DevonAir Radio (at the toss of a coin)

During the late 1970′s the UK broadcast regulator started a new phase of what was then the recently introduced UK local commercial radio system (Independent Local Radio – ILR). During this time only the larger highly populated urban areas of the UK were awarded ILR licences. In the English south-west the city of Plymouth had commercial radio with a service that started in May 1975. By 1978/9 the regulator who was the licensing authority had it’s sights set on a service for the county city of Exeter and another for the English Riviera in Torbay – a total area coverage of 550,00 adults. DevonAir Radio

(above) William Whitelaw, UK Home Secretary between 1979 and 1983.

In the late 1970’s the Home Office was overseeing broadcasting and they had a policy of launching only one local radio service at a time in a particular area (either BBC local radio or ILR). When it came to choosing whether Norfolk or Devon would receive a BBC or commercial station first, there was disagreement between the BBC and the commercial radio regulator, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), as to who would get which area (source). “Unable to reach an agreement, the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, tossed a coin. Michael Barton (then BBC’s Controller of Local Radio) called “tails,” won and staked his claim on Norfolk first while John Thompson for the Independent Broadcasting Authority accepted” (source). The IBA got Devon and eventually appointed DevonAir Radio.

By November 1978 Radio Exe and Torbay and Exeter Broadcasting Company, joined forces to make one consortium which then operated as Radio Haldon, under the chairmanship of vice-admiral Sir Ronald Brockman and with broadcaster Keith Fordyce, among the other members of the group. Radio Haldon, Riviera Radio and Bay City Radio were the three groups to bid for the  dual-area franchise with Radio Haldon (‘DevonAir’) becoming the winners (see media reports 1978, 1979 and ‘Before DevonAir).

Below: Two individual areas that combined to become one franchise and a world first. The East Devon city of Exeter. The South Devon English Riviera. Each area were to receive their own local radio service. The station was to have “the technical capability to provide separate memorable programmes to different areas within the DevonAir transmission network” .

DevonAir RadioDevonAir Radio

The original plan was to have a station for the Torbay Riviera and South Devon and a separate programme company for the city of Exeter and East Devon. As the financial and practical reality sank in at the regulators it soon became clear that two different companies so geographically close to each other scratching round for commercial revenue wasn’t going to work. Despite very strong applications from other groups what was to become DevonAir Radio bubbled to the top as the eventual winner (Companies House and former IBA archive here).

DevonAir RadioDevonAir’s plans were revolutionary in 1979. They had promised the regulator a full news and entertainment service which would cover both areas whilst at specified times of the day they would actually ‘split’ into sub-areas (Torbay and Exeter), thus providing each area with its very own programming and editorial. On top of this DevonAir was to have the capability at any time of the day to ‘split’ its commercials providing the advertisers with the opportunity to target a specified area. The ‘splits’ were, unbeknown to the listener, to become the technical focus of the station as well as being a world first.

‘Ruling The (Air) Waves’ – Mid Devon Advertiser – 6 June 1980

By late summer 1980 the Exeter phase of this ambitious plan was complete – ahead of schedule. Advertisements started to appear in the local press and I was one of the hopefuls who joined the station as a freelance presenter along with the rest of the crew who started work at DevonAir on the 13th October 1980.

DevonAir Radio – The architects of success

The engineers, under the leadership of Devon man, Nick Johnson, created a seamless on-air system of providing listeners with perfect continuity in the two sub areas – split programmes and split advertisement breaks.

DevonAir Radio

As far as ‘split breaks’ were concerned operationally it was just a cart split button on the control desk and a simultaneous dual cart start button. For ‘split programmes’ a series of easy to use select and deselect telemetry buttons on the control desks in both Torquay and Exeter took the nightmare out of the operation. Even as I write this the memories flood back. So from a presenter or operational point of view it was logical, instant and fairly basic. Station promotions, idents and even split daily opening and closing announcements tailored for each area added to the extra localised feeling of the station.

The engineers actually built two radio stations (two studio centres) for DevonAir. One in a late Georgian terrace in Exeter and another on the top floor of a building overlooking Torbay. Nick Johnson was the brains behind the worlds first fully operational split radio station and invented a telemetry system to link the stations over a GPO line. It also meant that, in theory, neither  Exeter nor Torbay were to be (as far as the listeners were concerned) the dominant studio centre – whilst Exeter was the company headquarters and provided a bulk of programmes across the DevonAir network, equally Torbay had the capability to network its programmes as well. This was exciting and challenging stuff. The fact that the control rooms were identical meant that presenting a programme in, say, Torbay, wasn’t a nightmare for a presenter used to operations in Exeter and vice-versa.

DevonAir Radio
Jeff Winston, who created a speech with music mix that was so overwhelmingly popular with the audience.

Jeff Winston was DevonAir’s first Programme Controller and it was his speech with music programme policy and inspirational scheduling that so very successfully launched DevonAir Radio.

There was real camaraderie with all of us on the station. We were all determined to make this thing work and I have to say that when we did go on air we really did sound as if we had been there forever which is a fantastic achievement for the entire small team. As a result DevonAir Radio instantly became part of the local listening establishment.

Just before 0600 hrs on Friday 7th November 1980 DevonAir dumped its test transmission tapes and commenced its regular live broadcasts to just over half its potential audience in Exeter and East Devon.

The day started with DevonDawn, continued with Paul Owens, broke for an extended lunchtime news bulletin, then an afternoon show with Travis Baxter, the 90 minute news magazine, DevonDay with Mike Joseph and finally John Pierce’s The Kids Are Alright until 2100hrs when we closed down. And that was it. That was our first day on air.

It wasn’t until the 12th December 1980 that DevonAir completed its transmission obligations with the launch of the Torquay studio centre, the South Devon transmitters, the capability to split programmes and commercial breaks and the extension of transmission hours until midnight. The excitement was really indescribable. This second phase was as smooth and professional as the station launch thanks to the expertise of Nick Johnson and his engineering team and Jeff Winston with his programming and news  department.

DevonAir Radio
Live at last. Control one at Exeter in 1980 just after the introduction of the ‘splits’ and the start of broadcasts to Torbay. No Nonsense presenter, John Pierce, taking over the live desk over from Jeff Winston at 1830 hrs after the station’s news flagship, DevonDay which was presented by Mike Joseph in studio one, facing the control room (images: © Nick Johnson).

DevonAir Radio

DevonDay, a technically challenging 90 minute weekday, early evening, flagship magazine, was usually studio directed by Jeff Winston, a member of the engineering team or Ian Waugh.

Early ‘dipstick’ research results revealed that DevonAir Radio was an immediate success. Its ‘produced talks with well selected music’ programme philosophy designed by Jeff Winston alongside a commitment to full local news coverage set DevonAir on what looked like an extremely successful future. However as the years progress, the Chairman’s reports paint a gradual gloomier image as the death knell for the company was fast approaching and it’s original locally independent status as a business evaporated.

This work is researched and written by Ian Waugh who worked for DevonAir Radio between 1980-1987 (more here).