ILR - Coming To Life
by Phil Riley

Commercial radio is already operating under a more relaxed set of regulatory rules [in 1990]. Phil Riley was confident that further deregulation could only benefit the industry. [Comment - but perhaps not the listeners?]

In 1983 I attended a public meeting in Birmingham Town Hall, organised by the IBA to allow local citizens their say in whether the radio station  Birmingham Broadcasting should retain its franchise. After listening to an hour of non-stop praise for BRMB, John Thompson, representing the IBA, pleaded with the audience 'Does anybody have anything negative to say about this radio station?' The station had, over the preceding years, more than fulfilled every aspect of its original franchise promise, which included sponsorship of local orchestras, tremendously successful fund-raising events, award-winning documentaries and more news, features and current affairs programmes than even the most rigorous interpretation of the original franchise would have demanded.

Skip forward to 1990 and the IBA is now telling stations that their upcoming Promise of Performance should be written as carefully as possible to allow maximum flexibility and to avoid giving commitment to any specifics which may prove difficult to carry out. The system has undoubtedly been turned on its head during the last few years.

But will this relaxation of the rules prove beneficial as we move into the uncharted waters of deregulation, and how will the relationship between broadcasters and regulators change?

The thrust of regulation during the 1970s and 1980s created a vicious circle. There was constant pressure for documentary production, in-depth news bulletins and news programmes, substantial features programming, stand-alone religious and ethnic programming and audience access programming, including the then ubiquitous 'phone-in.

This level of editorial output naturally created a substantial monitoring function for the Authority, who then pushed for more and better editorial. This led to a form of radio which was satisfactory both for the regulators and the speech-programming producers, of whom I was one.

There is no doubt that we were instrumental in effectively developing popular talk programming and short-form feature programming which attracted substantial numbers of listeners. However, although our relationship with the Authority was good, we were very often engaged in a purely two-way conversation over output rather than a genuinely three-way one involving the audience.

My personal belief is that any regulation over and above the legal minimum will hold back the development of a vibrant industry in commercial terms. The justification from the radio regulators for the more interventionist policy they adopted until recently is the quality of the broadcasting they have helped to develop, and there can be no doubt that independent radio has had some spectacular successes because of the imposed requirements for speech-based and specialist music programming. Commercially, however, the radio industry has only come to life in the past three or four years, since the new regime within the IBA took over and started to relax some of the rules which governed the network until then.

The transitional period from the mid-1980s up until deregulation has undoubtedly been immensely liberating for many programming practitioners who felt stifled under the old rules. Formatted radio would simply not have been possible without the relaxed attitudes of people like Peter Baldwin, Paul Brown and David Vick. It may be that we are not broadcasting to more people now than we did under the old rules, but undoubtedly we are working more efficiently, with smaller, more effective programme and news departments.

The advent of split frequency broadcasting means that stations do now have the potential to claim a bigger share of the market than was ever available before, and for the commercial health of the industry that can only be good.

The relaxing of ownership rules will also benefit the industry. The fact that only one independent radio station has ever gone bankrupt has often been the proud claim of the IBA. I am not so sure that this has been such a good thing.

Thriving industries have losers as well as winners, and one of the economic tenets upon which capitalism is based is the theory of 'creative destruction' which states that poor performers deserve to go to the wall to make room for new, more efficient companies. The new rules will undoubtedly provide the impetus for takeovers of poorly performing companies, and it is testament to the confidence of the people running the Shadow Radio Authority that they are now taking a back seat and, as far as possible, letting the market decide who should own what.

It is impossible to have an unregulated_broadcasting system. Frequency allocation, public policy issues and essential legal safeguards all conspire to establish a bureaucracy overseeing the medium. Nevertheless we are heading towards deregulation, though perhaps not far enough for some people.

Describing the relationship which has grown up between the industry- and the IBA is difficult. The main point, however, must be that we are still talking to each other and are happy to continue working together in the future. Ultimately I don't think any industry in as sensitive a position as ours could hope for more.


Phil Riley is Managing Director of Radio Aire and Magic 828.
[1990]


ILR - Good Neighbours
By Louise Churchill

How ILR reacted to the requirements of broadcasting regulation. Louise Churchill describes the way in which one station turned theory into practice.

PLYMOUTH SOUND hit Plymouth and South-East Cornwall in May 1975. Independent Local Radio. The term 'Commercial Radio' was not mentioned then. Fifteen years on it all seems to have been rather formal. We were expected to pay our way but heaven forbid anyone should declare that we wanted money to provide a service; 'working for the community' was the in-phrase.

Plymouth Sound was - and, with a current weekly reach of over half the local adult population, still is - a popular community radio station. We vowed to give a voice to the people and through our open-line shows the housewife who was unable to pay her rent could instantly turn to someone for advice on how to budget. If listeners were threatened with disconnection we would intercede. An altercation with a local school could be given an airing on Plymouth Sound with all sides represented. Election 'phone-ins took the place of old-fashioned hustings (oh, the hassle with the Representation of the People Act!). Politicians who had been distant and somewhat fearsome were suddenly 'one of us', talking comfortingly into the mike and asking for more details to be left at the switchboard for further action.

The more we did the greater our impact and success. I remember hosting a 'phone-in programme with John Tyndall, Leader of the National Front. He had petitions against the programme, bricks through the windows and demonstrations outside the studios. The station was crawling with police and the IBA inundated with complaints from furious listeners insisting the programme be banned. The Authority remained admirably cool and supportive. Three days later we held a similar 'phone-in with the Socialist Workers' Revolutionary Party of Great Britain. No petitions, bricks or police. .That's democracy,' someone observed.

We took a team inside Dartmoor Prison and recorded a debate with the inmates on crime and punishment. Local people introduced their own programmes with the help of experienced presenters and on one famous occasion we celebrated our birthday by turning the whole day's programming over to our listeners.

Slick professionalism was not so important when we started. We tried to be good neighbours, the friend next door. Some listeners may not have liked their next-door neighbour but they never tired of hearing about her problems and if by the end of the programme someone else had solved them there would be applause for all. These days we take much of our .worthy' activity off air and provide legal advice, social security information and counselling by promoting a walk-in or off-air telephone service.

In the early days of our franchise our programmes were monitored by Bill Collingwood, Regional Officer for the IBA. He was especially courtly when he reminded me that I should not refer to the British Shoe Corporation when hosting a 'phone-in about the quality of ladies' shoes. I can still see the Traffic Manager, Bob Jeffery, dashing in to the studio to remove all the local shoe shop commercials from the logs as callers put the boot in - an early example of clients being sold in an inappropriate programme.

When co-funding arrived in the mid-1980s there were other cases of mis-matching. Some of us didn't even know what co-funding was and I recall an amusing conversation with some Australians who could not understand our timid approach to marketing our product. Were we ashamed of money-making ideas? What was this word 'co-funding'? Surely we meant 'sponsorship'? No. 'Co-funding' was a typical British compromise.

We learned fast and soon the word, profit was buzzing around our one-time organ factory. Suddenly everything was up for co-funding the weather, sport, special events. And then we sold advertising around the holy of holies, Independent Radio News bulletins. Did our ears deceive us? How could we produce a news service encased in commercial messages? We could - and it saved many radio stations from a crippling cost.

In the 1970s we gave little thought to targeting an audience but did our best to please as many listeners as possible while inviting presenters to take part-time jobs outside the station to subsidise their salaries.

It had become apparent that Plymouth Sound would always struggle to survive under the existing Independent Radio set-up. The area was too small. In 1976, our then Managing Director, the late Bob Hussell had written to the IBA to ask if we could extend our service to the Exeter and Torquay area. Permission was refused and in 1979 a separate franchise was duly advertised, while we continued with a 'total service area' of 300,000, one of the smallest radio stations in Britain. We rarely made a substantial profit and I remember the euphoria when we announced a dividend for our shareholders. In 1987 we finally sought refuge in a large group, GWR. Whatever the results of mergers and takeovers, market forces would determine the shape of Independent Radio in the end.

Has the IBA helped? I don't believe it has. Although individual IBA officers have been helpful and supportive, the industry (and often the Authority itself) has struggled against archaic and narrow legislation.

Next year (1991), we are told, everything will change. The new Broadcasting Act will, we hope, breathe new life into the industry. However, competition will be merciless and, as in all things, only the strong will survive. We can create a product which is both profitable and popular and that's what commercial radio has to be. Those who make programmes should first ask who is going to listen and then who is going to pay. Having discovered the answer to that question, they must remain in control of editorial content as any wise advertiser will agree. Soon Plymouth Sound will meet the IBA's Regional Officer, Nicholas Bull, and the Local Advisory Committee for the last time. No doubt there will be the customary good wishes and jokes. In one corner presenters will gaze into their drinks and say 'Well, the IBA wasn't so bad,' while across the room the sponsorship executive will be wondering how he can sell a local kite-flying festival to a well-known manufacturer of knicker elastic.*


Louise Churchill has been with Plymouth Sound since its launch in 1975 and for 14 years hosted 'phone-ins, documentaries and current events features. Programme Controller from 1983, she is now Station Director.


