Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom.
As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003 and further deregulation from the Media Act 2024, most commercial stations are now neither independent (although they remain independent from the BBC) nor local, as almost all of them are now relays of a national brand, with remaining locality reduced to nothing more than localised commercials, news (which may be from the approved area region), weather and peak-time travel information. Radio stations are licensed and regulated by OfCom.
The same name is used for Independent Local Radio in Ireland.
History
Development of ILR Until the early 1970s, the BBC had a legal monopoly on radio broadcasting in the UK. Despite competition from the commercial Radio Luxembourg, it had remained the policy of both major political parties that radio was to remain under the BBC.
In the 1960s, a number of unlicensed "pirate radio" stations became popular, often avoiding the law by operating offshore until the passing of the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967.
This policy changed after the election of Edward Heath's government in 1970. It is possible that Heath's victory was partly due to younger voters upset by Harold Wilson's government closing down the popular pirate radio stations.
The new Minister of Post and Telecommunications and former ITN 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 existing ITV service and would compete with the recently developed BBC Local Radio services (rather than the four national BBC services).
The Sound Broadcasting Act 1972BFI researchers' guide - legislation. Retrieved 4 January 2006 received royal assent on 12 July 1972 and the Independent Television Authority (ITA) accordingly changed its name to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) that same day.
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 were London and Glasgow, with two contracts available in London, one for "news and information", one for "general and entertainment".Croston, Eric (Ed.) Television and Radio 1985 - Guide to Independent Broadcasting Independent Broadcasting Authority, London 1984. 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.
The London news contract was awarded to London Broadcasting Company (LBC) and they began broadcasting on 8 October 1973. The London general contract went to Capital 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 the Annan Report), no further contracts were awarded until 1980, when a second tranche of contracts were awarded. All stations were awarded an AM and an FM frequency, on which they broadcast the same service.
Original contracts
First tranche Airdate City Station name CurrentStation name Owner 8 October 1973 London London Broadcasting Company LBC Global 16 October 1973 London Capital Radio Capital London Global 31 December 1973 Glasgow Radio Clyde Clyde 1 Bauer 19 February 1974 Birmingham BRMB Hits Radio Birmingham Bauer 2 April 1974 Manchester Piccadilly Radio Hits Radio Manchester Bauer 15 July 1974 Newcastle-upon-Tyne Metro Radio Hits Radio North East Bauer 30 September 1974 Swansea Swansea Sound Hits Radio South Wales Bauer 1 October 1974 Sheffield & Rotherham Radio Hallam Hits Radio South Yorkshire Bauer 21 October 1974 Liverpool Radio City Hits Radio Liverpool Bauer 22 January 1975 Edinburgh Radio Forth Forth 1 Bauer 19 May 1975 Plymouth Plymouth Sound Defunct, now a relay of Heart West Global 24 June 1975 Stockton-on-Tees Radio Tees Hits Radio Teesside Bauer 3 July 1975 Nottingham Radio Trent Defunct, now a relay of Capital Midlands Global 16 September 1975 Bradford Pennine Radio Hits Radio West Yorkshire Bauer 14 October 1975 Portsmouth Radio VictoryDefunct 28 October 1975 Ipswich Radio Orwell Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 8 March 1976 Reading Radio 210 Defunct, now a relay of Heart South Global 16 March 1976 BelfastDowntown Radio Bauer 12 April 1976 Wolverhampton Beacon Radio Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire Bauer
