Independent Radio News provides a service of news bulletins, audio and copy to commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

s in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and beyond. The managing director, Tim Molloy, succeeded long-term MD John Perkins in November 2009. Perkins had been MD of IRN since 1989. IRN's shareholders are

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

(54.6%),

Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in ...

(22.3%), ITN (19.7%) and

The Wireless Group Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...

(3.4%).

History and background

IRN launched on 8 October 1973, with the first bulletin read at 06:00 by Australian newsreader Ken Guy on the opening morning of Britain's first commercial radio station,

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

. IRN was based at LBC studios in Gough Square, just off

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

in Central London. The service was funded by cash payments from subscribing radio stations. On 5 October 1992, ITN took over the running of the IRN operation from

and IRN relocated into ITN's headquarters on Gray's Inn Road in London. Initially, and for at least two decades thereafter, stations took the hourly bulletins by opting into LBC's normal broadcast output. LBC would leave one second of silence before and after the bulletins to allow stations to opt in and out. Computer technology was introduced in 1985 and in 1987, the Newslink advertising scheme (a national single advertisement, broadcast by IRN immediately adjacent to the news bulletin) was launched which funded the service and provided cash dividends of the surplus to client stations. Newslink adverts are broadcast by client stations around weekday bulletins from 06:00 to 11:00 and 13:00, and at weekends between 07:00 and 12:00. Sales of Newslink commercial spots are managed by Global. In 1989, satellite distribution of bulletins and audio was introduced, and this was also the year that IRN and LBC moved into new studios on Hammersmith Road in West London. The satellite service was managed by Satellite Media Services who were based on the ground floor of Euston Tower. In 1991, the

Sunrise Radio Sunrise Radio is a 24-hour commercial radio station, focusing on entertainment, music and news from the Indian subcontinent. It broadcasts to the Greater London area on 963/972 AM, on DAB (SDL National), and via the internet. History Sunrise R ...

IRN service was introduced. The hourly news bulletins were broadcast on Sunrise Radio's channel on the Astra satellite, in a move designed to serve smaller commercial, RSL and hospital stations who struggled to afford the expensive standard IRN satellite equipment. This continued until 31 August 2004, upon which the service moved to a dedicated channel on the Hot Bird 4 satellite at 13.0° East. From March 2009, bulletins are broadcast via the main Sky Digital Astra satellite at 28.2° East. In 2001, audio cuts began to be distributed via the Internet and from 2 October 2005, audio cuts and packages ceased being distributed via the satellite audio channels and switched entirely to the IRN Net Newsroom Internet system. IRN bulletins had a major overhaul in September 2002. The bulletin outcue for many years, "Independent Radio News", was dropped and all bulletins were of three minutes duration. All IRN branding was removed, and the outcue reverted to a time check: "It's three minutes past he hour" The three-minute bulletin, known as IRN 180, was broadcast on the IRN1 channel and the Astra (Sunrise Radio) feed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A shorter 90-second bulletin, known as IRN 90, was introduced on the IRN2 channel comprising stories aimed at younger, pop music stations. This was broadcast on the hour from 19:00 to 06:00 on weekdays, and from 14:00 to 06:00 at weekends. This replaced the previous 60-second overnight bulletin service. IRN launched its first bespoke bulletin service in September 2003, with an hourly bulletin service for

Magic 105.4 Magic Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer. The station is available on 105.4 FM in London and across the UK on Digital Radio, on the Magic Radio app, television and online. It had previously been a part of a ...

and a breakfast news service for

Kiss 100 Kiss is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Kiss Network. It is primarily aimed at the 15-34 age group and broadcasts nationally to the UK on DAB Digital Radio, as well as on FM in London, Bristol an ...

. On 1 October 2003, satellite distribution of the main IRN service switched from SMS and the

Intelsat 707 Intelsat 707 (also known as IS-707 and Intelsat 7-F7) is a geostationary communications satellite that was built by Space Systems/Loral (SSL). It is located in the orbital position of 53° west longitude.. The satellite is owned by Intelsat. The ...

satellite at 1.0° West to

Kingston Communications KCOM Group (formerly known as Kingston Communications and latterly KC) is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters are in the city of Kingston upon Hull, and it serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telep ...

and the Sirius 4 satellite at 4.8° East. On 1 January 2021, the service was switched to Eutelsat 9B satellite at 9.0° East. In June 2008, IRN started supplying a feed of news, sport and entertainment stories and video to the websites of client radio stations. During the ITN era, most audio came from

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since con ...

and

Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...

television bulletins. Client stations contributed audio to the service and IRN also had agreements to use audio from

CNN Radio CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by t ...

and

Sky Sports News Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British paid television sports news channel run by Sky, a division of Comcast. History Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and later this was expanded into a ...

. On 15 October 2008, IRN announced that

Sky News Radio Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations aro ...

was to replace ITN as its contracted news supplier from March 2009 on a three-year contract. The final ITN-produced bulletin was broadcast at 13:00 on Tuesday 2 March 2009 and was read by Moira Alderson. The bulletin finished: "... From ITN this is Independent Radio News".

's first bulletin was at 14:00 on the same day. The bulletin was read by Ursula Hansford, and was simulcast on the

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the he ...

television channel. All IRN hourly bulletins carry Sky News branding and bulletins start with a time check intro: "From the Sky News Centre at our. IRN agreed a further two-year contract with Sky News from March 2012, with a subsequent reported contract extension until March 2016 and March 2018. No known challengers to the contract have since emerged and Sky News continues to supply IRN to this day. In March 2022, it was announced that a further "multi-year" contract extension was agreed between Sky News and IRN.

