What Happened to the BBC Sound Archive?

Abstract

There is no longer a Sound Archive department at the BBC, and no one bears the title ‘Sound Archivist’. This article first explains how and why recording became established at the BBC and how an accumulation of recordings necessitated management as the value of their content began to be recognised. The question of what happened to the BBC Sound Archive is explored through examining the approach taken by those who established the collection, and by following the development of policy and practice from those early days to the present. Also posed is the question of the extent to which the archive today bears any recognisable legacy of the work and objectives of the pioneers of the 1930s and 40s.