Second tranche Airdate City Station name CurrentStation name Owner 11 April 1980 Cardiff Cardiff Broadcasting Company Capital South Wales Global 23 May 1980 Coventry Mercia Sound Hits Radio Coventry & Warwickshire Bauer 10 July 1980 Peterborough Hereward Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 15 September 1980 Bournemouth 2CR (Two Counties Radio) Defunct, now a relay of Heart South Global 17 October 1980 Dundee Radio Tay Tay FM Bauer 23 October 1980 Gloucester Severn Sound Defunct, now a relay of Heart West Global 7 November 1980 Exeter DevonAir Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart West Global 14 November 1980 Perth Radio Tay Tay FM Bauer 12 December 1980 Torbay DevonAir Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart West Global 27 July 1981 Aberdeen Northsound Radio Northsound 1 Bauer 1 September 1981 Leeds Radio Aire Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire Bauer 7 September 1981 Leicester Centre RadioDefunct 12 September 1981 Southend-on-Sea Essex Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 15 October 1981 Luton Chiltern Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 27 October 1981 Bristol Radio West Defunct, now a relay of Heart West Global 4 December 1981 Ayr and Girvan West Sound Radio Greatest Hits Radio Ayrshire Bauer 10 December 1981 Chelmsford Essex Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 23 February 1982 Inverness Moray Firth Radio MFR Bauer 1 March 1982 Bedford Chiltern Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 4 October 1982 Worcester Radio Wyvern Hits Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire Bauer 5 October 1982 Preston Red Rose Radio Hits Radio Lancashire Bauer 12 October 1982 Swindon Wiltshire Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart West Global 6 November 1982 Bury St Edmunds Saxon Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 4 April 1983 Guildford County Sound Defunct, now a relay of Greatest Hits Radio South Bauer 13 June 1983 Newport Gwent Broadcasting Defunct, now a relay of Capital South Wales Global 29 August 1983 Brighton Southern Sound Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart South Global 5 September 1983 Stoke-on-Trent Signal Radio Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire Bauer 5 September 1983 Wrexham Marcher Sound Defunct, now a relay of Capital North West & Wales Global 17 April 1984 Kingston-upon-Hull Viking Radio Hits Radio East Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire Bauer 5 September 1984 Leicester Leicester Sound Defunct, now a relay of Capital Midlands Global 1 October 1984 Norwich Radio Broadland Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 1 October 1984 Northampton Hereward Radio Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 1 October 1984 East Kent Invicta Sound Defunct, now a relay of Heart South Global 20 October 1984 Reigate & Crawley Radio Mercury Defunct, now a relay of Heart South Global 12 October 1986 Southampton and Portsmouth Ocean Sound Defunct, now a relay of Heart South Global 30 November 1986 Northampton and Northamptonshire Northants 96 Defunct, now a relay of Heart East Global 3 March 1987 Derby Radio Trent Defunct, now a relay of Capital Midlands Global 22 May 1987 Bath GWR Radio Bath Defunct, now a relay of Heart West Global
In July 1981, the Home Secretary approved proposals for the creation of Independent Local Radio services in 25 more areas. 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.
Extension of ILR 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.Croston, Eric (Ed.) Television and Radio 1981 - Focus on Independent Broadcasting Independent Broadcasting Authority, London 1980. This did not prevent Radio West in Bristol getting into financial trouble and having to merge with Wiltshire Radio on 1 October 1985;Rogers, Andrew RW + WR = GWR Radiomusications from Transdiffusion, retrieved 4 January 2006 nor did it prevent Centre Radio going into receivership on 6 October 1983.Parry, Simon Off Centre Radiomusications from Transdiffusion, retrieved 4 January 2006
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 included Fox FM in Oxfordshire (15 Sept 1989), Lincs FM in Lincolnshire (1 March 1992), Pirate FM in Cornwall (3 April 1992), Minster FM in North Yorkshire (4 July 1992) and CFM in Cumbria (14 April 1993). These stations have now effectively been split in twain by Bauer to broadcast Greatest Hits Radio on their legacy FM frequencies, with a localised Hits Radio service offered alongside it on DAB; with the exception of Fox FM, which is now owned by Global and broadcasting as Heart.
Split services In 1986 the Home 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 when Radio Forth created Festival City Radio for the duration of the Edinburgh Festival. The first station to permanently split their frequencies was Guildford's County SoundCounty Sound Radio MDS975, retrieved 8 August 2007 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