ pipes. On the platform beside me is the Lord Mayor, the Lady Mayoress, and other prominent citizens of Hull.“
He went on to speak of the unavoidable absence of Mr Reith (BBC managing director) and Capt. Eckersley, the chief engineer, whom the Hull Daily Mail had properly christened ‘The Prince of Broadcast’. The latter had gone on a holiday on the moors, taking a gun, ostensibly to shoot grouse, but he (the speaker) believed he was after some of the oscillators in the neighbourhood of the northern stations (laughter).
These relay stations would normally take the whole of the London evening programmes except one night a week when they would take a local programme. There would also, locally, be the children’s hour daily, and the Hull station would be in a position to broadcast any local or civic events of particular interest to Hull and the neighbourhood, and it would take from any other station in the country any events considered of sufficient interest to be broadcast. It was the object of the BBC to bring to the people of Hull and district entertainment, interest and information.
Mr Page, as the Station Director, would remain in Hull, and he hoped he would have their sincere and helpful co-operation (applause).
The Lord Mayor said he thought that for the first time in his life he was suffering from stage fright. It was not the audience he saw, but the millions of people outside who were frightening him (laughter).
His Lordship referred to the death of Lord Nunburnholme, and, at his request, the audience stood in memory.
The Lord Mayor went on to congratulate the BBC on opening a station at Hull, and in bearing in mind that it was really Kingston-upon-Hull. He was glad, he said, that they realised the present and future importance of the city and port, the merits of which, for the benefit of “listeners-in”, he went on to describe.
His lordship struck a novel note when he addressed a few remarks to friends in various towns he named whom, he said, he knew would be listening-in.
“This is Ernest Keighley speaking,” he remarked, “and for the moment and the next two months I am honoured by holding the position of Lord Mayor of Kingston-upon-Hull. When Relay Station 6KH is calling you, you will know it means Hull. Will the lady “listeners-in” accept my loving and respectful greetings.”
His lordship concluded by declaring the Relay Station opened and thanked the BBC for devoting the proceeds of the opening concert to the local Hospitals Fund.
The band gave several other items before “closing down” time.
Owing to a slight fault the London signals were not received at the City hall, but private listeners-in received them perfectly through the Hull Relay Station. Much pleasure was caused by the announcement.
General opinion amongst those who were listening-in in Hull is that while reception was good, it could have been better. It was not that anything was missed, but that over all there was a buzzing singing hum, which many wireless enthusiast declared was the noise of the dynamo at the Hull Relay Station, whilst there was also an echo effect from the hall which will not cause any trouble, of course, when transmission is made from the studio. Where the London items were relayed shortly after ten o’clock, there was a marked clarity of reception as compared to the Hull broadcast.
Apart from this slight fault, which it may be possible to rectify, listeners-in were perfectly satisfied with the strength of signals, and thoroughly enjoyed the programme.
Many people not fortunate enough to possess sets of their own clustered round wireless dealers’ shops to hear the demonstrations on the loud speaker and today every other person in Hull is talking wireless.
In apologising to the vast audience in the City Hall, on Friday night, at the official opening of 6KH, the Hull Relay Station, for the absence of Mr J.C.W. Reith (the managing director of the British Broadcasting Company) and of Capt. P.P. Eckersley, M.I.E.E. (the chief engineer), Rear-Admiral Carpendale, C.B. spoke of Capt. Eckersley (to the accompaniment of tumultuous applause) as he “whom Hull has recently and most properly christened ‘The Prince of Broadcast’.
This was a reference to the Mail Leading Article commenting on the reception accorded to the famous and illustrious wireless engineer and pioneer, which was published on the day following his lecture to the Hull and District Wireless Society in the Owen Hall, a little more than a fortnight ago.
In addition to the front page article the paper’s editorial article was headed ‘The Romance of Broadcast’, a somewhat self-congratulatory piece which gave a history of wireless broadcasting in the UK and talked about how the Hull Daily Mail had “with pardonable pride .... exerted no inconsiderable amount of influence in obtaining for local patrons of the science a Relay Station”. The newspaper had for some time ran a regular Radio Remarks column written by ‘Valve’ and, it claimed, it had “consistently adopted the policy of fostering wireless and encouraging the local amateurs”.
