Date: May 18th 2010

Sounds of Your Life, the history of Independent Radio in the UK, written by Tony Stoller, is the first comprehensive telling of the history of the unique experiment of Independent Radio, effectively from start to finish. Published on 17 May in the UK, it describes how independent radio came about in the Seventies, its fortunes and misfortunes in the succeeding two decades, and how it was replaced by commercial radio around the end of the century.

Sounds of Your Life is a comprehensive political and administrative history. As well as being a definitive media reference book, it is also illustrates the wider changes across the whole of society which accompanied the UK's shift from a social to a market economy, and the failure of the hopes of the liberal consensus of the post-war years.

The book is in three main sections, which follow an introduction reviewing the 50 years before the arrival of this alternative radio service in the UK. The first covers the design and implementation of Independent Local Radio (ILR) in the Seventies, including the political debates, and the efforts of the pioneer radio companies to launch a brand new medium. The second describes how ILR fared in the Eighties, as the independent approach became established, and the shift in aspiration towards a more market-based model following the pivotal Heathrow Conference and the impact of the Death on the Rock television programme on regulatory structures. The third relates the developments of the Nineties, including the arrival of Independent National Radio, controversy over licence awards, and the breaking of the mould of independent radio as it was replaced by commercial radio.

Within these sections, there are specialist chapters on audience research, community radio, music copyright and digital radio. A postscript traces the final laying down of the aspirations of independent, public service radio in the modern era of commercial radio.

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Sounds of Your Life is published by John Libbey Publishing on 17 May 2010 at £22.50 (hardback). It is available from bookshops or direct from Marston Book Services Ltd, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4SD, England.
Tel (direct orders): +44 (0)1235 465500; Fax: +44 (0)1235 465509; e-mail: direct.orders@marston.co.uk

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Tony Stoller is a currently a visiting fellow at Bournemouth University’s Centre for Broadcasting History Research. He was Chief Executive of The Radio Authority from July 1995, until it was replaced by Ofcom at the end of 2003. He helped to set up the new regulator, as its External Relations Director, before retiring at the end of 2005. He was previously an official in the Radio Division of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, Director of the Association of Independent Radio Contractors, and Managing Director of Thames Valley Broadcasting Limited (Radio 210).

Further information from: tonystoller@yahoo.co.uk

Book profile at http://www.johnlibbey.com/books_detail.php?area=med&ID=142

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction


Section I Prologue

Chapter 1 The long and winding road 1898 – 1970s



Section II Debate, design and implementation 1970 – 1979

Chapter 2 Paving the way for ILR 1970 – July 1972

Chapter 3 Making a start. August 1972 – October 1973

Chapter 4 Turn your radio on. The first year of ILR

Chapter 5 The pioneer years Summer 1974 – Summer 1976

Chapter 6 Is there anybody there? Audience research

Chapter 7 Now we are nineteen Autumn 1976 – 1979



Section III The independent radio experiment 1980 – 1989

Chapter 8 Victories and losses 1979 – 1985

Chapter 9 Doing well by doing good. Secondary rental and programme sharing

Chapter 10 London Heathrow Calling. The Heathrow Conference and its impact

Chapter 11 Left of the dial. The failure of community radio: 1965 – 1989

Chapter 12 Changing the guard 1986 – 1989

Chapter 13 Copyright wars. The long battle over music copyright



Section IV Victory of the commercial model 1990 – 2003

Chapter 14 Shadow and substance 1990

Chapter 15 Classic, Talk and Virgin Independent National Radio: 1991 – 1994

Chapter 16 Glad confident morning. ILR 1991 – 1993

Chapter 17 Awards and re-awards. Licensing in London and beyond: 1993 – 1994

Chapter 18 High summer 1994 – 1996

Chapter 19 Challenging the regulator 1994 – 2000

Chapter 20 Radio by numbers. Digital radio

Chapter 21 Things can only get better. 1997 and all that

Chapter 22 Weddings and wind-ups 1998 – 2000

Chapter 23 RSLs and Access Radio. The strange triumph of the social engineers: 1990 – 2006

Chapter 24 Breaking the mould 2000 – 2003



Section V Postscripts

Chapter 25 Epilogue

Acknowledgements, sources and bibliography

Annex A Radio advertising and sponsorship revenue 1972–2008

Annex B Independent radio licences in issue 1972–2008

Annex C Radio audiences 1972–2008