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Report to Tynwald of the Committee of Enquiry Into 'Manx Radio' October

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Report to Tynwald of the Committee of Enquiry Into 'Manx Radio' October Report to Tynwald of the Committee of Enquiry into 'Manx Radio' .2k October 1974 To His Excellency Sir John Warburton Paul, G.C.M.G., 0.B.E.,M.C., Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, the Honourable the Members of the Council, Deemster and Keys in Tynwald assembled. CONTENTS Section I Introduction Page 1 - 3 II History and Current Programming Page 4 - 12 11 III Technical and Frequency Aspects and Development of Premises Page 13 - 19 11 IV Finance, Administration, Advertising, Staff Relations, Station Management and Salaries Page 20 - 38 V Station Promotion. Page 39 - 40 VI Audience Research Page 41 - 66 VII Summary of Opinion and Pro- posals to the Committee Page 67 - 70 VIII Programme Recommendations Page 71 - 76 si IX Conclusions and General Recommendations Page 77 - 80 X Appendices Page 81 onwards REPORT OF TUE COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY INTO MANX RADIO INTRODUCTION As a result of a resolution put before Tynwald on December 11th 1973 by Mr. John Clucas MHK, His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor set about the appointment of a 3-man Committee of Enquiry in 'January 1974. Specifically this Committee was required to: " carry out an enquiry on the management and general principles governing Manx Radio as a medium of communication, particularly in relation to the presentation of information on current affairs to the Manx publiC, and report to Tynwald with recommendations within six months of its appointment". The appointments were announced on the 6th March, and the Committee held its first meeting on April 11th. Its members are: Mr. Mark White (Chairman) Mr. Cyril Wilkinson Mr. Nicholas Wilson Tim Gudgin, the Government's Public Relations Officer, is the Secretary After some discussion about their terms of reference; about the main objective of the Tynwald resolution; and abcut their priorities, the Committee drew up a list of people it wished to interview, and documents It wished to examine. The Secretary was instructed to make the necessary arrangements for future meetings. The Committee decided to give a high priority to Audience Research which, it discovered, had not been . undertaken for over eight years. Since then, the Committee has met on ten occasions, has interviewed many people, and received much written • evidence from interested parties (See Section VII and Appendices 1).F .G.& H). At only its second meeting it became clear that the subject was such a large one, that, if its deadline as requested by the Lieutenant Governor were to be met, members of the Committee would have to split the necessary research between them. It was therefore decided that they would make themselves responsible as follows: Cyril Wilkinson: Technical aspects, including trans- mitter power; frequencies; coverage; relations with Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (later the Home Office). Operational facilities (see Chief Engineer's Report). Advertising as a source of revenue. Nicholas Wilson: Audience Research, including the preparation and carrying out of a survey among Islanders and Tourists. Finance and Administration. Staff Relations. Mark White: Programmes, including an assessment 'of.the present schedules, and recommendations for the future. Staff Salaries. Station Promotion. The Secretary was charged with summarising the history of the Station in the past, and with Cont./ preparing a summary of the views of interested parties, expecially those who had submitted reports and recommendations to the Committee. Also with the preparation of the charts and Appendices to this - Report. II i) HISTORY In 1959 the Lieutenant Governor took steps to establish a company capable of acting as a programme contracting company for any Commercial Radio Station which might at some future time be set up in the Isle of• Man. Thus 'Radio Manx' came into being. The main purpose of the station would be to foster a very important section of the Manx economy - the tourist trade - and to bring in additional revenue by selling air-time to British and other advertisers and also to provide an entertaining listening alternative to. BBC Radio, and Radio Luxembourg at a strength capable of reception throughout Britain. However some seven years previously on the 29th October 1952, by agreement with Tynwald, the U.K. Wireless Telegraphy and Telecommunications Act 1949 had been extended to the Isle of Man by Order in Council. One of the provisions of this Act was that only the Postmaster-General could issue licences for broadcast transmissions from the Island. The Home Office lost no time in making it clear to the Manx Government that no licence for a high-power station could be granted, but that a licence could be issued for an island station provided its power was such that it could not be heard regularly.on the mainland. Seifrom visions of a spectacular extra revenue earner the spectrum was at once narrowed to that of a purely local station serving the island and Cont./ its summer tourists - a prospect which threw into doubt its commercial viability. So much so that no further action was taken for some time - until the effectiveness of the offshore pirate station Radio Caroline (North), anchored off the island, .spurred the Island authorities to re-examine the position. • Eventually a V.H.F. licence was issued by the Post Office in June 1964 and in October of that year a licence for 188 m. medium wave. In November Richard L. Meyer and Pye Limited joining together as the IOM Broadcasting Co. Limited., were approved and appointed as concessionaires by Tynwald, and in the following October a further licence to operate at 1 kW. on 232m. during daylight hours was issued by the Post Office. Experimental broadcasts on VHF began in the summer of 1964, the first programme coming from a studio in a caravan, temporarily sited near the TT Grandstand at Onchan. In fact the first programme was a commentary on the TT race of June 5th. For four hours a day thereafter music programmes were broadcast on VHF, with a theoretical possible coverage of about half of the population - but in fact only about 10% being able to hear them (the remaining 90% of set owners not having VHF sets). • Programme hours gradually increased as more needletime and medium wave transmissions were allowed, until by the end of 1965 they amounted to twelve hours a day. The caravan studio had Cont./ been replaced in May 1965 by specially built studios on Douglas Promenade. These improved facilities; the better coverage obtained from the medium wave broadcasts on 232 m and 188m; plus the establishment that same year by Tynwald of the Isle of Man Broadcasting Commission (to oversee the whole field of broadcasting, both in radio and TV, in the Island) all served to . further the impression that here was something that was to be of great benefit to Man. However, this feeling of euphoria was soon to be stifled by protracted and eventually fruitless discussions at the Home Office between successive delegations from the Island and ever- changing representatives of the U.K. Government and the Post Office overproposals to increase what the Broadcasting Commission (and the Island's population zenerally) felt was the quite inadequate power of the Station. It simply did not cover the island - let alone any further objectives. The discussions had opened in earnest in July 1965 when Mr. George Thomas1 Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Home Office, received.a delegation from the Island which included the Lieutenant Governor. At the meeting the publicity value of Radio Caroline to the Island was pointed out, together with the inadequacy of the power of Manx Radio to cover -the whole island. Mr. Thomas said the views of the delegation would be brought to the attention of the Home Secretary. Nothing further was heard until July 1966 when Tynwald was informed that a Bill to ban pirate radio stations had been introduced into the U.K. Parliament, and it was Cont./ - 7 intended to extend it to the Isle of Man. On 11th April 1967 this intention was confirmed in a notification from Home Office that the U.K. Government intended to extend the provisions of the Bill to the Isle of Man by order in Council. This led to Tynwald voting on 19th April to Petition H.M. the Queen about the Bill. In turn on 5th June a Tynwald deputation met .a . Committee of the Privy Council about the petition to the Queen and asked that Manx Radio should be given sufficient power to do what Radio Caroline was doing - to advertise the Island.' Additionally the members pointed out that the U.K. Government was in a position to allow such an increase of strength without contravening any International agreements. The then Postmaster General confirmed that the operation of Manx Radio was mainly a matter of domestic policy and not international agreement - and at a further meeting a fortnight later, on 20th June 1967, his Technical representative .14r. Dilworth, questioned as to what strength of transmission would be required adequately'to cover the Island from one transmitter, gave it as his opinion that it might be achieved with 5 kw. but he believed it would take 10 kw. to do the job properly. He did suggest two alternatives 1) the provision of a low-powered relay station for the North of the island or 2) a longer 'medium wavelength. The Post Office offered to exPlore both possibilities if desired. The Manx deputation ruled out (1) on the ground of expense and difficulty of maintenance, especially 11. as a better answer could be served by one suitably-sited transmitter. Cont./ They asked for a licence to operate at 5 kw. and that a reply should be received in time for the last Tynwald sitting before the summer recess.
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