INDEPENDENT LOCAL RADIO

It all started in 1973 with the much-parped launch of London's Capital Radio and (the original) LBC, but the numbers of commercial radio stations in the UK soared, especially with FM broadcasting. From mighty Beeb-challenging broadcasting leviathans to glorified hospital stations broadcasting to an audience of thirteen just outside Leicester, commercial stations have colonised the wavelengths Radio One failed to reach. Here's a selection of broadcasters from all areas of the independent quality spectrum...

BRMB Long in the tooth but solidly reliable, this piece of Midlands furniture was bashing them out long before Beacon or Mercia or Heart FM were even thought of. In the bad old days a target of repetitive comedic parody for that Carrott bloke but in comparison with some other early starters in the ILR Stakes it was better than crap. Many have passed through the doors in Aston Road North over the years but one legend has retained his space in the car park longer than any other. LES ROSS, ex-undertaker's apprentice, has seen BRMB through thick and thicker. He left once, to launch XTRA-AM, the Birmingham incarnation of 60s-tunes-for-plumbers, but the old homestead wasn't the same without him so he came back. In the days of Cream there were such novelties as Yesterday Never Comes, a daily soap opera in which Les played a host of characters from the village of Little Wittle, and Caledonian Comment, with a Scottish bloke called Jim making obvious jokes about the day's news. On Sundays, Les got the Family Favourites gig as he compered heart-warming/emetic phone calls between locals and their long-lost in far away places. Down the road at ATV he got his TV break doing REVOLVER with Mickie Most and Peter Cook. Les is first on the list if you want to open a supermarket in Small Heath.

CAPITAL RADIO Now all-conquering metropolitan FM behemoth, then awkwardly-placed at 538m kind of way, then moved to the more user-friendly 194m on the far left of the dial. First controller was MICHAEL BUKHT aka MICHAEL BARRY, bearded lieutenant of Food and Drink, while the first voice on air was chairman RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH, no less. Tons of memorable stuff in the early days, not least Cuddly KENNY EVERETT's contributions, best remembered for Captain Kremmen and the Bottom Thirty worst records in the world special shows. Other stalwarts included ROGER SCOTT, later nicked by Radio One, RICHARD ALLINSON and DAVE CASH, with whom Everett united for a time on the Kenny and Cash breakfast show.

CBC (aka Darlledu Caerdydd) was the UK's long awaited 20th ILR and during the blizzards of 1981 achieved almost heroic status. They were halycon days for ILR with IRN in its pomp and some quality programming (often in the off-peak) being produced. At CBC you had bilingual news headlines to bring a touch of the Dragon to the Welsh capital. Among CBC's alumni are SIAN LLOYD of weather 'fame', Mike Miller (former head of BBC Sport), and BBC Wales stalwarts Vaughan Roderick and Eifion Jones. The logo was pretty clever too. Was it an ear, was it the broadcast area, was it a funky 'C'...?

CRASH FM Late 90s Liverpool indie station that squeezes in here due to the short-lived breakfast show jointly presented by JANICE LONG and PETE "MIGHTY WAH" WYLIE, brilliantly entitled The Long And Wylie Road. Quite. Wylie soon scarpered but Long remained to cue the minidiscs and banter with a pithy, humorous newspaper reviewer whose name escapes us. Whatever happened to him, then? Now a dance station called Juice.

DOWNTOWN Started broadcasting in March 1976 from an industrial estate in Newtownards,10 miles south of Belfast, and are still using the same desks more than 25 years later. And some of the same presenters. Now have the most complicated set of frequencies and broadcast areas bar the BBC World Service. Became DTR-FM for a few years in the late 80s. Same breakfast show since about 1978, with absolutely no new features in that time (no, sorry there was a traffic-copter eye-in-the-sky thing for a bit). Famous people... EAMONN HOLMES (had been at UTV first though), JOHN KEARNS (MTV for a bit... TalkSport now), JOHN DALY (Really Useless Show, Noel's House Party, BBC Choice stuff) and numerous journo types. Must be one of the few ILR stations to still have a classical programme, an arts programme, a rock gospel show, loads of country and a Sunday morning religious request show that is the highest rated programme of the week. Split in 1990 to become COOL FM in Belfast on 97.4FM.

ESSEX RADIO Broadcasting from Southend, Essex Radio played the usual ILR diet of MOR pop/rock without major incident. Key feature in the early years was personality DJ TIMBO (real name Tim Lloyd), who presented the 9pm show, which was most popular with under-the-blankets pre-teens. Had a phone-in competition called Timbo's Bit In The Middle (ingeniously half-way through the show), where a small fragment of the middle of a record was looped. The winner would be greeted by a tune of Timbo's choice (always, but always the 20th Century Fox fanfare). Concessions to licence conditions were Lifeline, a call-in problem show tactfully hidden away at 10pm on a Sunday, and a documentary series on the growth of radio (not too much research required there, then), using Marconi's presence in Chelmsford to score local-quota points. As usual with ILR, the adverts were the best bit. Mr Wishmore's glaziers had a catchy tune: "You get quality of service/ And peace of mind assured/ When you get Mr Wishmore's windows/ And doors". A petrol station in Witham courted popularity by advertising 'the cheapest petrol in Essex', resulting in county-wide commuter trips to purchase this marginally cheaper commodity. In later years a duo going by the name of HOLMES AND MCCOY, Smashie and Nicey photocopies to their BTO cores, had settled on the breakfast show, and were highly successful in catapulting listeners out of bed to cease their banter. In the early 90s, Essex Radio split into two different stations, Essex FM and The Breeze.
Best jingle: "Essex Radio, somewhere special, Essex ..."

