Radio In Britain Research Articles

Lobbying for community radio in Britain

This article, within the context of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Community Media Association (CMA) in 2023, and its role within the context of British radio history, will draw on grey literature from the CMA digital archives, including policy statements, policy briefings and background material for the lobbying actions during the period 1997–2007. First-hand material to be discussed will draw on interviews with key actors involved in policy-making until the introduction of Community Radio into legislation, as well as on press releases, statements and policy documents of the regulators Radio Authority and the Office of Communications, policy statements and documents published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, statements from the BBC and commercial radio representatives and parliamentary records of the debates on community radio legislation. The analysis and discussion of this material will help to establish the role of the main players in policy-making and regulation and how events unfolded between the outcome of 2 May 1997 general election, when the Labour Party took power, and 20 July 2004, when the Community Radio Order (CRO) was approved. It will also trace the development of the lobbying action of the CMA, the discussions and the tensions preceding the government’s approval to go ahead with a new sector. It will argue that, despite having the merit of introducing a new sector in licensed radio broadcasting, after three decades of community media activists campaigning, the Labour Party fell short on its promises of funding the sector in its initial phase, denying it a solid and sustainable start.

Contemporary Christian radio in Britain: A new genre on the national dial

Abstract Only in the second decade of the twenty-first century has contemporary Christian radio appeared as a new genre in Britain, unlike the United States where it has long been a significant format. Responsibility for religious broadcasting in the United Kingdom was, for most of the twentieth century, fulfilled by the BBC. However, the gradual relaxation of broadcasting regulations since the 1980s and the introduction of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) have provided openings for Christian radio stations, and since 2009 the United Kingdom has had two national stations broadcasting from mainland studios for the first time. This article explores recent developments in this genre, using primary research interviews with Christian radio broadcasters. It suggests that what started out as a way for Christians to evangelize and proselytize their message has become a radio service that broadcasts almost exclusively to converted believers. It also observes that the programming and scheduling of these stations closely resembles the speech-and-music-mix style of BBC Local Radio, implying an attempt to insert themselves directly into the mainstream of the radio spectrum.

Blood, Thunder and Showgirls: The Merchant Navy on the BBC, 1939–1945

This article examines the representation of the Merchant Navy on BBC radio in Britain during the Second World War. It discusses how this essential, but dangerous, wartime role was presented to the British public by arguably the most prevalent wartime cultural medium. It uses extensive research in the BBC’s Written Archive Centre, using both radio broadcasts and listener research, to understand how the role of the Merchant Navy was portrayed and understood during the war. This article argues that, unlike other civilian occupations, men of the Merchant Navy were presented as brave and courageous under enemy fire and were consequently given access to much of the prestige generally reserved for the armed forces.

Cinema and Radio in Britain and America 1920–1960. JeffreyRichards. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2010.

Cinema and Radio in Britain and America 1920-1960. Jeffrey Richards. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2010.This fascinating history looks at the parallel stories of cinema and radio from the earliest days of both media to 1960, the day that radio died (at least in America), when television finally assumed pride of place as the principal mode of mass communication. Richards is especially preoccupied with cross-media interactions in terms of casting, storylines, and choice of material, and examines at the social and economic imperatives that drove such interactions.The book begins by setting radio in the context of the mid-twentieth century, as a medium of mass communication. By 1922, there were 550 different radio stations and fifteen million radios in America. The major Hollywood film studios understood radio's potential to promote their products: from the early 1930s onwards they had direct input by means of long-running series such as Lux Radio Theater (1934-1955), which regularly broadcast adaptations of major film hits with the original stars recreating their roles. In Britain, the situation was very different: the BBC was always a public service broadcasting organization, whose drama repertoire was determined by successive heads of department. Radio stars such as Norman Shelley and Marjorie Westbury rarely ventured into other media. Nonetheless, in some respects the BBC paralleled the American commercial networks, notably in their willingness to produce radio versions of hit British and American films such as The Lady Vanishes (1938).Richards subsequently examines how the two media treated popular genres. In their comedy output, both radio and the cinema owed a considerable debt to the stage; many stars of the period had started their careers in music hall or vaudeville. Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, and Fred Allen had already established reputations for themselves in America, while in Britain Will Hay, Norman Evans, and Arthur Lucan (aka Old Mother Riley) had spent many years touring the country before they arrived on radio. The cinema gave them the chance to reach wider audiences, and increased their radio appeal. Radio also spawned American sitcoms such as Father Knows Best (19491953) starring Robert Young, and My Favorite Husband (1948-1951) with Lucille Ball. In detective series, the relationship between the two media was likewise symbiotic. The works of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were equally popular in radio and cinema; both Dick Powell and Humphrey Bogart portrayed Philip Marlowe in two memorable film versions, while Gerald Mohr portrayed the detective for four seasons in The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (1947-1951). …

Cinema and Radio in Britain and America, 1920-60. By Jeffrey Richards.

