Our timeline has reached the end of the BBC's first year in November 1923. So we're looking back at music broadcast in that period, with gramophone enthusiast, expert and entertainer Earl Okin.

From the BBC's first song (Kreisler's Liebesleid, played 15 November 1922) to the last in the listings of its first year (John Ireland's Phantasie Trio in A Minor), it was a pre-jazz era of light opera and the odd dose of music hall.

Guiding us through songs that were on air, plus a few other favourites from that era, musician and comedian Earl Okin handpicks from his collection of over 10,000 78s, along with a few of Auntie's early favourites from elsewhere.

You'll hear the music and tales behind:

Liebesleid – Fritz Kreisler
Annie Laurie – Clara Butt
Lemare’s Andantino – Cecil Dixon
Abide With Me – Rex Palmer
Piccadilly Trot – Mari Lloyd
Softly Awakes My Heart – Marian Anderson
The Blind Ploughman – Feodor Chaliapin
if it Wasn’t the House In Between – Gus Elen
On with the Motley/Vesti La Giubba – Enrico Caruso
John Willie Come on – George Formby Sr
Five Foot Two – The Savoy Orpheans
Passing By – Paul Robeson
Phantasie Trio in A Minor – John Ireland

SHOWNOTES:

Earl Okin's Gramophone Show podcast is available wherever you get podcasts, eg http://earlokin.blogspot.com; https://www.earlokin.net/podcast
John Hannon's Facebook post about Richard H White is here on our Facebook group.
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.
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Next time, Episode 116: The BBC's First Birthday

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

#115 Early BBC Music and Gramophone Records with Earl Okin

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

#115 Early BBC Music and Gramophone Records with Earl Okin