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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | United Kingdom |
| Frequency |
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| RDS | LBC |
| Programming | |
| Format | Talk radio |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Global |
| LBC News | |
| History | |
First air date |
|
Former frequencies | AM:719kHz (London) (1973–1975) AM:1152kHz (London) (1975–1989) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Global Player |
| Website | www |
LBC (originally theLondon Broadcasting Company) is a Britishphone-in andtalk radio station owned and operated byGlobal and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensedcommercialradio station, and began to broadcast on Monday 8 October 1973,[1] a week ahead ofCapital Radio.
The launch of LBC also saw the beginning ofIndependent Radio News broadcasting, as LBC provided the service to independent local radio stations nationwide. LBC broadcast only to London until 2006, at which time it became available, via digital radio, in some other parts of the country. It has been available nationwide since 2014, with the letters now standing forLeading Britain's Conversation. LBC has a like-branded sister station,LBC News, dedicated to rolling news, travel and weather.
The station was originally based in studios on Gough Square, offFleet Street in theCity of London.David Jessel was LBC's original breakfast presenter; he opened the station just before 6 a.m. on Monday 8 October 1973. The original station had several presenters who became household names in the British media. These includeAdrian Love,Jon Snow,Peter Allen,Rosie Boycott, andBel Mooney. For 10 years from 1975 the breakfast showAM was presented byBob Holness andDouglas Cameron. LBC's late-evening interview and phone-in programme between 9 p.m. (later 10 p.m.) and 1 a.m. was calledNightlineand at various times was hosted by Adrian Love,Robin Houston,Monty Modlyn,Jeremy Beadle andTommy Boyd. There was also a character called "Mr Nasty" (played byJohn Forrest), who argued over the telephone with children. Beadle and Forrest went on to star in theGranada Television seriesFun Factory.[citation needed]
Originally owned by a consortium led by the CanadianSelkirk Communications of Vancouver, British Columbia with a 47% stake, LBC was sold in 1987, beginning a turbulent commercial history. The new owners were media company Darling Downs, later renamed Crown Communications, owned by Australian entrepreneur David Haynes. Crown sold the station's original base in Gough Square nearFleet Street in theCity of London and relocated toHammersmith; and in 1989 split the station into two separate services, the news and comment station LBC Crown FM, and the phone-in London Talkback Radio on AM. The transition was not initially well received, and substantially increased costs, pushing the company into the red. In 1993, the company was sold toShirley Porter's Chelverton Investments, after Crown fell into financial difficulties.[2]
On the morning of Friday, 3 September 1993, theRadio Authority announced it would not renew the company's two licences, LBC Newstalk and London Talkback Radio, awarding the frequencies instead toLondon News Radio, a consortium led by former LBC staff and backed byGuinness Mahon.[3] Staff at the station were in shock, not least because while they had received a tip-off from theFinancial Times that they looked set to lose one of their frequencies, they did not expect to lose both. This was one of only a handful of times the UK media regulator had declined to renew the licence of an incumbent station. The prospective loss of the franchise brought Chelverton to the brink of collapse,[4] and London News Radio (soon itself taken over byReuters) bought LBC to keep it on air until the official handover date of October 1994.[5]
London News Radio operated the station from LBC's former studios in Hammersmith as London News 97.3, a rolling news and travel information service on theFM band, and the phone-in-driven service London News Talk 1152 on theMW band. These names were simplified slightly in mid-1995 to News 97.3 and News Talk 1152 respectively, but between October 1994 and July 1996 the LBC name was not used on-air at all.
Reuters then brought in additional shareholders, and between 1996 and 2002 LBC was part of London News Radio Limited, a company owned jointly byITN,Daily Mail and General Trust, Reuters, and theGWR Group. This new consortium revived the LBC name on 1152AM on 1 July 1996. At the end of 1996, the FM service was relaunched as News Direct 97.3FM. Production for the station was moved to the basement ofITN's multimedia building inGray's Inn Road.
