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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.
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