I will begin this review with a confession: I am a bit of a fan of Jeffrey Richards. Like many film historians, I began by reading his Visions of Yesterday (1973). When one wanted to read solid and insightful histories of British cinema and culture, one read Jeffrey Richards. Nearly 40 years on, despite the massive development of film studies and the dozens of books on British cinema and cultural history published each year, there is still Jeffrey Richards. His latest book, Cinema and Radio in Britain and America, 1920–60, represents what I expect and look forward to in his writings: a wide-ranging, informative, engagingly written, comparative media history. While many film historians and theorists continue to analyse film in relative isolation from other media, Richards argues, ‘the power of films in the imaginative lives of audiences can only be properly understood when films are located within the wider cinema culture, which comprised film magazines, cigarette cards, postcards, cheap biographies, the book of the film, the sheet music of the film and above all radio’. Richards has done sound research on the different industrial and creative relationships between film and radio in the USA and Britain. As he explains early on, while Hollywood, after some initial nervousness, forged a strong and even ‘symbiotic’ relationship with the radio networks, Britain and its media monolith the BBC were less influenced by British film culture and the demands to showcase its film stars. Richards’ history of America's interconnected radio and cinema audiences ranges widely over the vision of David Sarnoff, head of RCA and later RKO Radio Pictures, Orson Welles, John Michael Hayes, Lucille Ball, and Howard Koch. He reveals how certain popular radio dramas such as Sorry, Wrong Number with Agnes Moorehead (1943, repeated a record seven times), became popular films (with Barbara Stanwyck in the lead, 1948), and how, despite the critical consensus that women's radio programmes constructed a limited, house-bound narrative for America's women, a number of programmes featured working women who stayed in the workforce (The Story of Mary Marlin, 1937–43). But as Richards points out, there were far more male Hollywood stars than female stars with their own radio programmes during this period, and the industry was almost entirely run by men.

Cinema and Radio in Britain and America, 1920-60 - By Jeffrey Richards

Cinema and Radio in Britain and America, 1920-60 - By Jeffrey Richards

“Focus on the Housewife”: the BBC and the Post-war Woman, 1945-1955

Within British women’s history, historians have illuminated the complexity of British post-war society and the particular role played by women within it. Studies show that the post-war woman was considered a significant citizen, crucial for the rebuilding of Britain, both as a worker and as a mother. Building on work within women’s and radio history, the aim of my research is to explore the relationship between the BBC and women in this period. In this paper, I will argue that, through radio, British women were given a voice, as workers and as housewives. This was, however, not without difficulties. The paper also highlights the complexity of the female radio audience and the struggle that faced broadcasters. The material under discussion reflects the changes and negotiations that were taking place in society at that time, and the paper emphasises the important role played by female listeners and by women’s radio in Britain.

Review of Radio Studies teaching

This survey of current approaches to the teaching of radio studies in universities seeks to identify common themes and elements of such courses. In addition, it identifies notable examples of interesting, unusual and creative pedagogic approaches, based on contributions volunteered by university teachers of radio in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. The introduction by Eryl Price-Davies covers the variety of approaches to radio in UK degree programmes, which include theory and practice, critical listening skills, history and archives, vocations in the radio industries, and the actual practice of broadcasting within a course. The contributions that follow this illustrate international examples of some of these approaches. These include the pre-produced radio interview programme as a lecture, ‘visualisation’ lectures, web-radio production training, individual students broadcasting from an overseas/exchange assignment, and programmes with a developed radio route - comprising several modules or units. 1. Introduction: some thematic observations on the teaching of radio studies (Eryl Price-Davies) 2. BA (Hons.) Media and Communications (Radio): a case study. The specialist radio degree at UCE, Birmingham, UK (Tim Wall and Peter Windows) 3. Touching the imagination through sound: using visualization to develop undergraduate creativity (Tim McClellan) 4. The radio interview as teaching: how listening to a radio show can beat the in-person lecture (Andrew Dubber) 5. A debating point: radio in the curriculum in the United States of America (Michael C. Keith) 6. From on-air to the Web: Re-defining the radio producer (Bruce Berryman) 7. QUT's international radio reporting field trips (Lee Duffield)

Lovesong Dedications

Lovesong Dedications

British Radio Studies

The four articles that follow are linked to an initiative whose origins and rationale are worth explaining to this journal's largely U.S. readership. Introducing the Radio Studies Network, and the project of which it is the main outcome so far, will allow me also to summarize the main trends and issues in the academic study of radio in Britain at this time.

Melodies or rhythms?: the competition for the Greater London FM radio licence

On 12 July 1989, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) announced that the Greater London FM licence would go to London Jazz Radio (LJR). This franchise was allocated as part of the expansion of commercial radio in Britain. As in most other countries, the British state owns the electromagnetic spectrum. This allows the government to choose who can broadcast over the airwaves. However, unlike most industrialised countries, the British state chooses not to use all the frequencies made available for broadcasting under international treaties. Instead, there has been a ‘duopoly’ between the radio stations of the state-owned British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and commercial stations authorised by the IBA. This limitation on the number of radio stations makes the British broadcasting system seem backward compared not only with the USA, but also the rest of the European Community. However, this oligopoly is now slowly collapsing. The licencing of LJR was a first stage of a period of rapid growth in commercial radio in Britain.

LOCAL BROADCASTING AND THE LOCAL AUTHORITY

The development of local radio in Britain was expected to have significant and positive effects on local political communication. This article discusses the extent and character of local radio's engagement with the local political system, drawing upon some of the evidence obtained from a wide‐ranging study of what radio stations are doing. The nature of local government coverage is discussed, with appropriate examples. The limitations of local radio's engagement with the local political system are highlighted, reflected in both the quantity and quality of its coverage. Some reasons for these limitations are suggested (size of local radio areas, lack of expertise in local government matters, attitudes of broadcasters) and the need to overcome them is stressed if the original promise of local radio in this field is to be fulfilled.

Television and Radio in Britain

Television and Radio in Britain

Recent developments in mobile radio in Britain

The paper outlines briefly the development of v.h.f. mobile radio in Great Britain, its past history, its present development, and its future planning. The predominant use of amplitude modulation is discussed, particularly in relation to the introduction of 25 kc/s channel spacing which is now being used. Equipment has also been developed to work on channel spacings as close as 12.5 or 15 kc/s. Future trends and the possibility of introducing single-sideband with or without carrier, are briefly discussed.