“This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons."
If atomic war broke out how would Britain react? Well from 1953 to 1992 the UK had a detailed plan to break the news to citizens.
Let's take a look at it...
During WWII the BBC had plans for a Wartime Broadcasting Service, in case Britain’s main cities were knocked out by German bombers. BBC staff would move to Wood Norton, a stately home in Worcestershire, to provide an emergency radio service.
Once WWII ended the BBC had vague plans to recreate the Wartime Broadcasting Service if Soviet bombers launched a nuclear attack. It would provide information, encouragement and ‘diversions’ - music, drama, comedy and religious programmes - for the irradiated population.
Happy #Eurovision2021 everybody! Apart from the songs #Eurovision itself was a pioneering and often chaotic attempt to collaborate on new technology across Europe. And it only happened because of Queen Elizabeth ll.
Let's look back at the birth of European broadcasting...
After WWll Britain and France quickly restated their TV services. Each had different standards: the BBC's 405-line standard quickly allowed for full national coverage, but France's 819-line format needed more powerful transmitters which reduced its broadcast range.
And by 1950 Holland had a TV service using a 625-line standard. However Belgium was caught in the middle: should it use the Dutch or French standard? In a classic euro-fudge it chose both. This made Belgium a pioneer of TV broadcast signal conversion.
Today in pulp: a cautionary tale of trying to shoehorn fiction into a standard formula. It never really works.
This is the story of Laser Books…
Roger Elwood started out editing wrestling magazines in the early 1970s, until he became bored and turned his attention to sci-fi. He became a prodigious producer of anthologies, editing over 40 in 1973-74.
And in 1974 Elwood began discussions with Canadian publisher Harlequin, about a new line of science fiction books. Harlequin had toyed with sci-fi in the 1950s but was best known for publishing formulaic romance fiction
As we all know a good title is essential if you're trying to make a potential reader pick up your book. But in the world of pulp the title has to do a little more than this.
First it has to confirm the genre. Pulp is very much a genre-based business and readers need to know what kind of story they're getting into.
Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my top 10 forgotten home microcomputers!
Let me just plug this tape recorder in and tune the TV set...
At #10: the 1982 Sharp X1! Possibly the most '80s looking 1980s computer ever created, it sold very well in Brazil. MSX really was the future once...
At #9: the 1982 Oric! rashed games more times than it loaded them and felt like typing on bubble wrap. Blakes 7 fans bought it because it sounded a bit like Orac...