Inside the LBC/IRN Archive at Bournemouth University. Courtesy Bournemouth University
The UK's commercial radio history has been brought to life in the form of online sound archives which will enable lecturers, researchers and students to gain an insight into key moments throughout British and international history.
The LBC / Independent Radio News (IRI) Archive has been created by the Centre for Broadcasting History, based at Bournemouth University, which has spent the last three years digitising 4,000 hours of material from 1973 to the mid-1990s.
Among the 5,400 searchable recordings are a number of historic events, such as the live reporting of five general elections, the Falkands war, the miners' strike and the turbulent period of government under former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
"This is the most important commercial radio archive in the UK and provides a unique audio history of the period," commented Professor Sean Street, Project Director of the University's Centre for Broadcasting History.
The revolutionary archive also holds invaluable historical worth on an international scale, as it includes significant material relating to the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994.
The archive features State President PW Botha's declaration of the end of apartheid itself, as well as important reports and political analysis of the event.
Paola Marchionni, JISC Digitisation Programme Manager, predicted the newly adapted material would be "relevant to the study of society, history, politics and popular culture."
The archive will lend a strong hand to the study of the history of broadcasting, bringing to life the beginnings of commercial broadcasting, which was founded when IRN and the LBC were granted their licences in October 1973.
The online archive will even feature the first hour of UK commercial radio, including the first commercial radio bulletin.
Importantly, the Archive will encompass material from a time before the Broadcasting Act of 1990, which is vital to the study of the history of British broadcasting.
"The change in commercial radio since this period is extraordinary," recalled Professor Street.
"It is impossible for the young students of radio, born since this time, to imagine that such independently funded radio could have existed.
"As a result, it is vitally important that these programmes are preserved as part of the evolving history of post-war British broadcasting."
For more information and to access the online archive visit the Centre of Broadcasting History at Bournemouth University online.