Amongst that estimated four million listeners-in it’s hard to know how many Hull folk tuned in. We do know that some of them were listening were doing so without a 10s licence. A couple of weeks after the launch about 7,000 licences had been issued but, according to local dealers, about 10,000 sets had been sold.
At the same time those tuning-in were also advised to ensure that their “houses are securely fastened up” before the evening broadcasts. After the opening weekend “a crop of burglaries in the better-class districts of Hull” was reported with burglars realising that people were concentrating on the wireless.
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| Uncle Gerry Kaye (not Jerry), Aunty Ida Edwards & Uncle Leslie Page (Popular Wireless 4 October 1924) |
So what could listeners to 6KH hear? Aside from the simultaneous broadcast of London programmes for the first few weeks of its existence locally produced broadcasts were confined to a daily Children’s Corner and, on Friday nights, a concert or orchestral performance.
All the BBC stations had their own version of Children’s Hour, or Children’s Corner in Hull, and it was always seen as one of the key programme and a means of engaging with a young audience who were encouraged to write in, join the Radio Circle (6) and even come into the studio to read a story or sing a song. At 6KH Children’s Corner was the both the first regular programme to be broadcast (on Saturday 16 August) and the last one when regular programmes ended in October 1928. The presenters were always referred to as ‘Aunty’ or ‘Uncle’ with many of the staff roped in to present, read or sing. So, for example, we have the station director as Uncle Leslie, the assistant director Gerald Kaye as Uncle Gerry, station accompanist Ida Edwards as Aunty Ida and, organising the Radio Circle, former Army Chaplain Rev. Reginald Newcombe as Uncle Reg. (7)
The Radio Circle for Hull was divided into five districts, each one having an area committee of ten children, with a secretary. The Circle espoused the “spirit of usefulness, service, and social responsibility” and to help good causes such as the Children’s Hospital. Apparently to help them get to know each other they were told to form 'chummy circles’.
A typical Children’s Corner would include the following (this from 23 September 1925);
Nursery Rhymes for the Little Ones
Uncle Morris’s Talk on Gardens
Two Little Sons – Aunty Miriam
Radio Circle Talk
A Funny Song by Uncle Tom
A Suite of Olden Time Songs
Letters
From late September 1924 6KH’s hours were extended with Woman’s Half-Hour and afternoon music relayed from the Majestic Picture House featuring Robert Jackson and his Orchestra or from the City Hotel with Claude Duval’s Dance Orchestra. By February 1925 some of the broadcasts were replaced by what is simply billed as Gramophone Records.
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| The 1st floor studio in Bishop Lane (Popular Wireless 18 October 1924) |
The Friday night locally produced programmes started to include short drama adaptations (some performed by the acting duo of William Macready and Edna Godfrey-Turner), comedy routines, vocal groups such as The Chromatiques quartet and local singers Winifred Ransom (soprano), Phyllis Hutchinson (contralto) and Edwin Draper (bass) who would also sometimes perform together as the 6KH Wireless Singers.
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| Memories of appearing on 6KH recalled by Mira B. Johnson for a BBC Radio Humberside programme broadcast in August 1978 |
By April 1925 a half hour schools programme was broadcast, scheduled at 3.30 pm on a Friday afternoon. The first series of talks, on local history, was given by Thomas Sheppard curator of the Hull Museum. That month also an impromptu broadcast of the opening of the Hull Daily Mail sponsored Wireless and Electrical Exhibition at Hull City Hall (a “Mecca for Wireless Lovers” with admission at 6d a ticket).
By the summer of 1925, as well as music from Hull’s Majestic Picture House (8) there were afternoon performances by Herman Darewski and his Band from The Spa, Bridlington (Darewski was the resident musical director at The Spa) and, through until October 1926, from Powolny’s Restaurant Bijou Orchestra under the direction of Edward Stubbs.(9) Later that year the regular contributors were the Hammond Cafe Trio and, from the cafe on King Edward Street, the Field’s Octagon Quartet. For a broadcast to mark the station’s second anniversary one of the guests was comedian Tommy Handley, some 13 years before the success of I.T.M.A.
There were no local programmes on Sundays though the Radio Times schedules show the occasional monthly religious service on that day, billed as Studio Service, at 8.30 pm.
Perhaps one of the most unusual programmes were the Radiosities competitions on Children’s Corner. The idea was that Uncle Ern, who was Hull-born cartoonist Ernest Shaw (pictured above), would broadcast “simple instructions which, carried out on a specially prepared chart, will result in a humorous drawing appearing on the squared design”. On the evening of 1 December 1926 there was even a Radiosities Competition for the adult audience with the addition that the entries should add the missing line for a limerick referring to the cartoon. Each entry needed a 6d postal order with the proceeds going to the Christmas Dinner for the Poor Bairns’ Fund
If Peter Eckersley was the ‘Prince of Broadcast’ he was also the architect of the demise of the relay stations with the implementation of the Regional scheme. The Regional programme was seen to offer listeners an alternative to what would become the National programme and “for building five high-powered twin-wave stations...to supersede the older system of nine main transmitting stations and eleven subsidiary relay stations of low power”. It was Eckersley’s brother Roger, then the Assistant Controller of Programmes, who axed the ‘local nights’ at the relay stations and followed a policy of centralization and advocating the supremacy of programming from London.
So by early 1927 the BBC was scaling back the local programming on its relay stations. Hull’s full evening of local entertainment programmes was dropped and live music seemed confined to the Field’s Quartet. (10) More talks were in the schedule at this time including the Afternoon Topics, Country Topics, the Hull Wireless Society (given by Secretary of the society J.G. Brazendale), the Beverley and District Bee-Keepers’ Association as well as the Weekly Football Talk.
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There was a major broadcast from 6KH that was heard across the country on 28 April 1928 on the occasion of the visit by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) to lay the Foundation Stone at Hull University. The BBC sent up their director of education, J.C. Stobart, to provide the commentary.
Regular programmes from 6KH ended in October 1928. Earlier that year control of the programmes had already transferred to the new northern regional centre at Manchester. In June the Radio Times stopped listings for the station by which time the only regular locally produced programmes was Children’s Corner, one series of talks and the local announcements and news. Children’s Corner continued from the Bishop Lane studio until Wednesday 31 October. Any remaining ‘Aunties’ and ‘Uncles’ were offered jobs at Leeds and the station director Captain Shewen left for Manchester.
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| 6KH Staff include engineer RH Lyne, chief engineer FN Calver (not Carver) and station boss Leslie Page. (Unable to trace who Bulov and Howie are) |
But that wasn’t the end of 6KH. The transmitter continued to relay programmes from London, Leeds or Manchester until 17 May 1931, by which time the new northern region site at Moorside Edge was operational. The studio at Bishop Lane also continued to be used, if only occasionally, but appears to have been dismantled, reverting back to solicitor’s offices, sometime in late 1930.
Programmes from Hull in this period included a section of the Northern Bands and Choirs (November 1928), a play for Boy Scouts (December 1928), a number of concerts in early 1929, a comedy in three acts that included music from the ‘Hull Station Trio’, a visit to Hull Guildhall by the High Commissioner for New Zealand (March 1928), a service from Holy Trinity Church (April 1929), and summer music broadcasts from the Spa Theatre in Scarborough in the Famous Northern Resorts series.
In October 1929 there was an ‘eye-witness account’ of the International Rugby League match between England and Australia played at Craven Park with commentary by former England manager Edmund Osborne. (11) That same month saw the last major broadcast from Hull when they covered the city’s Civic and Empire Week, opened by HRH Prince George, of which the speeches at the Lord Mayor’s banquet were carried by all stations.
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| The aerial at Lion Mills on Wincolmlee |
With the introduction of the Regional Programme for the north in May 1931 that was the end of local broadcasting, at least by the BBC, from Hull for forty years until BBC Radio Humberside launched on 25 February 1971.
But there’s a postscript to this story because with the closure of 6KH Hull still had another relay station. In October 1928 the City Council gave approval to the Broadcast Relay Service Ltd to “convey wires across roads where it is necessary to do so.” The following January the company started to roll-out what would be their Rediffusion service. Initially it was just one channel carrying BBC radio but it also added some continental stations, usually Hilversum and a second channel, with customer advised to ‘switch up’ for Programme A and ‘switch down’ for Programme B. The service, at the time based on Anlaby Road, was said to offer “the same clarity as if you were sitting in the front row of the audience of a BBC studio” and to have “no fadeouts, no crackling or whistling”. (12)
Post-war the number of channels gradually increased to include not only the BBC networks but Radio Eireann and Radio Luxembourg and, from 1956 by which time it was based at Rediffusion House on Beverley Road , BBC and ITV television.
