Radio Authority's Farewell Party on 12 November 2003 at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, London

Radio Authority's Farewell Party on 12 November 2003 at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, London.

Speech by David Witherow
Executive Chairman

Good evening. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this farewell party in the unlikely setting of the London Transport Museum.

We are not here because, like the yellow tube line, we have been going round in circles; nor because our wheels are coming off. Not at all. But we are approaching the terminus. And just in case anyone was worried, I can assure you that there’ll be another regulator along in a minute.

Enough of buses. I’m David Witherow and I am currently Executive Chairman of the Radio Authority, combining the posts of Chairmen and Chief Executive as we say a fond (well I would like to hope so) a fond farewell to the Authority and a welcome to big brother Ofcom.

We are delighted that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, has joined us her tonight, and she has kindly agreed to say a few words in a moment.

And while I am doing explanations, you have just heard a potted jingle history of the 30 years of commercial radio - or “independent radio” as it was back in 1973 - which we are celebrating this year. As you leave, there’ll be a copy for you of the Meg Carter’s updated history of commercial radio.

In the medley were jingles from LBC,Capital, and Clyde, representing the early pioneers, through the national stations, the regional stations, the digital stations, the RSLs, through SIBC in the Shetlands, the first licence to be awarded by the Radio Authority, to the most recent to go on air, the 270th ILR licensee, North Norfolk. It is a reminder of just how much has happened and indeed how much has changed.

I am very conscious that we in the Radio Authority have been only a part of this huge expansion. One of the pleasures I have had during my five years as a Member of the Authority has been the chance to see what has been going on at first hand. To visit stations around the United Kingdom, and I have always been enormously impressed by the job they are doing, and the dedication of the staff.

But while all this history, this huge development, is very much a shared enterprise, I am sure you will understand that my focus tonight is on the Radio Authority and its part in it as it says goodbye.

Thirteen years is not a long life, but it has been a very full one.

The child of the 1990 Broadcasting Act, it took forward the work of the IBA – which is I think rather unfairly labelled with idea that radio was just a part-time activity with television the king. Of course the IBA was somewhat straitjacketed by the legislation it operated under, and the stop/start approach of successive governments. But it had already shown “entrepreneurial” if that right word, perhaps “creative”, tendencies towards the end of its life with the splitting of FM/AM frequencies and the launch of incremental stations in major cities. And it had also set high standards for all of its work, standards passed on to the Radio Authority.

I won’t go over the statistics again, but as my colleague David Vick reminded me recently, “Radio has really come of age during our period of responsibility for it. It’s easy to forget how little choice radio listeners had before we were set up – for example there were just two commercial stations in London for many years”

And apart from the huge growth in analogue stations of one kind or another,we have also seen the future, and know that it is digital. We are therefore very proud of what we have been able to do in the Authority to take this forward. It has been very much a shared endeavour with the radio companies and with the BBC. As one who has long been involved, it is enormously satisfying to see it finally taking off.

We have been lucky to have had a fantastic staff. And a very hard working one. It has been kept small despite the huge growth in activities – never more than 40 or so full-time equivalents. From my induction five years ago, I was impressed by their commitment and interest in what they do. Their versatility, their professionalism, they way they work and play together, the humour which has also been part of the ethos. And there has been the leadership of two outstanding Chief Executives, Peter Baldwin and Tony Stoller, and three terrific chairmen in Lord Chalfont, Sir Peter Gibbings and Richard Hooper. Plus the Members who have served the Authority over the years.

So a very big thank you to them (and their partners), and my thanks to all of you here, who have supported us; sometimes criticised us and made us think again; to the parliamentarians who have given us a framework to sustain commercial and independent radio; to the journalists who have (mostly) written nice things about us; and especially, thanks to all those of you here tonight who run and staff the stations and provide the services for the listeners and for the industry.

What’s our legacy to Ofcom? In a nutshell, a system which has worked, which has played a major part in the huge growth of commercial radio, and which has been ever conscious of its duty to do its best to ensure the provision of a range and diversity of services of high quality offering a wide listening choice. I paraphrase the 1990 Broadcasting Act.

And just as we inherited from IBA the expectation of high standards of work, and many clever and dedicated people, so, I am glad to say, Ofcom too has already inherited, or will shortly inherit, clever and dedicated people from the Radio Authority. People who take with them those high standards, who know about radio, and who care about it, and who know about regulation and care about that too – in a positive sense, in wanting to make it work.

Those transferring to Ofcom – about three-quarters of the staff – will move across at the end of this month. The rest of us (the debris, as Neil Romain rather unkindly calls us, the lights out eleven as I prefer) will prepared for the final cclose down at midnight on 28 December.

For all of us who have served the Radio Authority – as Members or as staff – of course there will be a feeling of sadness. But that should be mixed with a sense of achievement, and a degree of pride.

Yes, it will be different. One can detect over the years a loosening of the parental ties, from the paternalism of the IBA years, through the lighter touch but still fairly closely bonded years of the Authority, to … what? Time will tell. It will be different, but we move on, and forward.

I have had my say, but I am very pleased to hand over to someone who has been very much part of commercial radio’s 30 years. Lord Gordon of Strathblane was one of the founding fathers, the first generation of independent radio MDs. And he is still very much part of radio today, as those of us who listened to his lively contributions in the House of Lords earlier this year can certainly attest.