The BBC began its first daily radio broadcasts

On November 14, 1922, Arthur Burrows, Director of Programmes at the newly formed British Broadcasting Company, opened Britain’s first national radio service from Marconi House on the Strand in London. The station’s call sign was 2LO.

That first daily transmission carried a news bulletin, which Burrows read out twice — once quickly, once slowly — asking listeners to write in and say which pace they preferred. It was a small, courteous gesture at the dawn of a medium nobody yet knew how to use.

Within 24 hours, sister stations in Birmingham and Manchester joined the air.

The company became the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation in 1927, but the daily rhythm of news, talks, and music began here. A century on, that single London voice had grown into one of the world’s most recognized broadcasters.