Tony Hall pledges a "renaissance" for BBC local radio as the service marks its 50th anniversary

Published: 8 November 2017

Local radio should be for everybody. It’s there to serve the Facebook generation every bit as much as the rest of us.
— Tony Hall, BBC Director-General

The Director-General of the BBC confirmed during a speech in Coventry that the savings targets for local radio set out as part of a review into the BBC’s local and regional services have been cancelled.

The BBC will instead invest in local radio with the aim of making it even more local and more creative.

Tony Hall said that five decades after it began, BBC local radio "is in the DNA of our communities" and the BBC is committed it continues to be so in the future.

He said the ambition is to reinvent local radio for the future, ensuring it reflects local voices, celebrates local identities, nurtures new talent and engages local audiences on digital platforms.

The Director-General was speaking at Coventry Cathedral at an event to celebrate BBC local radio. Earlier in the day, he was in Leicester to mark the launch of the first BBC local radio station. BBC Radio Leicester went live on November 8 1967.

Tony Hall said that in future there’ll be even more local content, more creative freedom for local editors and more partnerships with local organisations. He added: "Local radio should be for everybody - it’s there to serve the Facebook generation as much as the rest of us."

BBC local radio will focus on serving local audiences by providing the best news and information, by improving digital services and aiming them at audiences of all ages, and by championing communities.

BBC local radio, which includes 39 radio stations with more than six million listeners a week, started as an effort by the BBC to better serve local audiences in England.

Tony Hall renewed that mission and outlined a reinvention of BBC local radio for the future. This will include a creativity fund, a community action team based at each station and more local input on digital platforms.

The shared evening programme currently broadcast across all of the BBC’s local radio stations in England will end and be replaced by local programming.

Tony Hall says: "I’m a Director-General who believes in local radio. I recognise the unique value the BBC locally can bring. We’re an organisation that’s global, national and rooted in our local teams.

"Local radio is in the DNA of our communities. I think that is more important than ever. England’s changing. It’s always been a patchwork of communities, with quite distinct identities. While Newcastle’s population is getting older, Bradford’s is getting younger and Birmingham is becoming one of the most diverse cities in Europe. Decision-making is being devolved too - there are mayors in some of the big metropolitan areas and that’s having an impact.

"I want to hear the sound of England as it changes. So while other media are becoming creatively less local, I want us to become even more so and to connect with our audiences in new ways.

"For many years the BBC has been reducing its investment in local radio. The development of new technology and the growth of smartphones has seen many people getting their local news, weather and traffic information digitally.

"But the rise of digital technology has also seen the rise of fake news, not just on a global level but on a local one as well. That’s why the role of BBC local radio is actually becoming more important - not less.

"Local radio should be for everybody. It’s there to serve the Facebook generation every bit as much as the rest of us.

"My ambition for BBC local radio is for it to have more creative freedom, to celebrate local life, to be the place where we report local news but also the place we reflect local identity, nurture local talent and engage local audiences through digital platforms. I want to see a renaissance in local radio."

Ending cuts to local radio will mean the service will not be required to make £10m worth of savings. The BBC will instead rely on its broader efficiency savings to protect local radio budgets. The BBC will set out a full plan for the service, and how it will be funded, in 2018.

This renewed commitment to local radio will build on the £8m the BBC has already committed to spending each year to boost local news reporting.

The BBC has launched a Local News Partnership to hold politicians and local officials to account and help support essential local reporting. As part of this, the BBC is funding 150 local democracy reporters who will be employed by local news providers to report on councils and other local authorities. These local democracy reporters will generate news stories that can be used by registered news outlets and the BBC.

News suppliers are also being given access to BBC video and audio material as part of the BBC’s efforts to partner with other local news providers.

The BBC is also making it easier for people to find online local stories which affect their area. From tonight, people in towns, cities and villages across England will have access to everything the BBC does locally, with one click, using their postcode.

Tony Hall has used the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of local radio to outline his vision for the future of this service. BBC Radio Leicester was the first of three stations launched in 1967. The others were Radio Sheffield and Radio Merseyside.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, special tribute programmes have been aired on all 39 stations and original audio, some dating back to the very earliest broadcasts, has been played again.

Other activity to mark the anniversary includes:

A special anniversary exhibition at Radio Leicester that’s open to the public
BBC Radio Sheffield, the second station to launch, has recorded a version of Pulp’s Common People. A community choir, made up of singers from across the city, have recorded a specially arranged version of the Sheffield band’s biggest hit
BBC Radio Merseyside, the third BBC Local Radio station, has been awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool for its service to the community

BBC local radio was the vision of BBC executive Frank Gillard. He was a former war correspondent. During the 1950s he made several visits to America and Canada and saw first-hand the benefits of local radio. He summed this up as: "aiming to present on the air, and in many different forms and through a multitude of local voices, the running serial story of local life in all its aspects."

Over the decades, BBC local radio has been at the heart of some of the country’s biggest news stories and launched hugely successful community-based initiatives. Recent stand-out examples include BBC Radio Manchester presenter Allan Beswick staying on air for an extra four hours until 6am on the night of the Manchester Arena attack as witnesses rang his phone-in show to recount what they had seen.

BBC Radio Cumbria won praise for its coverage of the December 2015 floods. The station provided continuous live coverage of the floods even as many of the station’s staff realised their own homes were threatened. One presenter learnt his home was at risk while one air.

Earlier that year, BBC Radio Lancashire was praised in Parliament for its coverage of the floods in that region. The Radio York studio was flooded but the station continued to broadcast with the staff relocating to nearby Hull.

Also in 2015, BBC Radio Sheffield launched an appeal for people to send 100-year-old Winnie Blagden birthday messages when they heard she had no surviving friends or family. Winnie received 16,000 cards and eventually had a birthday tea at Sheffield town hall attended by hundreds of well-wishers.

In the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, BBC Radio Merseyside provided extensive coverage. The station has followed the story ever since and had a dedicated reporter at every day of the inquests into the disaster.

In 2014, Radio Nottingham launched the Big Poppy Knit - asking listeners to help knit 11,000 poppies to mark the 11,000 Nottinghamshire men who died in the First World War.

This year, BBC Radio Humberside has been at the heart of Hull’s year as the UK City of Culture 2017, broadcasting hundreds of hours of coverage.

Tony Hall said this type of community-based activity is what BBC Local Radio will focus on alongside nurturing local talent through schemes such as the successful BBC Introducing. This supports unsigned music acts and has helped the careers of among many others Florence and the Machine, Jake Bugg and George Ezra.

BBC Local Radio has also helped develop new broadcasting talent. Among those who have started their broadcasting careers in Local Radio are Kate Adie (BBC Radio Durham), Des Lynam (BBC Radio Brighton), Clive Myrie (BBC Radio Bristol), Jo Whiley (BBC Radio Brighton), Jeremy Paxman (BBC Radio Brighton), Sophie Raworth (BBC Greater Manchester Radio), Vanessa Feltz (BBC Greater London Radio), Michael Buerk (BBC Radio Bristol) and Dermot O’Leary (BBC Radio Essex).