Ascension also has a historically important role in communications. Ascension’s role as a military island ended in 1899 with the arrival of the Eastern Telegraph Company, which was renamed Cable and Wireless in 1934 and which managed the island from 1922 until 1964. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) arrived in 1963 in order to broadcast their World Service programmes to South America and Africa. With the privatisation of the BBC’s transmission department in 1997 by the British Government, it became Merlin Communications. An Administrator, a Foreign and Commonwealth employee and representative of the Queen on the island, was then appointed in 1964.