The history and development of radio in the UK

The 1990 Broadcasting Act decreed that all local VHF and MW services should be individually licensed, replacing the single VHF / MW ‘contract’ that had previously existed under the auspices of the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Furthermore, the ‘broadening choice’ criterion contained in Section 105 of the Act meant that any company providing the same programming on both wavebands in the same licence area would be vulnerable to challenges to their licences when they came up for readvertisement. This meant that, by 1995, there was virtually no simulcasting still occurring in UK commercial radio.

In 1990, the IBA began to award licences for stations in areas already served by an existing commercial station. The aim was to increase the range of programming available to listeners. Early examples included Jazz FM and Kiss in London, designed to appeal to a different audience from Capital or LBC.

In 1991, the Radio Authority replaced the IBA as the commercial radio regulator and followed a policy of licensing stations to fill in the gaps in existing coverage, to offer smaller stations in areas already covered by large commercial stations and to offer regional stations, which could extend the range of programming available to audiences.

National commercial radio

National commercial radio began in 1992. Three stations were licensed, and their formats were, to some extent, decreed by Parliament – one had to offer music other than pop music, one had to have at least 50% speech content. These stations were Classic FM, Talk Radio (now talkSPORT) and Virgin Radio.

The general trend in regulation of commercial radio has been gradually to lessen the regulatory burden on radio stations as the competition for revenues and the choice for listeners increases.

BBC expansion

Meanwhile BBC Radio has continued to expand since 1967: A fifth national network, BBC Radio 5 (now BBC Radio Five Live) was launched and BBC Local Radio continued to expand, together with new stations for each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

DAB Digital Radio

The BBC launched DAB digital radio in 1995, and now offers eleven UK-wide digital radio stations (including five only available nationally on digital, and the World Service).

Since then, commercial operators have also made significant investments in digital radio. A national commercial multiplex licence was awarded to Digital One in 1998. Digital One launched its first national commercial services in 1999 and now offers eight services, including five available only on digital. Local DAB commercial services are now available from 46 local DAB digital radio multiplexes around the UK. Digital versions of the relevant BBC Local Radio or nations’ services are also carried on the appropriate local commercial multiplex.

Source: Ofcom