Editing European Broadcasting Union (section)

==History==
[[File:EBU logo.svg|thumb|EBU's previous logo used from 1994 to 17 June 2012]]
[[File:The New Years Eve Concert 2013 at The Wiener Musikverein (8336464777).jpg|thumb|[[Vienna New Year's Concert]]]]
The EBU was a successor to the [[International Broadcasting Union]] (IBU) that was founded in 1925 and had its administrative headquarters in Geneva and technical office in Brussels. It fostered programming exchanges between members and mediated technical disputes between members that were mostly concerned with frequency and interference issues. It was in effect taken over by [[Nazi Germany]] during the Second World War, and thereafter the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] viewed it as a compromised organisation that they could not trust.

In the spring of 1946, representatives of the [[State Committee of Television and Radio Broadcasting of the Soviet Union|Soviet radio committee]] proposed forming a new organisation; however, at the same time preparations were being made for an inter-governmental "European Broadcasting Conference" in [[Copenhagen]] in 1948 to draw up a new plan for frequency use in the European Broadcasting Area. It was considered necessary to have an organisation that could implement the "[[History of radio#FM in Europe|Copenhagen Wavelength Plan]]" but there was disagreement among broadcasters and particularly a fear expressed by the [[BBC]] that a new association might be dominated by the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] and its proposal to give each of its [[Republics of the Soviet Union|constituent states]] one vote. France proposed that it would have four votes with the inclusion of [[List of French possessions and colonies|its North African colonies]]. The United Kingdom felt it would have little influence with just one vote.

On 27 June 1946, the alternative [[International Radio and Television Organisation|International Broadcasting Organisation]] (IBO) was founded with 26 members and without British participation. The following day the IBU met in General Assembly and an attempt was made to dissolve it but failed; though 18 of its 28 members left to join the IBO.<ref name="ebu.ch">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ebu.ch/CMSimages/en/dossiers_1_04_eurovision50_ve_tcm6-13890.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813012304/http://www.ebu.ch/CMSimages/en/dossiers_1_04_eurovision50_ve_tcm6-13890.pdf|archive-date=13 August 2016|title=50 years of Eurovision (1954–2004)|website=ebu.ch|publisher=EBU}}</ref> For a period of time in the late 1940s both the IBU and IBO vied for the role of organising frequencies but Britain decided to be in involved in neither. The BBC attempted but failed to find suitable working arrangements with them. However, for practical purposes, the IBO rented the IBU technical centre in Brussels and employed its staff. The BBC then proposed a new solution based on the IBO changing its constitution so there will be only one member per [[International Telecommunication Union]] (ITU) country, thus ensuring a Western majority over the USSR and its satellite states. In August 1949 a meeting took place in [[Stresa]], Italy, but it resulted in disagreement between delegates on how to resolve the problems. One proposal was for the European Broadcasting Area to be replaced by one that would exclude [[Eastern Europe]], the [[Levant]], and [[North Africa]].

After Stresa, a consensus emerged among the [[Western Europe]]ans to form a new organisation and the BBC proposed it be based in [[London]]. Meetings in [[Paris]] on 31 October and 1 November 1949 sealed the fate of the IBU and IBO, but it was decided not to allow any broadcaster from [[West Germany]] to be a founder of the new organisation. On 13 February 1950 the European Broadcasting Union had its first meeting with 23 members from the ITU defined European Broadcasting Area at the Imperial Hotel in [[Torquay]], United Kingdom. The first president was Ian Jacob of the BBC who remained at the helm for ten years while its operation was largely dominated by the BBC due to its financial, technical, and staff input. The most important difference between the EBU and its predecessors was that EBU membership was for broadcasters and not governments. Early delegates said EBU meetings were cordial and professional and very different from the abrupt tone of its predecessors. Broadcasters from West Germany were admitted since 1951 and a working relationship forged with its Eastern counterpart, the [[International Radio and Television Organisation]] (OIRT), which existed in parallel with the EBU until its merger on 1 January 1993.<ref name="ebu.ch"/>

In 1967, the first concert in the International Concert Season of the European Broadcasting Union was broadcast from the [[Queen Elizabeth Hall]] in London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu/files/Projects/Radio/Euroradio%2050th/Doc_50th_years_radio_programme_no_BBC.pdf|title=Euroradio: 50 years|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180331173624/https://www.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu/files/Projects/Radio/Euroradio%2050th/Doc_50th_years_radio_programme_no_BBC.pdf|access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=31 March 2018|website=ebu.ch|publisher=EBU}}</ref>