Dropping The Disguises
By Bill MacDonald

As the era of the chain store came to ILR, Bill MacDonald recalled the trials and tribulations of running the corner shop.

It wasn't always the Eye-Bee-Aye, you know (I write that because some people used to call it 'the ibba', rhyming with dibber). The ITA was created to regulate Independent Television but there was no authority to deal with radio, so John Thompson, Director of Radio to be, could not even be on the staff until the appropriate legislation had been passed. 1 used to go to see him in the early 1970s as he prepared for this strange new creature commercial radio...

Oops! We don't say commercial radio it's Independent Radio! This was one of the early disguises we were expected to assume. We shouldn't actually let people know that Independent Radio was something that had to earn its own living by advertising revenue, that it would be run by private companies which might even try to make a profit and earn a return for its ... breathe the word quietly ... shareholders.

There was a lot of opposition to the idea of commercial competition for the revered BBC, both when Independent Television started and again 17 years later when Independent Radio loomed. While the early IBA members and permanent officers understood that the fledgling radio companies had very different, and much more difficult, operating conditions than for ITV, still there had to be an appearance that everything was being sternly regulated in the public interest. We, the early operators, often felt too many of the regulations for the fat-cat, self-satisfied ITV boys were imposed on us willy-nilly.

Whereas the BBC had four national channels (often sub-divided down for additional broadcasting on AM or FM), its local channels and its World Service to share between the population, the single IBA radio channel had to cover all classes and types of listener - or so the early IBA saw it. The programmes were required to perform a near-impossible balancing act - how to attract good size audiences who would stay tuned as long as they wanted yet cover all the minority requirements and specialist tastes as well. 'Oh, you just want big audiences to please the advertisers, lowest common denominator and all that,' said the (numerous) critics. Yes, with advertising our only source of revenue we did need good sized audiences, but we saw no contradiction to good public service in that and we genuinely did want to provide lively, enjoyable entertainment and reliable information. But how could we serve the education requirement without switching off the majority who wanted popular music presented by people who became household friends?

We found ways of doing it. And similarly we built in programmes for specialist tastes or minority groups.

The early companies were meant to reflect and be part of local life. They were usually made up of local individuals and companies accustomed to supporting 'good works'. The IBA jealously kept it so, except in cases where mismanagement or economic adversity put a radio contractor at such risk that another contractor or outside body had to be called in to put things right.

We have moved from those early days of small, private, keep-out-of-my-patch local fiefdoms into the 1980s with its mood of deregulation, competition. anti-monopoly, proliferation of services. Now the policy is almost the exact opposite. Mergers and associations are almost welcomed. Whether the public service to the local community can be maintained to the standards of the early days in the new era of chain store organisation has yet to be seen. It was Sir Brian Young, Director General in the 1970s, who told us new, and for the most part, young, managing directors that we were to use the term "Independent Radio' rather than commercial radio. That was when benign despotism at the IBA was the way.

What Sir Brian would think of today's free-market liberalism would make interesting reading.


Bill Donald was a well known director at Radio Hallam and retired as the Managing Director of the Yorkshire Radio Network in May 1990.



ILR - Hits and Misses
By Bob Hermon

ILR brought new opportunities for the record industry, but did it live up to expectations?

BEING in the record industry at the start of UK commercial radio 16 years ago, there was a great sense of anticipation. The novelty of 'wunnderful Radio One' had worn off among listeners and the record industry alike and the alternative to the BBC monopoly was long awaited.

Even the smallest record companies began hiring promotion staff to service the regional stations that would soon be going on air. Until then very few record companies employed full-time staff outside London as the existing BBC local network was in the main speech oriented.

Between 1974 and 1976 the first wave of 19 stations came on air. Record company 'pluggers' were everywhere, as were copious quantities of records. ILR claimed to have broken its first hits with records such as Kiki Dee's 'I've Got the Music In Me' and Brian Protheroe's 'Pinball'.

Listening figures from the joint Industry Committee for Radio Audience Research (JICRAR) of between 50% and 60% were achieved in some areas, particularly those where local radio was a new experience and where nationalistic fervour - as in Belfast, Glasgow and Swansea - ensured a firm base of support.

