Commercial Radio Archive Launched

Last updated: 02/10/2007 - 09:30

A unique online sound archive has been launched at Bournemouth University, featuring material from commercial radio broadcast during the 1980s.

Professor Sean Street, from our Media School has launched the ‘Independent Local Radio Sharing Archive – the Felicity Wells Memorial Collection’ – the UK’s first commercial radio sound archive.

The archive includes material from Capital Radio, Radio Clyde, Red Rose Radio, LBC and 2CR during a decade of political and social change. Included are documentaries such as AIDS – The Facts (LBC, 1987) and Heroin – the Killing of Christopher (Mercia Sound, 1985), as well as plays, phone-ins and interviews.

The collection is named in memory of Felicity Wells, an influential figure in commercial radio programming during the period. It was launched at the RadioCentre, the UK’s trade body for today’s commercial radio industry.

Andrew Harrison, Chief Executive of RadioCentre says it will be a great education and research resource: “The UK’s first online commercial radio sound archive is a fantastic resource which will enable schools, colleges, researchers and broadcasters to access easily and listen to commercial radio programmes from the 1980s. These programmes capture the mood of the time and ensure commercial radio has its rightful place in broadcasting history.”

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Council, the project was a partnership between the Centre for Broadcasting History Research in our Media School, and the British Library Sound Archive.

Project Director, Professor Sean Street says: “This is only the first part of a three-part online project to make available UK Commercial Radio's history for educational purposes. We are grateful to our partner, the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC), on whose site our collections will be hosted for future generations of radio scholars and historians.”

The following external links may be useful: