Article

Engaging the BBC’s Programmes as Broadcast Logs: Feminist Adventures with Big Data, the Archive, and Vera Lynn

Christina Baade

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 11 (2026)
Pages: 1-16 | Published Online: 19 June 2026
https://doi.org/10.64208/LDMX8521

Abstract

The BBC’s Programmes as Broadcast logs (PABs) provide a window into the challenges of doing broadcast music history. As the name implies, the logs contain details for every programme that the BBC has ever aired on radio or television. While an incredible resource, it is labour intensive to access and use the information they preserve. Drawing on feminist data and critical archival studies, this article reflects on the process of using the PABs to develop a repertory database for a project focused on recovering the postwar career of the singer Vera Lynn (1917–2020). I address not only methodological questions about extracting data from the PABs, but also the tactile and affective nature of archived data. My team and I came to understand our work in feminist, critical, and experimental terms, as mediating between the logics of broadcasting, analogue archiving, and digital big data.

Keywords: Dame Vera Lynn, feminist data studies, archive studies, British Broadcasting Corporation, popular music history, historical methodologies

Author: Christina Baade | ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4546-1877