BBC marks a centenary of broadcasting in the South West

The studios of Station 5PY were located in rented rooms in the city centre

It is Friday evening, 28 March 1924, and an excited crowd packed into Plymouth's Guildhall to hear a concert and speech by the town's mayor.

Nothing too unusual in that, but on this occasion the event was broadcast nationally to an estimated three million listeners.

Broadcasting had arrived in the South West.

The British Broadcasting Company, as it was then called, had only been on air for 16 months when it created a number of regional relay stations across the UK.

The studios of Station 5PY were located in rented rooms in the city centre. It meant, for the first time, national radio was in reach of people in region and Plymouth was able to make and broadcast programmes of its own.

Those early broadcasts featured plays, talks, music and a hugely popular children's hour.

• History of the BBC: 100 years of broadcasting in the South West

Early broadcasts featured plays, talks, music and a hugely popular children's hour

Early programming

Interviewed in 1974, original staff member Madge Taylor recalled how all members of the tiny team would take on the roles of friendly aunts and uncles for a typical episode of Children's Corner.

"First there was the opening chorus in which all the aunts and uncles joined in," she said at the time.

"Then the uncles, as we called them - the station director and assistant station director - would sing a duet.

"Then there would come my reading. I would try and dramatise it and read all the parts myself.

"I well remember reading Black Beauty and crying over it, and children would write in next day and say they were so sorry Aunty Madge cried because they cried too."

WW2 forces move

BBC South West began broadcasting from Ingledene House in Plymouth as World War Two loomed. It is still a BBC site

With World War Two looming, broadcasting operations moved out of the city centre to continue broadcasting from Ingledene House, a Victorian villa in the suburbs.

It was from there in 1961 that the region's first television news programmes were broadcast, with BBC Spotlight talking to the airwaves in 1963.

By the 1970s, the old Ingeldene site had to be expanded. New studios were built on Seymour Road in Mannamead, the current headquarters of BBC South West, which became a centre of production for a wide variety of programmes.

There were documentaries, quizzes and youth programming.

One notable hit came in 1984 with Floyd On Fish, featuring the flamboyant chef Keith Floyd, which redefined the cooking show genre.

Change afoot

BBC South West moved away from general programme-making to focus on news and current affairs. Here, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is interviewed by BBC Spotlight presenter Victoria Graham

Ultimately, the decision was taken to move away from general programme-making to focus on news, current affairs and politics.

In the early 2000s, online journalists joined TV and radio colleagues in the Plymouth newsroom.

In recent years, the number of online journalists has grown as the BBC South West prepares for the next chapter in its long history.