UK Radio:  A Brief History - Part 3 - Commercial Expansion

Although the BBC local radio stations had proved to be a success for community radio, there was still a demand from listeners for a form of commercial radio independent from the BBC, represented most strongly by the commercial radio lobby.  A change of government occurred in 1970 which saw the passing of Harold Wilson's Labour administration to Edward Heath's Conservative government in 1970, this Conservative government looked upon the introduction of commercial radio much more favourably.  In March 1971 a white paper, 'An Alternative Service Of Radio Broadcasting' was published. 

The Sound Broadcasting Act in 1972 transformed the ITA into the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) giving it the additional responsibility for sound broadcasting in the UK.  The radio only licence was abolished in February 1971, from then on it was necessary to have only a television licence, which would fund both BBC television and radio.

The commercial radio lobby, and possibly the potential listeners, would be disappointed with the government's plans for commercial radio.   The potential operators had hoped for a national pop station that would be cheap to run, generate large audiences and therefore make large sums of money from advertising.  What they got was as far removed a system in which they would almost drown in oceans of government and IBA bureaucracy! The new stations would be required to provide a public service radio funded by advertising, rather than the non-stop pop and 'DJs' that the offshore stations had provided eight years earlier.  The stations would have a remit to appeal to all sections of the potential audience.

An early LBC logo

The first contractor on air was the London Broadcasting Company (LBC), which had been awarded the 'London News and Information' franchise. Launched on October 8th 1973, the first voices heard on air were David Jessell, who opened the station, with the experienced Australian journalist, Ken Guy, reading the news. The station was based at Gough Square, near the heart of journalism in Fleet Street, and would also provide a news service to the Independent Local Radio stations that would follow.

A week after LBC came on air Capital Radio, the brainchild of Richard (Lord) Attenborough, launched on 16th October 1973. Capital Radio had won the London General Entertainment franchise and provided a mix of music led programmes fronted by famous DJ's such as Dave Cash and Kenny Everett, who presented some marvelously fun programmes on the station.  The station had a remit to appeal to the widest possible audience, of course, and included specialist music programmes, radio plays and soap operas, classical music, community features and news documentaries. In the early days the music playlist was very 'middle of the road'.
Birmingham, Glasgow and Other Areas Get Their Own ILR Stations
Labour Government Halts Commercial Radio Development
Once the initial nineteen stations, sanctioned by the Conservative government, had come on air the development of ILR came to a halt in 1976 with the last of the 19 stations, Beacon Radio arriving on April 12th 1976.  Labour had been returned to power in 1974 under Harold Wilson and in 1976 James Callaghan succeeded Wilson as Labour Leader and Prime Minister.  The Labour government was not keen on commercial organisations running radio stations and so needed a period of reflection before sanctioning any further development of the Independent Local Radio system. In the mean time the BBC had opened a new television centre at Pebble Mill, Birmingham, in 1971, and was also experimenting with teletext in 1972, launching the BBC CEEFAX service in 1973. In 1978 the government discussed the possibility of an Open Broadcasting Authority and the possibility of a fourth terrestrial television channel which had already been allocated space during the 1960's.  The idea of the BBC running satellite television services was also proposed.  The fourth television channel was eventually administered by the IBA which franchised the Channel Four Television corporation to operate in England from 1982 but the BBC never got to run satellite television. The Geneva Plan 1978 brought about a wholesale re-organisation of medium and long wave frequencies, after international agreement at Geneva in 1975.  These changes were designed to make more efficient use of these frequencies to minimise congestion and interference. All medium wave stations were re-aligned and the big changes in the UK were for BBC national radio.  The BBC issued a shiny little card measuring 75mm wide by 117mm tall to help confused listeners find their favourite BBC national radio stations: