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BU archives reflect Thatcher’s legacy

6 May 2009

On the 30th anniversary of Thatcher's rise to Prime Minister, a BU collection reveals her legacy on British broadcasting.

A hidden history of commercial television and radio that reveals the true extent of the impact of Thatcherism on British broadcasting is now available for scholars to access.

The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) archive, part of a collection of resources in BU’s Centre for Broadcasting History Research, contains thousands of files relating to the development and regulation of both independent television (ITV) and independent local radio (ILR) over the last fifty years.

Significantly, it covers the period 1980-1989, during which time Channel 4 emerged and satellite and cable broadcasting began.

The archive contains many documents leading up to the 1990 Broadcasting Act. The Act enabled deregulation, creating a free market strategy for commercial broadcast operators and is regarded as a quintessential example of Thatcherism.

Under the new legislation, some long-standing television franchises lost licenses to the highest bidder (TV-am became GMTV; Thames became Carlton) and the first of four Independent National Radio stations was created (Classic FM, 1992).

BU’s Dr Hugh Chignell, Deputy Director for the Centre for Broadcasting History Research says: “The IBA archive is a fantastic resource for scholars, especially in the growing field of media and communications studies and history. It provides witness to the emergence of the Thatcher government and the effect of the implementation of its free market philosophies on British broadcasting.”

“This is a collection of historic importance, both for broadcasting and the political history of the UK as a whole," says radio historian, former regulator and BU Visiting Fellow Tony Stoller.

The IBA archive, formerly stored at Ofcom, the communications regulator, is part of BU’s growing and prominent archive collection within its Centre for Broadcasting History Research.

The Centre is also undertaking a research study, focusing on Thatcher’s notorious claim, ‘There’s no such thing as society’. Led by academic Patricia Holland, the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project is investigating the ways in which UK broadcast media reflected and mediated the changing political, economic and ideological climate in the period of Margaret Thatcher's premiership.