A LANDMARK new exhibition to mark 100 years of Rugby Radio Station has been unveiled.
The exhibition at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum showcases artefacts from the historic site a century after it opened its doors.
It features apparatus, models and images dating back to 1926 from the museum’s social history collection, including one of the well-recognised lights which used to light the way home for Rugbeians from the top of the masts at the site.
A VIP launch event brought together people who played a part in preserving the station’s legacy.
The exhibition – part of ongoing celebrations this year to mark what would have been the 100th anniversary of Rugby Radio Station – is the result of a collaboration between Houlton master developer Urban&Civic and Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, launching with a VIP event which brought together people who played a part in preserving the station’s legacy.
Attendees included Mayor Barbara Brown, upcoming Mayor Nooria Sayani, former Rugby MP Mark Pawsey, councillors and officers from Rugby Borough Council, and members of the community with links to the radio station.
Opening the exhibition, Coun Brown said: “Communication is in our DNA in Rugby.
“This exhibition and celebration involves so many people and shows how we remain a centre for communication and contact.
“It’s quite a unique thing to have a totally new community that you can bring on, yet keep that touchstone with the past and take it into the future, so it’s great to be able to celebrate that.”
Rugby Radio Station became operational on January 1st, 1926, with its GBR transmitter – then the most powerful radio transmitter in the world – sending news broadcasts and telegrams across the globe. A year later, the station started transmitting the iconic time signal ‘pips’ from the Royal Greenwich Observatory and launched the world’s first transatlantic telephone service.
During the Second World War, Rugby Radio Station operatives supported the RAF during bombing missions in Germany before the post-war telecommunications boom saw the radio station expand in the 1950s, with its total of 57 transmitters making it the biggest station in the world.
Technological advances led to the station’s GBR transmitter being decommissioned in 2003, and four years later all transmissions from the station came to an end.
The station’s grade II listed ‘C’ building has since been transformed into Houlton School.
Urban&Civic has paid tribute to the station’s legacy by naming the new neighbourhood in honour of the first transatlantic broadcast made in 1927 to Houlton, Maine, USA.
The centenary celebrations began with a transmission by Rugby Amateur Transmitting Society (RATS) from the former radio station site across the world to mark exactly 100 years since Rugby Radio Station’s GBR transmitter opened for service in 1926.
January also saw the unveiling of a tapestry created by thousands of images relating to the radio station submitted by members of the community and printed onto acrylic tiles. The tapestries have now been installed at schools in Houlton, with versions on display as part of the new exhibition.
Sonia Nakra-Norman, Communications, Communities and Partnerships Manager at Urban&Civic, said: “We’re delighted to have partnered with Rugby Art Gallery and Museum in creating this exhibition and celebrating 100 years of Rugby radio station. So much of our ethos at Urban&Civic is based around collaboration and partnerships, and this exhibition and event sums that up – reminding us that when we work together, we really can make huge steps forward.”
100 Years of Rugby Radio runs until Saturday October 3.
Visit www.ragm.co.uk for more information about exhibitions and events at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum.
Visit https://rugbyradiostation.co.uk for more information on Rugby Radio Station.