Mainly Rediffusion was just relaying other broadcasts but it did also originate some of its own output though this was limited to local announcements including some rather ominous sounding flood warnings. The Rediffusion channel rotary switches would become a familiar sight in Hull households, and no doubt many still exist but the plug was pulled on the service in 1986 at which time Hull had 48,000 subscribers.
26-27 Bishop Lane in 2024 after a recent refurb and the 6KH plaque
seems to have been removed. (Photo credit Richard Stead)
Notes
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(1) It’s not clear why the call sign was changed from 2HU just weeks before the start. 2HU was at one point assigned to F. Sargent of Wellington Street in Grimsby.
(2) The BBC leased the premises at 26-27 Bishop Lane on a yearly rental of £150 plus rates. There was also a second floor with a large room to the front. Other than that it seems to have been favoured by solicitors, occupied by F.C. Manley before the BBC came in and Martinson & Stow when they left in the early 1930s and then Wright & Stow in the 1970s.
(3) The chimney has long since gone and all that remains of the oil seed crushing mill is the Lion Wharf building on Wincolmlee
(4) Reception for 6KH always seemed to be problematic. When it closed in 1931 the Hull Daily Mail noted that “the present Hull wavelength being common one is only effective within a radius of two to three miles for crystal sets, while to valve sets it is somewhat of nuisance because of the noisy background and dynamo hum.
(5) In 6KH’s short life there were three station directors. Appointed in July 1924 was Leslie Page who’d been the assistant director at the Bournemouth station. He’d joined the BBC in March 1923 as assistant station director at 2LO, moving to Cardiff in July as assistant to Arthur Corbett-Smith and then Bournemouth in January 1924. Page left Hull in February 1927 to work for the Indian Broadcasting Company.
Second, and showing how the early BBC liked to employ ex-military types, was New Zealander Captain George Dailey who joined Hull from Newcastle. Finally, Captain William Mansel Shewan who’d been the 6KH assistant director from February 1926 to March 1928 before taking up a job at the Manchester station. He was back at Hull as director in August 1928 but by the November it was off back to Manchester.
(6) The Radio Circle was described in the press at the time as “a wireless organisation for children, at the back which lies the excellent principle of encouraging spirit of usefulness, service, and social responsibility”. The BBC’s 1928 Year Book says that “Membership of a Radio Circle carries with it the right to wear a special badge, and in some cases it confers the privilege of receiving Broadcast birthday greetings”.
(7) Other Aunts and Uncles included Uncle Tom (Tom Witty), Aunty Miriam (Miriam Ditchburn), Uncle George (George Dailey), Uncle Morris, Aunty Connie (Constance Richards, later Arregger), Aunty Grace and Uncle Toby (Harvey John Dunkerley, assistant director at the Liverpool station who briefly worked at 6KH in 1925. In the 1950s he was the BBC's Midland Region Controller). Gerald Kaye moved on to 6BM in Bournemouth.
(8) The Majestic Picture House on George Street opened in 1915. After a sound system refit in 1935 it became the Criterion Picture Theatre. It was demolished in 1969.
(9) Powolny’s Restaurant had opened in Hull in 1903. It was named after German émigré Ernst Adolf Powolny who established a restaurant in Leeds. The Hull branch was in King Edward Street and by the 1920s had a ballroom on the first floor from where the broadcasts were made. Polly’s, as it became known, came to an end when it suffered a direct hit from a bomb on 8 May 1941. A Powolny’s Restaurant did re-open at the White House Hotel on Jameson Street the following year.
(10) The Friday night local programmes shifted to a Wednesday in January 1926.
(11) This seems to be the first international Rugby League commentary on the BBC. The only previous ones were of the Challenge Cup Final.
(12) Rediffusion started 157 Anlaby Road – where by 1934 they had 70,000 subscribers - then 94 Spring Bank and from January 1946 Paragon Buildings, Jameson Street with showroom at Spring Bank. They moved to 151/159 Beverley Road in 1953. By this time the company also rented television sets as well as offering BBC programmes by ‘private wire’. The number of showrooms expanded mainly to satisfy the demand for rental sets.
Sources: Hull Daily Mail back issues at The British Newspaper Archive. Radio Times listings on the BBC Programme Index. BBC Engineering 1922-1972 by Edward Pawley. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume 1 The Birth of Broadcasting 1986-1927 by Asa Briggs
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