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United Biscuits Network (UBN) was an internal radio station serving the factories of

United Biscuits United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In ...

(UB) in Britain that operated from 1970 to 1979. In 1970 the

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had a monopoly on radio broadcasting in Britain, although there were a few offshore

pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...

broadcasters, such as Radio Caroline. At one time factories had sought to avoid unnecessary background sound, but during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

psychologists found that light background music (

muzak Muzak is an American brand of background music played in retail stores and other public establishments. The name has been in use since 1934, and has been owned by a division or subsidiary of one or another company ever since. In 1981, Westingho ...

) increased productivity at times it was low, a trend that continued after the war. But as jobs became deskilled and ever more monotonous, muzak became less effective, and staff turnover increased. United Biscuits was affected by this trend; Hector Laing, the managing director in the 1960s, needed to reduce the costs of high staff turnover. Inspired by the success of the pirate stations, Laing hired suitable staff, bought state-of-the-art broadcasting equipment, and set up UBN at UB headquarters in

Osterley Osterley () is an affluent district of the historic parish of Isleworth in west London approximately from Charing Cross and is part of the London Borough of Hounslow. Most of its land use is mixed agricultural and aesthetic parkland at Oster ...

, west London (later the headquarters of broadcaster Sky UK).

Description

UBN broadcast from Osterley to UB factories in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

24 hours a day. Presenters who later achieved wider public recognition included

Roger Scott Roger Scott (23 October 1943 – 31 October 1989) was a British radio disc jockey. He was best known for presenting an afternoon radio show on London's Capital London from 1973 until 1988 and was also best known for presenting his late night ...

, Roger Day, Adrian Love,

Steve Allen Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...

Nicky Horne Nicky Horne (born 3 September 1950) is an English DJ, who has worked for a variety of radio stations, including Capital Radio. Career Horne worked as a road manager for Emperor Rosko in 1969, before presenting shows on BBC Radio 1, from 19 ...

Graham Dene Graham Dene (born 7 April 1949) is a British radio personality. After a period as a disc jockey on Edgware General Hospital's radio, and at United Biscuits Network, he became famous in the London area as Capital Radio's breakfast presenter in th ...

, Peter Young, and

Dale Winton Dale Jonathan Winton (22 May 1955 – 18 April 2018) was an English radio DJ and television presenter. He presented the shows ''Dale's Supermarket Sweep'' from 1993 until 2001 and again in 2007, the National Lottery game show '' In It to W ...

. The first Programme Director when the station opened in 1970 was Neil Spence, the former pirate Radio London DJ known as Dave Dennis. Because there were no legal commercial radio stations in 1970, the network became notable in introducing new acts and presenters. In 1972

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

(ILR) was introduced by legislation in the UK; in 1979 the UBN was closed, with ILR played in the factories instead. Distribution of the "radio" from the Osterley studios to the various factories was via GPO landlines, then 100 V loudspeaker systems in each factory. Each pair of workers had their own loudspeaker and volume control. To accommodate the already high ambient noise levels in the factories, the audio was highly compressed. UBN's programme content was similar to contemporary commercial radio, except that "commercials" did not promote products but encouraged safe work practice, among other subjects, and music requests were from workers on various production lines. Programming was similar to

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

and BBC Radio 2, but there were specialist programmes for Asian listeners and Country and western fans in Liverpool and Glasgow.{{cite web, url=http://www.ubn.org.uk/audio/NewsBeat.mp3 , work=BBC Radio 1 , title=Report on UBN launch (audio), url-status=usurped, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727044309/http://www.ubn.org.uk/audio/NewsBeat.mp3 , archive-date=July 27, 2011

Influence

As the UBN was the only independent "broadcaster", operated 24 hours a day, and had high quality equipment and musical sources, it was an excellent opportunity for entertainers to rise from small-scale DJ-ing to radio broadcasting; the network was music-oriented, and hosts were allowed a free rein, within reason. Graham Dene, who became a well-known presenter after UBN, was on air on the opening day, 1 September 1970, and later said he "could not believe his luck": "It was like a radio university. We had the best kit, the proper studios. We even had jingles re-recorded from the pirate ship Radio London. It was like seventh heaven: a proper station of our own." Someone who joined at the start was told that if UBN could reduce UB staff turnover by 20%, it would pay for itself; within the first year, turnover dropped by 40%. The growth of

ultimately led to the closure of UBN as unnecessary; the many people it trained in broadcasting were available to man the new independent broadcasters. Andrew Ellinas, who broadcast on UBN's last hour on 16 December 1979, said "UBN was the beginning of the golden age of radio. Its legacy lies in every commercial station in the UK."

In popular culture

The

Chris Petit Chris Petit (born 17 June 1949) is an English novelist and filmmaker. During the 1970s he was Film Editor for ''Time Out'' and wrote in ''Melody Maker''. His first film was the cult British road movie ''Radio On'', while his 1982 film ''An Unsui ...

film '' Radio On'' was partly filmed at the UBN studio. The protagonist is a DJ at an industrial radio station similar to UBN.

References

External links

United Biscuits website

A radio documentary on UBN and how it influenced workers
United Biscuits Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Industrial music services Radio stations established in 1970 Radio stations disestablished in 1979 1970 establishments in the United Kingdom 1979 disestablishments in the United Kingdom