Ian Bradley’s book on the history of Christianity in the British Isles includes this background on the transformation of British broadcasting:

British broadcasting, and the BBC in particular, was given a distinctly Christian hue from its beginnings in the early 1920’s.… Visitors to Broadcasting House in London can still get a flavour of the ethos that inspired the founder of the BBC by casting their eyes to the inscription …in the entrance hall. Translated, it reads: “This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first governors of broadcasting in the year 1931, Sir John Reith being director-general. It is our prayer that good seed sown may bring forth a good harvest, that all things hostile to peace or purity may be banished from this house, and that the people, inclining their ears to whatsoever things are beautiful and honest and of good report, may tread the paths of wisdom and righteousness….”

The BBC operated almost as a Church in its own right, creating highly popular devotional programmes like the “Daily Service,” “Lift Up Your Hearts,”…early morning prayers, little services aiming only at converting each listener’s home into a shrine for a moment or two before the days’ work begins.

But the BBC began to depart from its Christian roots, which becomes obvious when you hear how later heads of the BBC described their work.

In 1948, Sir William Haley could still say: “We are citizens of a Christian country, and the BBC—an institution set up by the state—bases its policy upon a positive attitude towards the Christian values. It seeks to safeguard those values and to foster acceptance of them. The whole preponderant weight of its programme is directed at this end.”

Twenty-five years later, Sir Charles Curran talked rather of the moral neutrality of broadcasting in a “post-Christian era,” and said: “It is not our job to adopt a particular morality and then to try to persuade everybody else to follow it.”