The Listener was a weekly magazine established by the BBC under Lord Reith in January 1929. It ceased publication in 1991. The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ... John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith KT GCVO GBE CB TD PC (20 July 1889–16 June 1971) was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

It was first published on 16 January 1929, under the editorship of Richard S. Lambert, and was developed as a medium of record for the reproduction of broadcast talks. It also previewed major literary and musical broadcasts, reviewed new books, and printed a selected list of the more intellectual broadcasts for the coming week. January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Its published aim was to be "a medium for intelligent reception of broadcast programmes by way of amplification and explanation of those features which cannot now be dealt with in the editorial columns of the Radio Times". The title reflected the fact that at the time the BBC broadcast via radio only. Current Radio Times logo Radio Times is the BBCs weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. ...

The Listener has also been adopted as the name of a champion National Hunt horse, presently trained by Robert Alner and a leading fancy for the 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

History

The Newspaper Proprietors' Association considered its launch to be "an illegitimate stretching of official activity" and, after consultation between Reith and the Prime Minister, a number of compromises were agreed to, including an upper limit of 10% original contributed material not related to broadcasting. Another compromise was a limit to the amount of advertising it could carry. John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith KT GCVO GBE CB TD PC (20 July 1889–16 June 1971) was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. ...

In its early decades it attracted celebrated contributors including Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf and George Orwell. More importantly, it provided a platform for many new writers, particularly poets. W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Stephen Spender and, later, Philip Larkin all had early works published in The Listener. Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell OM FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, and mathematician. ... George Bernard Shaw (George) Bernard Shaw[1] (born Dublin, 26 July 1856 – died 2 November 1950 in Hertfordshire) was an Irish playwright based in England. ... E. M. Forster aged 36 in 1915 Edward Morgan Forster (January 1, 1879 – June 7, 1970) was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. ... Virginia Woolf (née Stephen) (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941) was an English novelist and essayist who is regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. ... Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist. ... Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973), who signed his works W. H. Auden (IPA: ; first syllable of Auden rhymes with law), was an Anglo-American poet, regarded by many as one of the great writers of the 20th century. ... Christopher Isherwood (left) and W.H. Auden (right), photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Christopher Isherwood (prior to 1946 Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood) (August 26, 1904 – January 4, 1986), Anglo-American novelist, was born in the ancestral seat of his family, Wybersley Hall, High Lane, in the north west of... Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE, (February 28, 1909 – July 16, 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. ... Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. ...

It came to be seen as one of a trio of weekly magazines, alongside The Spectator and the New Statesman, distinguished from them by its not being associated with any political party. The management of those two magazines were occasionally critical of what they saw as the privileged financial position of their subsidised rival. This article is about the British weekly magazine: there are articles on several other magazines called The Spectator such as Addison and Steeles influential literary magazine, The Spectator (1711), and the others can be found at The Spectator (disambiguation). ... The New Statesman is a left-of-centre political weekly published in London. ...

1980s

In 1981 Richard Gott, features editor of The Guardian, was chosen as editor but his appointment was blocked because MI5 declared that he had "ultra-Leftist" sympathies. The job was given to Russell Twisk instead. 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Richard Gott (born 1938) is a British left-wing journalist and historian, who has written extensively on Latin America. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition...

Following the report of the Peacock Committee in 1986, all the BBC’s commercial activities, including The Listener, were moved into BBC Enterprises Limited. Management was now mainly answerable for the magazine’s commercial performance rather than its literary standards. The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ... BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. ...

In 1987, The Listener was spun out to a new company jointly owned by the BBC and rival broadcaster ITV. Seeing The Listener’s eclecticism as a lack of focus, the new company appointed Alan Coren from Punch as editor in 1989 as an attempt to establish a clearer identity as another humorous weekly, moving slightly away from the more intellectual and artistic aspects for which the magazine had also been known. The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ... It has been suggested that Channel 3 (UK) be merged into this article or section. ... Alan Coren (born 27 June 1938) is a British writer and satirist. ... Punch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The attempt failed, perhaps because the change of direction alienated subscribers who had valued the eclecticism, and the company replaced Coren with Peter Fiddick in 1989. In 1990, ITV pulled out of the joint deal, the BBC found themselves unable to support it on their own, and the last issue of The Listener was published in January 1991. Alan Coren (born 27 June 1938) is a British writer and satirist. ... 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It has been suggested that Channel 3 (UK) be merged into this article or section. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Crossword

The Listener crossword puzzle, introduced in 1930, is generally regarded as the most difficult cryptic crossword to appear in a national weekly. It survived the closure of The Listener, and now appears in The Times on a Saturday, currently in the Books supplement. The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ...

Solvers are invited to send in their solutions, with one randomly-drawn correct solution winning a prize (currently a bottle of champagne). An annual list of statistics is also compiled for regular solvers to compare their performances, in most years only a handful of solvers are able to complete and submit all 52 puzzles correctly. The leading solver each year is awarded the Solver's Silver Salver, and selects the best puzzle of the year - the setter of which is awarded the Ascot Gold Cup.

Editors

• Richard S. Lambert 1929–1939
• Alan Thomas
• Maurice Percy Ashley, 1958–1967
• Karl Miller, 1967–1973
• Anthony Howard, 1979–1981
• Russell Twisk, 1981–1987
• Alan Coren 1987–1989
• Peter Fiddick, 1989–1991

Arts and literary editors included: J. R. Ackerley 1935-59, and Anthony Thwaite. Columnists included John Cole, Roy Hattersley and Brian J. Ford. Karl Miller (born 1931) is a British literary editor, critic and writer. ... Anthony Michell Howard (born February 12, 1934) is a prominent British journalist, broadcaster and writer. ... Alan Coren (born 27 June 1938) is a British writer and satirist. ... J. R. Ackerley (November 4, 1896 - June 4, 1967, full name Joe Randolph Ackerley) was arts editor of The Listener, the arts publication of the BBC, from 1935 to 1959, and an important author in his own right. ... Anthony Simon Thwaite (born 1930) is a British poet and writer. ... John Cole (born 1928) is a British journalist. ... Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, PC (born December 28, 1932), is a British Labour Party politician, published author and journalist from Sheffield, England. ... Brian J. Ford is an English independent scientist, prolific author and popular interpreter of scientific issues for the general populace, whose scientific papers and numerous books have been published internationally. ...

External links

• Official website for The Listener Crossword