LBC The first in the country and, for its fans, never bettered, in its original incarnation, at least. "This is London Broadcasting, the news and information voice of independent radio", quoth ex-BBC newsman DAVID JESSEL on October 8 1973. These rather sober words set the scene for the old school LBC. JANET STREET-PORTER held early sway mid-morning with PAUL CALLAN, and JEREMY BEADLE cut his pre-Game For A Laugh teeth with a Sunday night phone-in and "pranksterism" show - the best thing he ever did by a long chalk, according to those who were there. Roll call also included ADRIAN LOVE, CLIVE "VISION ON" DOIG, CLIVE BULL, BRIAN "OVER LONDON" HAYES and RICHARD ROBBINS. Nightline, and the various other overnight shows were required listening. BOB HARRIS hosted Nightline before being replaced by Robbie Vincent, architect of the great phrase "Robbie says...", sprinkled liberally across his programme. Originality - it never dies. Vincent's spiritual heir CLIVE BULL's small-hours phone-in show is, of course, now the stuff of legend, thanks to regular in-studio guest spots by zoned-out ageing hippy and failed fringe political candidate "RAINBOW" GEORGE WEISS, and, on line one, his ex-pat Norwegian fisherman friend, Sven. "It's so nice to come to this country and hear people talking about, you know, Parliament, and taking clothes off, and singing. In Norway all we get is this fish stuff going on and on." Bull was tipped off eventually as to the true identity of Sven - some bloke called PETER COOK - but not before literally hours of top flight surreal and sometimes unsettling humour had been broadcast to his tiny audience. A fine example of the manifold virtues of both ILR and chronic insomnia.

MARCHER SOUND Middle-of-the-road station which has escaped its initial Wrexham bounds to take in Chester. Danny Baker sidekick ALLIS MOSS briefly did a lunchtime show on Marcher Gold in early 90s.
Best advert: "Haaaaartweeeels, we're Chester's Nissan main dealer..."

MERCIA SOUND Launched in 1980 by former magician and pseudo-TISWAS presenter Gordon Astley with the words "Good morning listeners, shareholders and Walsgrave schoolkids. At last it's Friday 23rd May. One or two of us around here thought, why not set up a little old radio station, call it Mercia Sound and pop it on your radio dial at 220m, 1359Khz MW and 95.9 very hi-fi VHF in stereo, broadcasting across Coventry, Warwickshire and little bits of Leicestershire, yes ladies and gentlemen of a brand new listening public, we can say .. " The most famous presenter on Mercia was PAUL ROBINSON, later head of programmes at Radio One and also controller of Talk Radio. Other alumni include BERNIE KEITH (now on Century 106), JENNY COSTELLO (later on Radio One) and Annie Othan (ex-Radio Two). Split frequencies in 1989 and the AM frequency joined with that of BRMB (qv) to form XTRA-AM, with programming based entirely at Aston Road North.

PICCADILLY RADIO Manchester station renowned as the first stop on Chris Evans's relentless climb during the mid 80s. His sacking followed his on-air announcement that he "Liked cats. Lightly grilled on both sides." He went on to better things at GLR, at least. Evans's colleagues included MARK RADCLIFFE, who, in a short and unlikely tenure as head of music, insisted on playlisting The Fall ahead of Jennifer Rush. Other alumni include TIM "SON OF BILL" GRUNDY, TIMMY "MALLETT'S" MALLETT, FRANK SIDEBOTTOM and his Radio Timperley show, MIKE SWEENEY, STEVE "WACKY PHONE CALLS" PENK and JAMES H REEVE (see entry for Red Rose Radio). Split off Key 103 FM service in 1988.

RADIO CITY Respected Liverpool station that's lasted the course - ace breathily passionate female sung "1! 9! 4! Radio Ciiiiiii-tteeeee!" jingle heralded those Hatton'n'Dalglish-centric news bulletins for donkey's years. PETE WATERMAN hosted late 80s Saturday morning caffeine-pop showcase (heavy on the Kylie and Sinitta, unsurprisingly), whence came The Reynolds Girls and Sonia. Other ace shows included TONY SNELL's evening indie sequence, which once featured NME football favourite PAT NEVIN on holiday deputisation stint: "mumble mumble...this is The Sugarcubes". Also one-time refuge of the almost legendary BILLY "FAX" BUTLER (Mrs Butler's Eldest, natch), "LITTLE" NORMAN THOMAS, ELTON WELSBY and ITV football commentator CLIVE TYLDESLEY.

