Independent Local Radio is the collective name given tocommercial radio stations in the United Kingdom.
As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by theBroadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from theCommunications Act 2003, most commercial stations are now neither independent (although they remain independent from theBBC) nor local, as almost all of them are now relays of a national brand, with all remaining locality reduced to nothing more than a weekday regional programme and localised commercials, news, weather and peak-time travel information.
The same name is used for Independent Local Radio inIreland.
Until the early 1970s, the BBC had a legalmonopoly on radio broadcasting in the UK. Despite competition from the commercialRadio Luxembourg and, for a period in the mid-1960s, the off-shore "pirate" broadcasters, it had remained the policy of both major political parties that radio was to remain under the BBC.
This policy changed after the election ofEdward Heath's government in1970. It is possible that Heath's victory was partly due to younger voters upset byHarold Wilson's government closing down the popular pirate radio stations.[1][2]
The new Minister of Post and Telecommunications and formerITN newscaster,Christopher Chataway, announced a bill to allow for the introduction of commercial radio in the United Kingdom. This service would be planned and regulated similarly to the existingITV service and would compete with the recently developedBBC Local Radio services (rather than the four national BBC services).
TheSound Broadcasting Act 1972[3] receivedroyal assent on 12 July 1972 and theIndependent Television Authority (ITA) accordingly changed its name to theIndependent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) that same day.[4]
The IBA immediately began to plan the new service, placing advertisements encouraging interested groups to apply for medium-term contracts to provide programmes in given areas. The first major areas to be advertised wereLondon andGlasgow, with two contracts available in London, one for "news and information", one for "general and entertainment".[5] Contracts were for three years, extendable for one year each year; thus, they were indefinite if the IBA was satisfied with the contractor's performance.[6]
The London news contract was awarded toLondon Broadcasting Company (LBC) and they began broadcasting on 8 October 1973. The London general contract went toCapital Radio, who began broadcasting on 16 October 1973. In total, 19 contracts were awarded between 1973 and 1976. Due to government limits on capital expenditure and turbulence in the broadcasting field (mainly due to theAnnan Report), no further contracts were awarded until 1980, when a second tranche of contracts were awarded. All stations were awarded anAM and anFM frequency, on which they broadcast the same service.
In July 1981, the Home Secretary approved proposals for the creation of Independent Local Radio services in 25 more areas.[8] However some of these areas were not licensed during the IBA's time as the regulator and did not receive a commercial station until after its successor, The Radio Authority, came into being in 1991.
In the late 1980s, the expansion of ILR continued at a similar rate. Under the Broadcasting Acts, the IBA had a duty to ensure that any area it licensed for radio could support a station with the available advertising revenue. Therefore, many areas were not included in the IBA's ILR plans as it was felt that they were not viable.[9] This did not prevent Radio West in Bristol getting into financial trouble and having to merge with Wiltshire Radio on 1 October 1985;[10] nor did it prevent Centre Radio going into receivership on 6 October 1983.[11]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in several areas where ILR stations had not previously been licensed, new local radio licenses were issued in these 'white space' locations which, whilst not part of the historic ILR tranche, operated as the defacto ILR commercial radio services for their broadcast area. As these stations launched after the move to end AM/FM simulcasting (as detailed below), these newer stations were issued with only an FM license and had no AM frequency, precluding them from following other ILR licensees in splitting into younger FM/older AM services. These stations includedFox FM inOxfordshire (15 Sept 1989),Lincs FM inLincolnshire (1 March 1992),Pirate FM inCornwall (3 April 1992),Minster FM inNorth Yorkshire (4 July 1992) andCFM inCumbria (14 April 1993). (With the exception of Fox FM (now owned by Global and broadcasting as Heart), these stations have now effectively been split in twain by Bauer to broadcastGreatest Hits Radio on their legacy FM frequencies, with a localisedHits Radio service offered alongside it on DAB.)
In 1986 theHome Office sanctioned in principle the idea that different services could be broadcast on each station's FM and AM frequency and six experiments of split programming on Independent Local Radio of up to ten hours a week took place, although the first experimental part-time split service had taken place two years earlier whenRadio Forth created Festival City Radio for the duration of theEdinburgh Festival.[12] The first station to permanently split their frequencies wasGuildford'sCounty Sound[13] who rebranded the FM output as Premier Radio and turned the AM output into a new golden oldies station, County Sound Gold in 1988.