But as the network evolved it became apparent that all was not well. Some stations were not as music-oriented as others with several wanting to keep, the record industry at arms' length. By 1977, unable to reconcile themselves the needs of these stations, several record companies withdrew their pioneer 'pluggers' back to London or dispensed with them altogether. The promised land of ILR making and breaking hit after hit had failed to materialise and the honeymoon period was over.

The reasons for this were several - among them the fact that the IBA as regulator was insistent that stations fulfilled their franchise obligations to provide 'meaningful' speech programming, hence an increase in talk and 'phone-in programmes which took music from the airwaves. In addition tightened regulations meant that prizes had to be supplied and paid for radio station. Until then the most popular and most easily supplied prizes had been records, concert tickets and associated promotional items provided by record companies grateful for the extra exposure. This particular rule was interpreted in different ways from area to area, but still had a negative effect on the relationship between radio and record companies. Against a background of continuing legal battles over 'needletime' payments, it was not a particularly encouraging time for either industry.

By the end of the 1970s, stations were having less direct contact with the record companies than ever before and there developed a much more cynical edge to the relationship. The new wave of ILR stations in the early 1980s did not really renew enthusiasm within the record industry, despite several success stories, notably Mercia Sound in Coventry - probably the most professional launch in the history of ILR.

The unfortunate demise of stations in Leicester and Newport, with rumours of others to follow, did not exactly help.

But by 1986 the network had survived the worst with no further losses. With around 40 stations on air one could sense the record industry in certain quarters was ready to devote a little more of its energies to ILR. While not returning to the heyday of the mid-1970s, several companies began hiring regional staff again, perhaps frustrated by their promotional efforts at national radio level.

Talk was in the air of stations splitting frequencies to target their audiences more closely and by 1988 this had become a reality. The IBA was also practising its new 'lighter touch' approach which sensibly gave the stations greater scope in terms of programming and advertising. Sponsorship was now evident with several big companies in the business world financing music-based programmes in a bid to attract younger audiences.

In 1990 the majority of the ILR network is now offering some form of split frequency programming. The obsession with AM 'Oldies' programming is somewhat regrettable, but there is no doubt that it is proving successful while at the same time opening up the FM band to, in most cases, more youth-oriented music programming. The incremental stations also provide a fresh challenge, although it is really too early to say how successful the experiment has been. Certainly the arrival of specialised music formats will be of interest to most of the industry if the stations stick to their original remits.

Looking back over the last 16 years, it would be nice to think that the relationship between the two industries is currently at one of its higher points. ILR has been good for radio as a whole, improving its profile and the general interest of the listening public. It has had considerable effect in raising standards in BBC local and national radio and has given the record industry an extra dimension to explore.

With the future promising the arrival of many more local stations, plus national services, the radio audience, both independent and BBC, should continue to grow. But with listeners spread more diversely than ever before, perhaps over a wide range of music formats, we in the record industry must seek to target the really influential stations. It will be a testing time for both industries, but I would be delighted to have the opportunity of writing this piece again around the year 2000!


Bob Hermon, Deputy Head of Regional Promotion for CBS Records, has worked in the record industry for 18 years.


ILR - Sweet Dreams
By Ken Garner

Despite a few financial disasters, ILR [in 1990] continued to score many successes. Ken Garner gave a listener's view:

They came on air full of hope. They had new investors, new broadcasters and new ideas about programming. It was effectively a new market. But within a year to 18 months, many were in trouble. Stations changed hands. Heads rolled. Out went many of the founder's bold ideals. Some of the new voices disappeared.

From the point of view of the listener, and the enthusiast and critic like myself, this is the story of two periods in ILR. It is what happened to many stations in the brand new days of commercial radio. Who now remembers the unbelievable years of crisis at Capital and LBC from 1973 to 1975? But it also sounds like some of the unhappy events of recent months. Who would have suspected that within six months of coming on air, one 'incremental' radio station would be threatened with a takeover, another completely change hands and more than three others see the departure of several senior executives?

In fact, of course, there was someone who saw it coming. Significantly it was James Gordon, Managing Director of Radio Clyde, founder of one of the first ILR stations and still there 16 years on. He told a slightly incredulous audience at the 1989 Radio Festival that 'about a quarter' of the 20-odd incrementals would probably fail. As I scan the news pages of the trade press, every week seems to bring his prediction closer to reality.

The more I think about this cyclical lesson of history, the more I am inclined not to judge the IBA too harshly. When anything new is attempted, no one knows what is going to happen especially those in authority empowered to legislate for the unseen future. This must be what Bernard Ingham calls the cock-up theory of history.

