 "THE BBC: A Century on Air")
The British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC — the Beeb — turns 100 this year. “Hullo, hullo, 2LO calling, 2LO calling,” a few thousand listeners heard through the hissing ether at 6 p.m. on November 14, 1922. “This is the British Broadcasting Company. 2LO. Stand by for one minute please!” What followed were short news and weather bulletins, read twice, the second time slowly so that listeners could take notes.
David Hendy, in his thorough and engaging book, The BBC: A Century on Air, writes that you can’t understand England without understanding the BBC. It occupies, he says, “a quasi-mystical place in
