100 years of broadcasting in Scotland charted in latest exhibition at Burntisland's Museum of Communication

Volunteers at the Museum of Communication Tom Stevenson, Dorothy Brankin and Robert Campbell. Pic: Fife Photo Agency.

Public broadcasting in Scotland is celebrating its centenary this year and as such is the focus of a Burntisland based museum’s latest exhibition.

The Museum of Communication is opening its doors to visitors throughout the summer, offering people of all ages the chance to take a look inside the history of broadcasting in Scotland.

This year’s exhibition follows a successful and well attended display in 2022 which commemorated the 100 years since broadcasting started in Britain.

John Blackie, one of the volunteers involved in the running of the High Street based museum, said: “The exhibition will feature famous radio and TV programmes and events illustrated by items from our collection – crystal set radios, valve wirelesses and TVs, recalling the great moments in broadcasting history, events of the day and other memorabilia.

The exhibition runs from now until September.

“We will have a broadcast demonstration for young people to enjoy and explain some of the technical aspects of broadcasting. We also will show how broadcasting has evolved into today’s world of online streaming, smart phones and HDTV.”

The first radio service in Scotland was launched by the British Broadcasting Company on March 6, 1923. The station called 5SC was located in Bath Street in Glasgow. The small crowded studio often housed an orchestra, pipe band, choir, solo singers, actors and speech-makers trying to send news, current affairs, sport, religious addresses and entertainment into people’s homes. The service quickly expanded to include new stations based in Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh.

The output from Scottish stations were even picked up in the United States during 1924. In 1927, the BBC combined local stations into the BBC Regional Programme, which merged to form the BBC Home Service in 1939. It had some national ‘opt outs’ until the establishment of a separate BBC Radio Scotland in 1978.

Television had a sombre start in Scotland with the broadcast of the funeral of King George VI on February 15, 1952. The Kirk O’Shotts transmitter broadcast programmes that came from London but with some Scottish content. The first Scottish broadcast was from Edinburgh’s large music studio to the whole of the UK. It featured a prater of dedication, a speech by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh and ten minutes of Scottish country dancing.

The Museum of Communication's annual summer exhibition this year looks at the history of broadcasting in Scotland over the last 100 years.

By the mid 1960s TV and radio coverage had reached over 97 per cent of Scotland. The ‘Great Glen Chain’, a ribbon of links and transmitters across Scotland was expensive to set up but showd that the BBC was earnestly extending its services to outlying and thinly populated areas.

The exhibition charts the continued changes and improvements in television and radio broadcasting over the following decades right up until the present day.

Find out more about the first television programmes to be filmed in Scotland and how BBC Scotland has increased the number of programmes made to be shown on the networks.

The exhibition offers a fantastic opportunity to learn about the development of broadcasting in Scotland – something many take for granted these days, but the journey to where we are now is a fascinating one.

The 100 Years of Broadcasting in Scotland exhibition is open at the Museum of Communication, 131 High Street, Burntisland on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11am to 4pm. It runs from now until September.

Entry to the exhibition is free, but donations towards the work of this unique charity run entirely by volunteers are always welcome.

If you would like any more information contact the museum by emailing [email protected] or visit https://museumofcommunication.org.uk