RADIO 210 Launched in Reading in 1976 from an ambulance station near Junction 26 on the M4 as Radio 210 (two-one-oh) Thames Valley (because it broadcast on 210 metres MW), the smallest ILR and its piddling little signal (eaten up as close as five miles away by Luxy 208 after dark) struggled to make an impact in an area where Capital blasted in loud and clear. Early names on board the Reading station included wacky newcomers MIKE READ and STEVE WRIGHT (who collaborated for the imaginatively-titled Read and Wright Show) and big names Whispering BOB HARRIS and golden larynxed JEAN CHALLIS, ex-Two Way Family Favourites on Radio Two. The mid 80s brought a mighty new transmitter to serve the mighty metropolis of Basingstoke and a big - make that little - name signing ("DAVID HAMILTON - he's switched, have you?") to host a breakfast show that didn't start till 8am - a consequence of Hamilton's refusal to arrive any earlier. That damned motorway traffic... Now known bafflingly to anyone unaware of its history as 2-TEN FM, its major claim to fame amongst today's bland gaggle of Better Music Mixes seems to be as the first port of call for anyone let go from any London station ever. Still handy for the motorway then.

RED ROSE RADIO Dreary Lancashire-based station, memorable only for resident late night phone-in misanthrope and champion verbal pugilist ALLAN BESWICK. Heralded by the sound effect of a flash of lightning, for four hours, five nights a week, the sardonic Beswick would court phone-in calls from the opinionated, the bigoted, the deranged and the drunk, and, calmly and constructively, he would utterly destroy their argument, in usually hilarious fashion. There were school cassandras who spread the myth that someone, once, had actually beaten Beswick in an argument, but they were never believed. His Red Rose Radio promotional photo pictured him reading The Guardian. "Preston 561000, and our Alice (later Rod) is taking your calls," he would announce to get the show on the road. Unlike the lesser-talented exponents of the art - JAMES WHALE, who later took over the slot, or Nick Abbot - Beswick wasn't there to feed his ego, his job was to Argue - he regularly ran roadshow-style town hall events called Argue With Allan. Inconsistency didn't matter - one hour he could support abortion and the next be against it, whatever the caller's view, he would immediately oppose it, and reduce them to a stuttering wreck. Exactly why anyone ever thought they could win is unclear, but there was never any shortage of callers. Rivals Piccadilly lost so many listeners they launched a similar-style show, hosted by Ronco-products fan JAMES H REEVE, who freqently called for an inter-station war of words between the two, which Beswick declined. But in 1987 he received a suspension from the IBA for being overly abusive to a caller, and left not long after his return. The closing words on his final show in August 1987: "I always thought masturbation was a sin. It isn't. It's the Independent Broadcasting Authority." The station split frequencies in 1990, renaming premier service Rock FM.

SOUTHERN SOUND Brighton station - "all around! Southern Sound! We've a lot to offer you!" Like all stations in those days, Southern won its franchise promising a mix of speech and music, so for a few weeks it had programmes of such pisspoor quality when they were quietly dropped, no-one minded. Chief amongst these were Rockblock - a name that has never been paralled in broadcasting history for crass, inapt, meaningless misdiscrption, for it was a children's programme hosted by SEAN BOLGER, later of Talk Radio. Southern also played host to The End Of The Pier Show - which it had told the IBA would be a mix of comedy and features, but started out just playing bits of comedy records, then mutating into just sticking on those old albums of Hancock remakes for half an hour, then said "that's the last of the current series, we'll be back..."

THE SUPER STATION Late 80s "through the night" sustaining service for ILR stations, originally backed by Richard Branson, and featuring the manifold talents of RUBY WAX, JOHNNIE WALKER, BOB HARRIS and JONATHAN ROSS, who courted controversy when he left the mic on during a record and left listeners in no doubt what he had been up to that weekend with his wife as he recounted the details to his producer, one CHRIS EVANS. Because no London stations took the service, ad agencies were reluctant to place ads with it, and the big names left, to be replaced by the likes of PHIL KENNEDY, now on Virgin, NJ WILLIAMS, latterly of Heart, and some other people. Axe fell soon after.

SWANSEA SOUND Founded in 1975, a perfect example of the early manifestation of ILR. Run from a large shed in Gowerton, the staff rarely changed and, as in so many other places, when they weren't taking phone calls from punters trying to sell old furniture and unwanted foot-spas they would be signing autographs at the Top Rank on a Friday night and generally behaving like the miniscule celebrities they were. For one very brief period in the late 70s, the now-famous JOHN SACHS (as in Gladiators) had residence at Swansea Sound. He was clearly far too good for the place and introduced such novel concepts as wind-up phone calls before pissing off to Capital. Probably the only ILR station to have Welsh jingles.

RADIO VICTORY from Portsmouth, which is notable solely for going off the air...

First time callers: Andrew Bell, Simon, Robin Carmody, Markie Cola, Michael Cook, Stuart Derrick, Adam Dorrell, Ben H, Andy Hessey, Chris Hughes, J Long, Dan Minnerly, Adrian Partington, X Simpson, Tim Unwin