Broadcasting cookery: BBC radio programmes in the 1920s and 1930s. (22nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lyon, Phil; Ross, Liz
• Is Part Of: International journal of consumer studies. Volume 40:Number 3(2016)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 335
• Publication Date: 2016-01-22
• Subjects: BBC -- cookery -- gender -- radio -- wireless -- 1920s -- 1930s; Consumer education -- Periodicals; Home economics -- Periodicals; 339.486405
• DOI: 10.1111/ijcs.12265
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-6423

Abstract

Abstract: The development of British radio broadcasting technology in the 1920s and 1930s and, equally importantly, the progressively widespread purchase and use of radio sets established a new platform from which to engage and influence the population on a number of matters. The British Broadcasting Corporation's public service principles of programmes to inform, educate and entertain gave rise to various content experiments at a time when there were very few precedents. One such innovation was the cookery talk. This was broadcast live, accomplished without the possibility of practical demonstration, and constituted a new, and abstract, form of communication primarily designed for women in their own homes. In this, women were the earliest and most frequent contributors, and their broadcast content differed from that provided by men. By reference to archive material, this article examines the social context and the thinking behind those early years of radio cookery talks and documents the contributors who were to establish this now‐familiar genre of broadcasting.