Post-war
By the end of the war, the BBC's European Service (later the BBC World Service), based at Bush House, had become the world's most respected and sophisticated foreign language broadcasting operation and had been admired for its contribution to the war effort. After the war, however, its significance was greatly reduced and its future in some doubt. The departing head of the service, Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick (who would become the Chairman of the Independent Television Authority a decade later), recommended Jacob as a potential successor. Sir William Haley, the BBC's Director-General, had already met Jacob during preparations to report the news of the D-Day landings and was aware that his political contacts (Churchill in particular) could be valuable. He heeded Kirkpatrick's recommendation, duly appointing Jacob Controller of the European Service following his retirement from the Army in 1946. Jacob accepted the post shortly after receiving a knighthood for his work with the war cabinet.
In 1947, Haley decided to rationalise the BBC's overlapping European and Overseas services into a single operation. Jacob's successful management of Bush House led to his being appointed Director of the reconstructed Overseas service in which post he continued until 1951. In February 1950, he helped to establish the European Broadcasting Union (responsible for the Eurovision Song Contest and similar events) and served as its first President until 1960.
Read more about this topic: Ian Jacob
Famous quotes containing the word post-war:
“Much of what Mr. Wallace calls his global thinking is, no matter how you slice it, still “globaloney.” Mr. Wallace’s warp of sense and his woof of nonsense is very tricky cloth out of which to cut the pattern of a post-war world.”
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987)