From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio is the BBC’s regional radio service for in most cases, large audiences. Despite this, Local Radio
England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 40 sta- continued to flourish, with the majority of the current
tions. They cover a variety of areas with some serving a network in place by 1990. The network has remained in
city and surrounding areas, for example BBC Radio Man- its current state since.[3]
chester; a county, for example BBC Radio Norfolk; an ad-
ministrative region for example BBC WM; or a larger re-
gion entirely for example BBC Radio Solent.
Current operation
The stations were launched progressively starting The radio stations are operated from stations around the
with BBC Radio Leicester on 8 November 1967 with the country that usually share with the BBC regional news
last station to launch being the ill fated BBC Dorset FM services, and their news gathering bureaux. The stations
on 26 April 1993. Since then, numerous local radio sta- are operated by the region that the station is based in and
tions have been merged and renamed, however no new is responsible to the BBC English Regions department as
stations have been created where no service previously well as the BBC Audio & Music department through BBC
existed. Radio.
The remit for each Local Radio station is the same: to
offer a primarily speech based service comprising news
History and information, complemented by Music. The target au-
The popularity of Pirate radio changed many things on dience of BBC Local Radio are listeners aged over 50, who
the BBC, the most prominent being the creation of BBC are not served as well as other age groups on the BBC.[4]
Radio 1 to satisfy the populations thirst for new, popular Each station produces most of their own programmes
music. The other however was the fact that these pirate however, some off-peak programming is produced from
radio stations were, in some cases, local. As a result, BBC one station and covering all stations in the region, some
Local Radio began as an experiment. is simulcast with other neighbouring regions and all sta-
Initially, stations had to be co-funded by the BBC and tions simulcast BBC Radio 5 Live overnight when the sta-
local authorities, which only some Labour-controlled ar- tion is off the air.
eas proved willing to do. Radio Leicester was the first to
launch on 8 November 1967, followed by Leeds, Stoke,
Durham, Sheffield, Merseyside, Brighton and Notting-
Stations
ham. By the early 1970s, the local authority funding re- A list of the forty local radio stations by region. In ad-
quirement was dropped, and stations spread across the dition to these stations, there are also opt-out services
country; many city-based stations later expand their re- covering Dorset (BBC Radio Solent), Milton Keynes (BBC
mit to cover an entire county.[1] Three Counties Radio), Peterborough and the Fens (BBC
There were eight stations in the initial ’experiment’, Radio Cambridgeshire), Swindon (BBC Wiltshire) and Ply-
which lasted for two years. When this finally finished, it mouth (BBC Radio Devon).[4]
was deemed so successful that all of the stations, except
BBC Radio Durham, remained on air. In addition to this, East
more followed in 1970; BBC Radio Birmingham, Bristol, • BBC Essex – [1]
Blackburn, Derby, Humberside, London, Manchester, • BBC Radio Cambridgeshire – [2]
Medway, Newcastle, Oxford, Solent and Teesside.[2] • BBC Radio Norfolk – [3]
Despite the success of this, the original stations were • BBC Radio Northampton – [4]
seen as flawed, as they originally only broadcast on the • BBC Radio Suffolk – [5]
FM band, and not on the more widely available AM band. • BBC Three Counties Radio (Bedfordshire,
This was eventually rectified a few years after the cre- Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire) – [6]
ation of these new channels.[2]
From 1973, Independent Local Radio launched na- East Midlands
tionally with a series of 19 stations with many more to
• BBC Radio Derby – [7]
follow in the years to come. As a result, many of the BBC
• BBC Radio Leicester – [8]
Local Radio stations found themselves in direct competi-
• BBC Radio Nottingham – [9]
tion with commercial competitors who utilised the pop-
ular DJs from the pirate radio stations, and who gained
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia BBC Local Radio
London Imaging
• BBC London 94.9 - [10]
Starting in late 2009, a generic jingle package produced
by Mcasso Music Production has been gradually rolled
North East and Cumbria across the network, and is now in use by almost all BBC
• BBC Tees – [11] Local Radio stations.
