BBC London 94.9
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BBC London 94.9 is London's BBC Local Radio station, and part of BBC London. Broadcasting across the city on 94.9 FM, DAB, Telewest cable TV, Sky Digital and also on the Internet, it was previously known as London Live, GLR (Greater London Radio) and before that Radio London, not to be confused with the pirate radio station of the same name. Each incarnation represented different management and scheduling.
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History
The earliest ever regular local radio broadcast dates as far back as the 1920s, with the launch of 2LO in 1922. The station, based at Marconi House on the Strand, Central London was opened by Guglielmo Marconi became the British Broadcasting Company's first radio station. The first-ever news bulletin was read by Arthur Burrows. "2LO Calling" was its call-sign and preceeded all programmes on the air. In 1923 2LO moved to bigger premises with studios adjactent to the Savoy Hotel in London. Its transmission tower was located on the roof of department store Selfridges in the West End. In 1930 2LO evolved into two programming networks - the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme, of which 2LO was intergrated into the latter.
See main article: 2LO
BBC Radio London launches
Local radio was to arrive in London as part of an pilot project headed by the late Frank Gilliard, who on arrival to the United States discovered local radio stations of varying formats and was to bring this concept to Britain.
Test transmissions for the new local radio station were carried out from Wrotham, Kent on 95.3 MHz in FM mono, relaying BBC Radio 1 on medium wave, with several announcements informing listeners of the new service. On the 6 October 1970 BBC Radio London was launched, three years before commercial radio for London in the guise of LBC. An additional medium wave frequency was allocated on 1458 kHz (206 metres) from Brookman's Park. 95.3 soon changed to 94.9.
Radio London was the local station for the capital however in the early days it relied heavily on news reports from other stations in the BBC network and often shared programming with Radio 2. It took on a fairly lively sound and featured (and still does to this day) extensive traffic reports, phone-in programmes - where it pioneered the daily phone-in in the UK - and lots of contemporary and Middle of the road|middle-of-the-road]] music. As soon as Independent Local Radio stations LBC and Capital Radio went on-air public attention to Radio London declined with the station attempting to copy both. Its to be noted that the name Radio London is not to be confused with Wonderful Radio London, an off-shore commercial pop music station which was silenced before the launch of BBC Radio 1.
BBC Radio London started regular broadcasts from Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus later moving to Marylebone High Street- the former Radio Times warehouse, famously without windows.
Tests for FM stereo began in 1981 with Music on the Move a programme featuring non-stop music prior to full launch on 11 February. The FM transmitter was shortly moved to Crystal Palace. This co-incided with the planned relaunch in 1981 which saw the station take on a style which was softer than BBC Radio 2 - a station predominantly playing Easy Listening music, music ranged from softer comtempory pop, like the Carpenters, to light classical music. This was a move which was unpopular with employed staff, who thought it very un-hip, and politicians who would question the need for a local radio station to sound like the two music-based BBC national networks. However the relaunch lead to improved audience figures and a string of awards and accolades.
The 1981 on-air schedule looked like this:
- 06:30 Rush Hour with Susie Barnes and John Waite
- 09:00 Morning Star
- 10:00 The Robbie Vincent Telephone Programme
- 12:30 Lunchtime News
- 12:40 Total Music Show with Tony Fish
- 14:30 Tony Blackburn
- 17:00 Evening News
- 17:15 Music on the Move
- 18:30 Speech programmes
- 19:00 Black Londoners
- 20:00 Parliamentary Question Time
One of its most influential programmes on the schedule was Black Londoners devised by Ray Criushank, a community relations officer for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and presented by Alex Pascall. The programme has helped to develop on-air talent from London's Afro-Caribbean community, namely Juliet Alexander, Syd Burke and Mike Phillips and was the pioneering programme on televison or radio to regularly speak to Black Londoners. The programme changed title to Black London shortly before Radio London closed (see below). It was recently revived for a short time in 2003 with Pascall returning as presenter.
A programming relaunch in 1984 saw Radio London adopt the tagline "The Heart and Soul of London" with more soul music being played during the day. Tony Blackburn from BBC Radio 1 moved up the schedule to host a morning show for housewives playing classic soul of the 1970s and presenting a show laced with cheeky jokes and double entendres, once daring to 'get out his 12-incher' - referring to an LP record. He was sacked in 1988 crossing the line of taste and decency, conveniently in time for the station's first relaunch. Regular Soul Night Outs were held initially in Kilburn but later in other venues, like Ilford. This was where Dave Pearce, later of Radio 1 fame made his first regular appearances as a BBC DJ.
BBC Radio London closed on 7 October 1988, much to the dismay of regular listeners. The final programme, just before its 18th birthday, was presented by Mike Sparrow and Susie Barnes. Shortly after closedown test transmissions aired for several days, preparing for a new radio station for London.
GLR- a new radio station for London
Test transmissions for the new Greater London Radio began as soon as Radio London closed. Its pre-launch announcements stated in no uncertain terms that GLR was to be radically different in style promising the fastest news, traffic and travel news every 20 minutes and the best music mix. GLR was to be the newest radio in London for 15 years.
This was the irreverent announcement aired four days before launch:
"This is Greater London Radio and as I'm sure you will have noticed by now we the BBC have been paying you the public to patronise [you]...
...sorry to say that this all changes at 6am Tuesday 25 October. Interruptions to the music will then be performed by a host of celebrities and stars...and also appearing will be Nick "who, he?" Abbot, Emma "Oh my God!" Freud, Tim "who him?" Walker, Timbo the Bimbo [Tim LLoyd] and Tommy "No seriously!" Vance. Sorry this is the best we could come up with, with the budget available and at least thank God you wont be forced to look at them!..."
"GLR: as heard but not seen in London starting 6am, Tuesday 25 October"
Heading the new station was Station Director Matthew Bannister. GLR, the radio station with a difference was aimed at people who hate pop but love music, hate prattle (excessive on-air talk) but wants to know whats what where in the world. The station was aimed at 25-45 year olds, who perhaps grew up with Radio 1, but now want to be intelligently informed about the city in which they live, and the world in general. The on-air presenters would gel both music and speech elements with personality radio. The music mix was best described as Adult album alternative, a format programmed by Trevor Dann. It has been said this Triple-A format inspired the launch of a new BBC station years later.
The daytime launch line-up looked like this:
- 6am - Nick Abbot - Breakfast
- 10am - Emma Freud - Controversial debate
- 12pm - Johnnie Walker - Music and news
- 4pm - Tommy Vance - Drivetime
Specialist speech programmes in the evening featured community proogrammes aimed at London's ethnic communities- Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Jewish and Irish. Black London was replaced with Margaret Jones aka The Ranking Miss P', who was dropped by Radio 1. Weekends featured extensive sports coverage, centering on football and London's numerous clubs such as Arsenal F.C., Spurs and West Ham United F.C.
In 1989 GLR set up a youth-based radio training facility at Vauxhall College, SW8, which was followed with a second course based at White City, W12. This was allocated funds from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the British Parliament.
GLR- a waste of time and money?
However only three years into the newly relaunched station the station was given an additonal three years to prove itself to its audience by senior BBC management or close for good: this threat was also applied to its other metropolitan BBC Local Radio stations BBC WM in Birmingham and Manchester's BBC GMR. The threat was lifted after the BBC deemed it sufficiently listened to remain on-air, however it didn't win many listeners and criticism of the station grew from its Radio London days, causing then Minister for Broadcasting David Mellor to remark "the BBC must think hard whether it is occupying [radio] frequencies without making much use of them", a claim rejected by senior management.
GLR continued to exist as a radio station which didn't have many listeners, but its music policy gained a cult following, particularly among its younger adult listeners. One of its noted DJs on-air at the time was Gary Crowley, who had a weekend show which regularly showcased new and unsigned bands, often not getting much airplay on commercial radio stations, and to a lesser extent, Radio 1. With the launch of new specialist commercial stations Kiss 100, Jazz FM and XFM GLR remained distinct, often wanting to become predominantly music-based. This created an on-air conflict whereby its music air-time would be juxstaposed with quite large amounts of specialist speech.
In 1992 GLR was forced to relinquish its 1457 kHz medium wave frequency, for a new commercial radio station which was eventually won by Sunrise Radio. Previously it had been simulcasting with 94.9 MHz FM with a few programmes which occasionally opted from FM.
The launch of BBC London Live
Facing even more public criticism over GLR's position in the London radio market and its very low listening reach, the station was relaunched on the 25 March 2000 as BBC London Live 94.9 in a blaze of publicity. Promising even more speech and less music, London Live- originally the title for GLR's drive-time news show was launched with new on-air personalities and new shows, including a speech-heavy breakfast show and a mid-morning phone-in and debate. Only drivetime and the specialist shows would remain, albeit refreshed. The re-launch at the time was promoted by huge billboards and television spots on BBC Newsroom South East depicting London's famous landmarks as radio paraphenalia (a woman seen raising Big Ben as a radio aerial for example). It cost the BBC in excess of £20 million- an amount seen by vocal critics, led by private media as 'obscene amount of money' and added to repeated calls for the licence fee (which also funds radio) to be scrapped.
Leading the relaunch was Station Director David Robey, who hired such personalities as Lisa I'Anson, Vanessa Feltz, Tom Watt and various Black presenters such as Eddie Nestor and Dotun Adebayo. Most noteably Dotun Adebayo (or another presenter- please help!) was controversially sacked, then re-hired in a baffling manner, BBC chiefs cited questionable reasons for his departure with critics believing it was racially motivated.