But nowhere near all of it has been a cock-up. Of the new stations, Sunrise in West London, catering for Asian listeners, is an inspiration, both in its programming and success in advertising. Jazz FM is a superbly marketed idea. Naturally, as a jazz fan, I have several programming grumbles, but George Reid, Tomek and Giles Peterson make my doubts fade away. Isle of Wight Radio already sounds like a profitable, sweetly old-fashioned rural operation, which is just as it should be.

Then just recently there has been much proof in evidence of the programming strengths of the old boys. Capital FM is now a very dynamic station in the evenings again, and the wittiest and most informative, if not the most musically up-to-date, at breakfast time thanks wholly to Chris Tarrant, Kara, Russ Kane and Richard Park. BRMB-FM in Birmingham and Radio Forth's RFM in Edinburgh are equally exciting pop stations. And, perhaps as an example of what has kept James Gordon in his job all this time, Clyde 1 (FM)'s coverage of the 'Big Day' pop and street festival event this summer was a masterpiece of organisation and entertainment, compared with a frankly shambolic operation putting out confused pictures for Channel 4.

But is this at all what listeners were told they were going to get back in the early 1970s? All those early promises of speech, community events, drama, wide-ranging music, and so on, seemed to disappear from most station's schedules fairly quickly.

By about 1980 most of us knew what to expect from our local commercial station. There was lots of chart pop, win-a-T-shirt 'phone-ins, local news and sport, and insufferable ads. If that sounds a little harsh, on the positive side, I can say without reservation that with perhaps one exception, every single ILR station sounded more lively, youthful and entertaining than BBC local rivals. The only area where BBC locals have consistently been better is depth of local coverage, both in news and new music.

Ironically, it was the advertising recession of the early to mid-1980s which saw a second wave of stations go to the wall and the IBA lift many programming requirements, opening the way to the most successful and attractive programming trends of recent years: syndication and networking.

The dreams of local community broadcasters might have been broken with the station failures, and the subsequent re-grouping into large regional, pop-dominated corporations,. but the consolation has been such developments as The Network Chart Show, The American Countdown. Rockline, Rich Dees, Fred Hall's Swing Thing, several rock concert series and, most important of all, the advent of satellite delivery for these programmes, via companies like Satellite Media Services.

There have been other cross-country, mini-network schemes, like the Super Station and the short-lived Radio Nova. Not all of these outfits' programming may have been inspiring, but I think listeners recognised an increased sense of ambition and scope in these enterprises. At least local radio was trying something new.

Others recognised this too. The creation and extension of the Sony Radio Awards over the past. four or five years has given proper acknowledgement to previously neglected areas of radio. Similarly, the expansion of column inches devoted to radio in the press, although a long time coming, has at last begun. . There have been other good things about the big radio groups. The Trent Group has set up the Radio Training Unit and uses one of its several frequencies to broadcast Asian community programmes on most evenings of the week. In Dundee, Radio Tay, part of Forth's group, is able to devote term-time evenings to its unique further education radio school, Campus Radio.

More recently, we have had split frequency programming and the new incremental stations. Top marks have to go to Radio City's brave move into speech radio with City Talk. XTRA-AM of Midlands Radio, Classic Gold of Yorkshire Radio Network, Clyde 2 and Capital Gold seem the best of the 'oldies' services. Capital has a New York Award for its Gold format and Independent Radio Drama Productions and Clyde continue to win awards for their drama, showing that not all the early hopes for ILR have vanished.

But the move to the regional, networking, split service big groups has also meant that the demands of the smaller-scale local broadcasters could no longer be ignored. Their early hopes for ILR were dashed. Will the next phase of local radio realise their dreams? I fear the signs so far are not too good, but there must be plenty more like Avtar Lit, Chief Executive of Sunrise Radio, out there somewhere.

There is, however, one legacy of 17 years of ILR which I, for one, pray the move to national networks and small-scale, targeted local stations will not destroy. It is that peculiarly British creation, something only the paternalistic tradition of old-style British broadcasting legislation could have invented the mixed service radio station. Even if most ILRs now concentrate on forms of popular music for the bulk of their output, they still have more local news, features and flavour per hour than comparable stations run on commercial lines in most other countries. It may have been a mad fledgling, but let's hope it does not become extinct just yet.


Ken Garner writes the Radio and Music Jock Clock' radio analysis column and is editor of music radio for the Radio Academy's Radio magazine.