First Director-General, BBC

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 663.

Media Movers and Shakers

C) Read the article again and explain the words in bold, then suggest synonyms for the underlined words. Where could you read such an article?

Which of the people ...

B) Read the article and match the sentences to the people (A-C).

A) Look at the title of the article. How is it related to the people mentioned? What information do you expect to read?

A Lord Reith

В Gilbert H Grosvenor

С John Walter

- have experience in radio production?

- studied at a college?

- was helped by a relative?

- made his living blackmailing people?

- increased sales?

- worked in various jobs before he started his own company?

- helped in scientific research?

- had problems at the beginning?

We all enjoy watching television, listening to the radio and reading newspapers and magazines. However; not many of us know about the lives of the people who changed the face of the media forever.

A) Lord Reith (1889-1971)

John Reith was born in Scotland and graduated as an engineer from Glasgow Technical College. After World War 1, Reith realised he had no real interest in engineering. In 1922, although he had no training in radio and knew nothing about broadcasting, he got a managerial job at the newly-establishedBBC. In 1927, he became the BBC's First Director- General and received a knighthood. Reith's vision of what the BBC should offer the public included broadcasting to people of all social classes, all over Britain, and using radio to serve educational and cultural interests. When he had succeeded in achieving this aim, Reith became determined to increase broadcasting overseas. In 1932, he started what would later become the BBC World Service, and began the world's first regular TV broadcasts in 1936. He left the BBC in 1938, and was made Lord Reith in 1940.

B) Gilbert H Grosvenor (1875-1966)