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Archives and Special Collections: London Broadcasting Company/Independent Radio News (LBC/IRN) Audio Archive

Bournemouth University's Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Archive and Special Collections

Contact

Accessing BU's IBA Archive Materials:

  • This is not a digitised collection. Access is by pre-arranged appointment only to visit BU's Talbot Campus Library (postcode: BH12 5BB).
  • Please contact archivesandspecialcollections@bournemouth.ac.uk.
  • We require minimum 20 working weekdays' notice to process and prepare research visit requests; we typically have to negotiate requested visit dates.
  • We reserve the right to defer visitor access to BU's IBA Archive subject to availability of staff resource.

London Broadcasting Company/Independent Radio News (LBC/IRN) Audio Archive

  • The London Broadcasting Company / Independent Radio News audio archive consists of 7,000 reel-to-reel tapes in a collection that runs from 1973 to the mid-1990s. It is the most important commercial radio archive in the UK and provides a unique audio history of the period.
  • This digitised collection focuses on the most noteworthy content - approximately 3,000 hours of recordings relating to news and current affairs. The digitised archive contains invaluable recordings of a wide range of broadcasts including coverage of the Falklands war, the miners' strike, Northern Ireland, the whole of the Thatcher period of government and recordings of the first hour of UK commercial radio including the first commercial radio news bulletin. Digitisation of this resource has been funded via the JISC Digitisation Programme.
  • BUFVC webpage