The London Broadcasting Company (LBC) and Independent Radio News (IRN) Archive

Abstract

UK commercial radio was formally launched in October 1973 when LBC went on air. Its sister station, IRN, began providing a news service at the same time for the growing number of ‘Independent Local Radio’ stations. During the period 1973-1996 these two organisations assembled an archive of over 7,000 reel-to-reel tapes which now represent the largest commercial radio archive in Britain. For historians of the media, and of the twentieth century more generally, the collection is a rich and varied source of social, cultural and political evidence. Media historians, including historians of journalism, can hear examples of a more populist and innovative style of reporting (or ‘reportage’) than was to be heard on the BBC. For the first time the phone-in was an integral part of the schedule and a more opinionated style of presentation was pioneered by Brian Hayes and others. The archive, soon to be digitised and made available online, contains a radio history of the period which started slightly before Margaret Thatcher's election as Leader of the Conservative Party and finished a few years after the end of premiership. New clips, current affairs series like Decision Makers, parliamentary debates (made by the LBC parliamentary unit) and phone-ins all covered the major news stories of the time. There are, to take a notable example, 62 tapes on the Falklands War including 778 individual news items. The archive is an important and hitherto largely neglected source for future historians of the period.