BBC Local Radio

Abstract

In this article the development of Local Radio is traced from the case put by the BBC to the Pilkington Committee at the opening of the first twenty of the proposed forty stations. The aim of the service—to run a local radio service on the shared experience of people living together in the same community—is available to only half the nation. The Education Producer in local radio, working in a system of mixed programming, is able to move beyond his customary role and to use general broadcasting hours to educational advantage; his activities are described. Local Radio could not have developed its contribution to education without the acceptance of seconded teachers whom it has trained in production techniques, nor without the voluntary short term acceptance of thousands of others. Will that contribution continue in the present broadcast form?