BBC London- on TV, on radio, online
October 2001 saw another name change to BBC LDN (LDN: Airport code for London), this time as part of a tri-media pilot project which would see radio and regional television news and online presence housed in its newly-refurbished studio at Marylebone High Road. The pilot project was to brand all aspects of it operations as BBC London. This included BBC London News, the daily regional news bulletin on BBC One television. Newly updated jingles were added with its new slogan "On TV, on radio, online", voiced by London News host Emily Maitlis.
New recruits to BBC London 94.9 included award-winning presenter Jon Gaunt from BBC Three Counties Radio, Danny Baker and Sean Rowley. Danny Baker would host a different style of breakfast show, with his alternative and quirky take on London life, which was co-hosted with American comedienne Amy Lamé. Jon Gaunt would then host the mid-morning phone-in show, voicing his strong opinions on an unsuspecting public. Longtime GLR stalwart Robert Elms was kept at lunchtime, discovering London's depest darkest secrets and revealing stories behind London's long and rich history. Vanessa Feltz would take over Lisa I'Anson's afernoon slot with a lively and fun phone-in. Drivetime with Eddie Nestor and Kath Melandri would guide Londoners home with news updates, sport, travel and debates with the public. Specialist programmes for the Black community would emerge at the weekends along with extensive sports coverage and alternative music shows in the evening. (See full schedule here). BBC London would also see the return of Tony Blackburn on Saturdays, over 20 years since he first appeared on the station. His show was as before, playing classic soul music and chat.
Extra sport matches featuring football clubs such as Fulham F.C. and have received additional coverage on BBC London, through its DAB Digital Radio platform, on Sky Digital channel 0152 and on 765 kHz medium wave (for coverage of West Ham United F.C., normally BBC Essex's frequency).
BBC London 94.9 was the first BBC Local Radio to air a 24-hour live stream online, which co-incided with the 2001 re-launch. It also aired on DAB Digital Radio in July 2000 and on Sky Digital (channel 0152) in 2005 in the London area but it can be accessed within the UK and Ireland by manual tuning.
BBC London identifies itself at the top of the hour as BBC London 94.9- and BBC Radio London on digital. This had led to slight confusion as to the reference to its previous name of Radio London as there is very little difference in either output analogue or digital except football and special events and the Radio London name hasn't been mentioned in any other context.
Audience listening figures suggest BBC London 94.9 is more popular than Greater London Radio ever was, but still remains one of London's least-listened to radio stations with an average reach of around 2% [1].
20/20 Travel
A unique aspect of GLR was the ability to access directly Scotland Yard's network of traffic cameras across London's busiest streets. This enabled its reporters to give unparralled accurate traffic and travel news to its listeners. The reports were known as 20/20 Travel, named because its travel reports were read out every 20 minutes during peak times. No other radio station had this access for a while- even managing to out-do Capital Radio's traffic helicpoter, known as the Flying Eye. This practiced has been stopped in favour of updates every half-hour. Occasionally the traffic cameras can be seen on BBC London News, read by the radio station's travel reporters such as Jules Wilson and Kate Allen. The "JamCams" are also available 24-hours a day online here.
Slogans
- 1970s - London's Greater Radio
- 1980s - The Heart and Soul of London
- 1990 - Greater London Radio In...The...News - a sung jingle that followed its top of the hour news bulletin
- 1996 - GLR on 94.9 FM, The BBC station for London
- 2000 - BBC London Live- London's Newest Station
- 2001-present On TV- On Radio- Online London's Radio Station
Current Programme schedule
Monday-Friday
from Monday 17th October 200506:00-09:00 Jono Coleman & JoAnne Good
Funny stories, entertainment, special guests, etc.
09:00-12:00 Vanessa Feltz
Economy, crime, health, education, politics, etc.
12:00-15:00 Robert Elms
Music, places in London, buildings, queries about London, special guests, etc.
15:00-17:00 Danny Baker
Chat, relationships, food, art, books, entertainment, fashion, advertising, etc.
17:00-19:00 Eddie Nestor and Kath Melandri
Travel, economy, crime, health, education, politics, entertainment, sport etc.
22:00-02:00 Simon Lederman
Chat, music, relationships, newspaper review, special guests, etc.
02:00-06:00 Sadie Nine
Chat, music, "world-famous radio pub quiz", etc.
Saturday
2am-6am Late Night Dilemmas with Valley Fontaine Overnight Phone in Show with Prize Competitions,lively banter with Valley and her regular callers and live advice from The Stage's Agony Uncle John Byrne
Sunday
2am-6am Late Night Dilemmas with Valley Fontaine Another round of Overnight Phone in Show with Prize Competitions,lively banter with Valley and her regular callers and live advice from The Stage's Agony Uncle John Byrne.Competitions are hard fought and often carry over across the two nights to find an eventual winner.
References
- Aircheck UK [2]
- The Radio Companion by Paul Donovan, ISBN 9-780586-090121