By 1988, the government had decided that the practice of splitting was beneficial and a quick way to increase choice for listeners. The IBA then began encouraging ILR stations to split their services and most soon complied. The usual format was to have a "gold" (oldies) service on AM and pop music on FM, although Radio City tried "City Talk" on AM before abandoning the format and replacing it with a "gold" station. By the start of the 1990s, most stations had done 'the splits' with the final stations ending waveband simulcasting by the mid-1990s.
Incremental Radio was a new type of radio licence given out by the IBA between 1989 and 1990. These were additional radio services introduced into areas already served by an Independent Local Radio station and most had to offer output not already available on ILR, such as specialist music, programmes for a specific section of the community or for smaller areas than ILR stations cover. 22 stations went on air, most of which were eventually acquired by the large radio groups and absorbed into their networks. As of 2024 only a few remain independently owned and operated. The regulatory model these stations were under was a precursor to commercial radio stations licensed by the incoming Radio Authority.
TheBroadcasting Act 1990 provided for the abolition of the IBA and its replacement by theIndependent Television Commission. The IBA continued to regulate radio under the new name of the Radio Authority, but with a different remit.
As a "light-touch" regulator (although heavier than the ITC), the Radio Authority was to issue licences to the highest bidder and promote the development of commercial radio choice.[14]
This led to the awarding of three national contracts, known asIndependent National Radio toClassic FM, Virgin 1215 (laterVirgin Radio and then rebrandedAbsolute Radio) and Talk Radio (laterTalksport).
The Radio Authority also began to licenseRestricted Service Licence (RSL) stations – low-power temporary radio stations for special events, operating for up to 28 days a year – and to reduce the criteria for a "viable service area" with the introduction of Small Scale Local Licences (SALLIES) for villages, special interest groups and small communities.[15]
By this time themedium wave band had become unpopular with radio groups and the majority of new stations were awarded an FM licence only, even when an AM licence was jointly available.
In 1994 the Radio Authority introduced regional stations (Independent Regional Radio, again usually grouped under the banner "ILR" by most commentators) and began to license the commercialDigital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) multiplexes in October 1998.[14]
The Radio Authority was replaced by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in 2004, which also replaced the ITC, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Radio Communications Agency and the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel). Ofcom has stated that they plan to continue the development of Independent Local Radio, with an emphasis on digital broadcasting, and to "ensure the character" of local stations, following the mergers and loss of local identities that followed the 1990 Act.[14]
Several brand names previously used by heritage ILR stations have since been revived for use by FM, digital and online stations, generally unconnected to the original licensees and separate from the stations which once bore those names.
Following the rebranding of Pennine Radio as The Pulse, the namePennine FM was reused for a SALLIE local station in Huddersfield (previously branded as Huddersfield FM) from 2008 until the station's closure in 2010.
Herefordshire community radio station Youthcomm Radio was rebranded asRadio Wyvern in October 2022, marking the 40th anniversary of the original Radio Wyvern's launch;[16] following this,Big City Radio in theAston area of Birmingham gave up its FM frequencies to a revivedBRMB on 4th September 2023, the Big City Radio name and format continuing on digital platforms thereafter.
Exmouth community stationEast Devon Radio was rebranded under the DevonAir Radio name in March 2023; this was the station's fourth branding since its 2006 launch, having previously been Bay FM and, between 2018 and 2021 ExmouthAiR; prior to adopting the DevonAir name for their main feed, EDR had launched an oldies service on digital platforms under the name 'DevonAir Gold' in 2022.[17]
The name Radio Victory has been relaunched into Portsmouth twice; the first revival was for a local (SALLIE) FM service for the city in 1999, with this station latterly joining the cluster now broadcasting asEasy Radio South Coast; the second and current incarnation launched on smallscale DAB on 1 April 2022.[18]
In 2005, there were 217 licensed analogue ILR and IRR services in England; 16 in Wales; 34 in Scotland; eight in Northern Ireland; and two in theChannel Islands. These arelicences rather thanfranchises. Some licences are grouped nationally, regionally or by format to provide one service; other licences cover two or more services.[14]
There were three national analogue services. There was one national DAB multiplex (Digital One) and 47 regional DAB multiplexes, owned by 10 and operated by nine companies (each multiplex carrying multiple services).[19]
The first licensed commercial radio station in the United Kingdom is often stated to beManx Radio, which launched in June 1964.[20] However, since theIsle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom, Manx Radio is not considered to be an ILR station and launched with aPost Office licence.[citation needed] Manx Radio is funded by a mixture of commercial advertising and a yearly £860,000 Manx Government subvention.
