10 Facts About Kenneth Adam

Kenneth Adam was an English journalist and broadcasting executive, who from 1957 until 1961 served as the Controller of the BBC Television Service.

Kenneth Adam stayed in radio for just two years before returning to the world of print journalism, joining The Star in 1936.

Kenneth Adam worked for the paper as a special correspondent until 1940, when due to the journalistic restrictions of the Second World War he temporarily left the industry to become the press officer for the British Overseas Airways Corporation.

Kenneth Adam spent nine years in this role, before in 1950 the Director General of the BBC, William Haley, took the perhaps surprising decision to appoint him as the Controller of the BBC Light Programme, one of the BBC's most popular national radio stations.

Kenneth Adam took up the post at the end of the year and successfully ran the station for the next four years, although he apparently became frustrated at the lack of opportunities to move across into the newer medium of television, which was his latest ambition.

Kenneth Adam appeared occasionally on other television programmes, as well as on various BBC radio programmes.

Kenneth Adam occupied this post for four years until 1961, when he was promoted to become the BBC's overall Director of Television.

Kenneth Adam remained in this role until 1968, when he reached the BBC's compulsory retirement age of sixty.

Kenneth Adam wrote a frank series of articles on his time at the BBC for the Sunday Times newspaper in 1969, and in later years was variously a Governor of Charing Cross Hospital; of the British Film Institute; a member of the councils of the National Youth Theatre; the Tavistock Institute; the British Travel Association and Industrial Design.

Kenneth Adam was married to his wife, Ruth, from 1932 to her death in 1977.