100 years of Marconi’s historic radio broadcasts: ‘The moment the world changed’

The world-famous singer Dame Nellie Melba performed a historic broadcast on June 15, 1920 from Marconi’s lab in Chelmsford, Essex, UK.

Opera singer Anna Steiger recreated the world’s first live broadcast in the same city a hundred years ago.

“It’s hard to imagine,” he said, “that must have been incredible. ”

Historian Tim Wonder said Dame Neely’s broadcast was “The moment the world changed.”

Leading figures helped establish the BBC two years later.

Marconi, the inventor of the radio, came to Chelmsford in 1898 and was the first to use Morse code to send a message to ships across the Atlantic and beyond.

After World War I, Marconi’s engineers focused on human voice broadcasting and entertainment programs.

Mr Wonder, author of From Marconi to Melba, said Wiscont Northcliff, owner of the Daily Mail, had decided to fund the first professional live performance.

According to the author, “When Dame Nellie was first asked, she didn’t want to do that. “My voice is not something to be experienced,” she said, “But when North Cliff offered her a thousand pounds (which is about 45,000 pounds today) and that amount was no less than a 20-minute song. Then she was ready.”

When Marconi’s publicity head Arthur Bruce showed Dame Nellie a 450-foot radio mast, Nelly was 59 years old at the time and he looked at her and said: ‘Young man, if you think I’m going to climb it, you have made a big mistake.

“They’ve been heard all over the world,” Mr Wonder said, “they were heard in Sweden, France and Germany, and even in the Royal Flying Corps in Iran.”

“It simply came to our notice then. The radio signal in Paris was so good that people were dancing in the streets when they aired it in Champs Elysees.

When Dame Nellie realized that her voice had been heard by thousands of people, she said: ‘But they did not buy tickets or records for it. Everyone just listened for free.”

Alan Pamphylon, who has traveled through the pages of history in Chelmsford, said young people who use mobile phones today do not realize that it began with Marconi’s work in Chelmsford.”This is the city where the electronic age began,” he said.

Mr. Wonder and Felicity Fair Thompson have co-authored a play about broadcasting that was previously thought to be performed at the Chelmsford Sewak Theater as part of the Essex 2020 Festival.

But due to the COVID19 lockdown, it has been turned into a radio drama and has been presented with Stagger’s Lao program.

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“Opera singers were like rock stars in early years,” said Anna Steiger.

Dame Nellie Melba was so famous that a sweet like Peach Melba was named after her. Peach Melba is made from peaches, raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream.

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