Happy 75th to the BBC’s World Service.

The service celebrates with a host of online content including timelines and audio clips.

The “Empire Service” went on the air Dec. 19, 1932, from the new Broadcasting House in London. It launched with a two-hour transmission for Australia and New Zealand; there were four later broadcasts to other parts of the world.

“The service was opened by the BBC chairman JH Whitley,” the history site notes, “followed by the director general Sir John Reith, who told the new overseas listeners that radio was ‘a connecting and co-ordinating link between the scattered parts of the British Empire.’”