• BBC Radio Cumbria – [12]
• BBC Newcastle – [13]
Dave and Sue
North West Dave and Sue are two fictional radio listeners created as
• BBC Radio Manchester – [14] marketing personas. Descriptions of the characters, cre-
• BBC Radio Lancashire – [15] ated by the BBC, are given to all their local radio presen-
• BBC Radio Merseyside – [16] ters as representative target listeners.
The characters were created as part of "Project Bulls-
South eye". Its stated aim was that "To develop great radio pro-
gramming ... we need to know where the centre of our
• BBC Radio Berkshire – [17]
audience target is and be able to focus on it in all we
• BBC Radio Oxford – [18]
do."[1]
• BBC Radio Solent (Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of
The project is now out of date, as BBC Local Radio
Wight) – [19]
heads towards a new goal, entitled "BBC Local Radio
2010". However, ’Dave and Sue’ are still thought of by
South East
many as the benchmark listener for BBC Local Radio.
• BBC Radio Kent – [20] Dave and Sue are both 55. Sue is a school secretary,
• BBC Surrey – [21] while Dave is a self-employed plumber. They are both di-
• BBC Sussex – [22] vorcees with grown-up children. The characters shop at
Asda and wear casual clothes. The couple have little in-
South West terest in high culture or politics and see the world as
• BBC Radio Cornwall – [23] "a dangerous and depressing place". They hope that ra-
• BBC Radio Devon – [24] dio will be "something that will cheer them up and make
• BBC Guernsey – [25] them laugh".[1]
• BBC Radio Jersey – [26] Described as "composite listeners", BBC Local Radio
staff are given facts and timelines about Dave and Sue.
West They are asked to focus on producing something to
• BBC Radio Bristol – [27] which the pair would enjoy listening to.[5]
• BBC Radio Gloucestershire – [28] The BBC also produced photographs of the couple, to
• BBC Wiltshire – [29] encourage presenters to visualise their potential listen-
• BBC Somerset – [30] ers.[1] At the 2005 Frank Gillard Awards for BBC Local Ra-
dio, the corporation hired two actors to represent the fic-
West Midlands tional couple, and award a prize to the "Receptionist of
the Year".[6]
• BBC WM – [31]
Mia Costello of BBC Radio Solent wrote a controver-
• BBC Coventry and Warwickshire – [32]
sial internal memo in October 2006, restating the im-
• BBC Hereford and Worcester – [33]
portance of these characters. She wrote, "Whatever job
• BBC Radio Shropshire – [34]
you do on station, make sure this week, you broadcast to
• BBC Radio Stoke – [35]
Dave and Sue – people in their fifties. Only put on callers
sounding in the 45–64 range. I don’ t want to hear re-
Yorkshire ally elderly voices. Only talk about things that are posi-
• BBC Radio Leeds – [36] tive and appealing to people in this age range. Only do
• BBC Radio Sheffield – [37] caller round ups about people in this age range." This was
• BBC Radio York – [38] reprinted the following month in the Southern Daily Echo,
following which a BBC spokesperson commented "Out of
Yorkshire & Lincolnshire context these notes sound harsh and we apologise if they
• BBC Radio Humberside – [39] offend anyone."[7]
• BBC Lincolnshire – [40]
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia BBC Local Radio
See also [3] Smith, Mike. "UK Radio History". MDS975.
http://www.mds975.co.uk/Content/ukradio3.html.
The following radio stations are broadcast by the BBC in Retrieved 2 August 2011.
the other nations of the UK: [4] ^ "BBC Local Radio in England Policy 2010/2011".
• Northern Ireland – BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Statements of Programme Policy. BBC.
Foyle http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/
• Scotland – BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio nan statements2010/nations_regions/
Gàidheal eng_regions.shtml. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
• Wales – BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru [5] Peter Stewart, Essential Radio Skills
[6] BBC English Regions Annual Review 2005–2006
References [7] You Are Too Old At 65 BBC Tells Listeners, Southern
Daily Echo
[1] ^ Dave Self,Meet Dave ’n’ Sue, New Statesman
[2] ^ Smith, Mike. "UK Radio History". MDS975.
http://www.mds975.co.uk/Content/ukradio2.html. External links
Retrieved 2 August 2011. • BBC Local Radio at BBC Online
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=BBC_Local_Radio&oldid=460762633"
Categories:
• BBC local radio
• BBC radio
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