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From the Swinging Sixties to Thatcherism: The Decline of Radio Coverage

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the period 1960 to 1989, a time when the UK went through a cultural and social revolution, experienced economic upheaval and saw the rise of a free-market philosophy. For radio this was also a moment of huge change, from the 1960s when the BBC launched a new music channel, Radio 1, with the breaking of the BBC’s local radio monopoly in the 1970s and the rise of new radio pirate stations in the 1980s. However, as radio entered this period of hectic development, it was the very moment radio criticism disappeared from the popular newspapers who mostly replaced its coverage with that of television. Though, as we see, it continued, and even increased in scope, in the quality papers like the Daily Telegraph, which appointed its first proper radio critic in 1975. It would seem that as radio audiences segment by class and age in relation to the radio stations they listen to, this is reflected in the way newspaper coverage started to divide.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Roehampton, London, UK

    Paul Rixon

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Rixon, P. (2018). From the Swinging Sixties to Thatcherism: The Decline of Radio Coverage. In: Radio Critics and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55387-4_6

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