BBC celebrates 100 years in Northern Ireland

It is 100 years since the first BBC broadcast from Northern Ireland.

On 15 September 1924, a Belfast based station known as 2BE became the ninth station of the fledgling British Broadcasting Company.

The centenary is being marked on Sunday with a special series of programmes on BBC Radio Ulster.

They include a recording of a concert held at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast to mark the 100th anniversary.

Entitled The Living Air, it features the Ulster Orchestra conducted by James Burton and will be broadcast at 19:00 BST on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Sounds.

The concert was hosted by BBC presenters John Toal, Tara Mills and Declan Harvey.

Belfast beginnings

Back in 1924, the first voice heard on the airwaves from Belfast was Tyrone Guthrie who went on to enjoy an international career in theatre, as well as broadcasting.

The first floor of a converted linen warehouse at 31 Linen Hall Street in Belfast became home to the BBC’s operations in the city.

The head of music at Methodist College, E Godfrey Brown, was appointed as the first member of staff.

He was soon joined by a small group of colleagues, many of them musicians.

The beginnings of the new BBC station were modest - and Mr Brown had to pay for some of the furniture himself.

Tyrone Guthrie was the first voice heard on the airwaves in Belfast

The BBC’s Belfast station was part of a developing UK-wide network.

Its schedule was intended to complement the programmes that were available from other BBC stations – reflecting local talent and diversity, while remaining sensitive to the particular circumstances that the BBC faced in Northern Ireland.

In the early days, politics was avoided.

The first Belfast transmitter was located in the east of the city on East Bridge Street, opposite what is now Lanyon Place train station.

It is a raised part of Belfast. It was deemed best suited at the time for a radio transmitter and a blue plaque now marks the spot where it was placed.

'The window and the mirror'

Former controller of BBC NI Anna Carragher believes the corporation changed as society evolved

The first half of the centenary of the BBC in Northern Ireland was dominated by radio, then television came to the fore.

Former controller of BBC NI Anna Carragher believes the corporation changed as society evolved.

“Initially the sheer joy of having this strange thing called the wireless, that music came out of, carried people along," she said.

“And then, as it [the BBC] went through the decades, it started becoming much more what we used to call ‘the window and the mirror’.

“Television is a window and a mirror. It’s a window that we could look through and see other places, other people and other things - but also a mirror we could see ourselves in."

BBC NI director Adam Smyth at the location of the first Belfast transmitter on East Bridge Street

The current director of BBC NI, Adam Smyth, said the centenary was a “reflective moment” for the corporation in Belfast.

“We should be enormously proud of what we’ve achieved and that’s thanks to our very loyal audience," he added.

Mr Smyth admitted it had not been a perfect journey through the past 100 years.

He said BBC had picked up some “cuts and bruises” along the way, but had emerged as “deeply beloved” by many people.