In 2002, the company was bought for £23.5m by the media companyChrysalis,[6][7][8] which trumpeted its purchase with the promise that it would lift the listenership to at least one million from around 700,000 (LBC had enjoyed an audience of more than two million in the early 1980s). Production was moved to Chrysalis's base inNorth Kensington, and the formatting of the two frequencies was swapped, the talk format moving to FM and the news format to AM.[9]
On 13 January 2004, then BritishPrime MinisterTony Blair presented an hour-long phone-in show on the station, taking pre-booked calls from LBC 97.3 listeners. His appearance was part of the "Big Conversation" initiative to promote government as being more accessible and in touch with the people. During the 10–11 a.m. show, a caller said that he had been denied access to his children for five years and asked what Blair was planning to do about other fathers in a similar situation. Blair assured the caller he would look into his case personally. It later transpired that the caller was in factFathers 4 Justice member Ron Davis, who in May of that year was arrested for entering Parliament and throwing a condom containing purple powder over Blair and nearby Cabinet members. Davis said the attack was in response to the Prime Minister's failure to contact him or look into the matters discussed on LBC 97.3.[10][11][12]
Mark Flanagan, the station's Managing Director, left Chrysalis in 2005 to set up a political consultancy company, and was replaced by David Lloyd.[13] He introduced apodcasting service called LBC Plus, and a number of premium-rate promotional opportunities to replace falling advertising revenues experienced by the radio sector.
In January 2006, LBC Plus launched as a paid subscription service providingpodcasts;[14] eventually this became a free catch-up service.[15]
In September 2006, LBC 97.3 became available in some other parts of the country on the digitalDAB platform, after Chrysalis bought out its partners and closed theDigital News Network rolling news station, which had previously been carried on the MXR multiplex. Each multiplex region − the North West, West Midlands, Yorkshire, North East, South Wales, and the West − broadcast the London LBC transmission, augmented with occasional bulletins of regional news and travel information.[16][17]
In February 2007, Chrysalis confirmed media speculation that it was reviewing the entire radio operation at its investors' request.[18] Further media speculation fromThe Guardian suggested that the group had little option, due to shareholder pressure, to sell its radio arm, including LBC, raising up to £200 million for new acquisitions, whileThe Daily Telegraph suggested that it could be the subject of a management buyout. Subsequently, it was announced on 25 June 2007 that LBC along with its sister stationsThe Arrow,Heart, andGalaxy network were to be sold for £170 million toGlobal Radio by theChrysalis Group, whose Chrysalis Radio operation closed down.[19] In December 2008 the station moved to theCapital London studios in Leicester Square.
In April 2007, a new marketing slogan for (what was then called) LBC 97.3 was introduced − "London's Biggest Conversation", a play on the station's initials.[20]
The radio station became involved in theMMR vaccine controversy after a broadcast byJeni Barnett on 7 January 2009 in which she debated the alleged dangers of MMR vaccine with callers. It became the subject of media controversy, first because her views were criticised as irresponsible by medical journalist DrBen Goldacre, and then because LBC and Global Radio threatened legal action against Goldacre for copyright infringement after he refused to remove the audio of the show from his blog, which resulted in its being made available at Wikileaks and elsewhere and the preparation of transcripts of the broadcast.David Aaronovitch inThe Times argued for "a class action against LBC for permitting a presenter to inflict her preposterous prejudices on her listeners, to the detriment of someone else's kids."[21]Norman Lamb MP tabled anEarly Day Motion criticising Barnett and LBC for the likely effect of the broadcast on public health.[22]
Towards the end of October 2012, the station ceased DAB broadcasts to some parts of the country as regional DAB multiplexes in England and Wales were shut down.
Since 2013 LBC has broadcast a consumer law show, calledThe Consumer Hour that focused on providing information, advice, and support to listeners on various consumer-related topics, such as personal finance, product safety, and consumer rights. The show was initially hosted byClive Bull with listeners' questions answered by guest consumer lawyerDean Dunham; since 2020 Dunham has solely presented the show.[23]
On 30 January 2014, LBC announced its intention to begin broadcasting nationally on DAB at 7 a.m. on 11 February 2014 under a new slogan, "Leading Britain's Conversation", with new jingles composed byDavid Arnold and performed by theCity of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.[24] LBC took up the slot previously occupied byJazz FM (and brieflyBirdsong), and dropped the "97.3" from the station name to reinforce the notion that it now had national coverage.[25][26]
In a 2023 poll byYouGov, 14% of respondents ranked LBC as a trusted news brand. A further 14% of respondents did not trust LBC. The remaining respondents were either neutral or did not answer.[27]
As of September 2024, LBC and LBC London broadcast to a combined weekly audience of 4.1 million, according toRAJAR.[28]
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