Competitors to IRN

IRN has faced many competitors during its history. ITN briefly ran ITN Radio News, which broadcast hourly news bulletins on the Astra satellite daily from 06:00 to 23:00. The service ran from 4 March 1990 until 4 July 1991 and clients included Jazz FM in London, East End Radio in Glasgow and a number of other small, incremental radio stations. On 5 July 1991, Chiltern Radio launched

Network News News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televi ...

, which broadcast hourly news bulletins and audio cuts on Chiltern's Supergold audio channel on the Astra satellite. Bulletins were broadcast 24 hours a day from Chiltern studios in Dunstable utilising audio from

and

. Copy and scripts were distributed by stations via fax and a premium rate fax-back service. Network News enjoyed considerable success and won the contract to supply news to Virgin Radio upon its launch in April 1993. However, it suffered a major blow when it lost the Virgin Radio contract to Reuters Radio News in April 1995 and GWR chose to close Network News in April 1996 when it took over the

Chiltern Radio network Chiltern Radio Network (also known as Chiltern Radio Group) was the parent group of several independent local radio stations in the 1980s and 1990s. These were divided across two networks: ''The Hot FM'' and ''SuperGold''. History Chiltern Radi ...

. Reuters Radio News ran from 1994 until June 1996 from studios at Gray's Inn Road in London. It supplied news to its own London Radio stations (formerly

), plus Scot FM,

Heart FM Heart is a British radio network and brand of 13 adult contemporary local stations operated by Global throughout the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming. Ten of the Heart stations are owned by Global, while th ...

, and

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

. Audio was mostly sourced from

who

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

had a news supply agreement with at the time. Traffic information service

Metro Networks Metro Networks was a broadcasting outsourcing company based in Houston, Texas. It was a subsidiary of Westwood One until its sale to Clear Channel Communications in 2011. The company operated local and regional news and traffic operations that pr ...

took over the

news contract following the closure of Reuters Radio News. Audio was sourced from

and

and Virgin bulletins were branded as "News from Sky". It provided bespoke bulletins to stations including Beat 106, Vibe FM,

and

but did not provide syndicated hourly news bulletins. The news service closed down in November 2002 following the decision by

to produce their news in-house.

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

launched

in June 1999 as a rival to the ITN-operated IRN service. It initially provided bulletins to talkSPORT and subsequently around eighty radio stations before taking over the IRN contract in March 2009. Current competitors to IRN are Feature Story News and Radio News Hub. Feature Story News supplies hourly international news bulletins from studios in London and Washington DC. Thirty-second, three-minute and five-minute bulletins are distributed via FTP to clients including digital, community and online stations. Radio News Hub supplies UK and international news bulletins from studios in Leeds. Hourly bulletins are distributed via FTP to clients including Dee Radio plus Radio One Mallorca in Spain and digital stations Fix Radio, Love 80s and CountryLine Radio. No live bulletins are provided, although occasional special live programming, such as election night coverage, is distributed to client stations via digital station News Radio UK.

Content and bulletins

IRN's editorial services are provided by Sky News Radio, who distribute national and international news and sport audio and copy to all UK commercial radio stations plus a number of international clients. Dave Terris is the Executive Producer for Sky News Radio and Editor of IRN. He is supported by a team of over twenty journalists based at the Sky News' headquarters in Osterley. There are four radio studios at Sky News Radio in Osterley and one in Westminster for political coverage. IRN transmits a live two-minute national and international news bulletin on the hour, 24 hours a day. Many stations take the national IRN bulletin during evenings and weekends when local newsrooms are unstaffed. Other stations such as

Boom Radio Boom Radio (also Boom Radio UK) is an independent, commercial, national radio station in the United Kingdom. Owned by Boom Radio Ltd, the station is aimed at baby boomers, the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964, and is the first rad ...

and

Radio XL Radio XL is an Asian radio station to broadcast to the West Midlands from Birmingham, England. Radio XL reach is to a potential Asian audience of over 250,000 people in the 15+ age group. The station is available throughout the West Midlands ...

, along with numerous community stations, use the hourly IRN bulletins as their sole source of news. The UK's largest commercial radio group, Global, does not broadcast IRN bulletins on its radio stations, instead using its own bespoke local and national bulletins. A two-minute recorded bulletin is offered during off-peak periods which is distributed to stations just before the top of the hour. This contains largely similar content to the live network bulletin. Bulletins are broadcast across the

network as well as on a number of other stations.

Serial data

In addition to a satellite feed with three separate channels, IRN also operates a serial data channel. This communicates with the IRN Demux 2 unit which the majority of commercial radio clients have. This

demultiplexer In electronics, a multiplexer (or mux; spelled sometimes as multiplexor), also known as a data selector, is a device that selects between several analog or digital input signals and forwards the selected input to a single output line. The sel ...

allows up to eight serial data channels of text information to be transmitted. Client stations can (and normally do) have a Major Story Alarm (also known as an OBIT Alarm) in their newsrooms and studios. The IRN news desk can trigger an alert at any time, which will be picked up by the demux units and set off the alert. Reasons for doing this include a major incident/terror attack or the death of a member of the

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term pa ...

(see Obituary procedure). IRN's serial data channel was previously used to trigger radio station idents during the '' Big Top 40'' chart show, which was distributed via the IRN3 stereo programme channel. On receiving the corresponding command, the three-second localisers would play from each client station's play-out system. As of 6 January 2019, IRN is no longer used to distribute the ''Big Top 40'', as it is exclusively broadcast on Global's

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as ca ...

and

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

stations and is no longer syndicated to the wider network.

Obituary procedure

Most client stations have blue "obit lights" installed in their studios which are automatically triggered by IRN in the event of the death of a member of the Royal Family or other major national (and in some cases international) figure. This is designed to give stations warning of such an event and allow them to adjust their output accordingly. Formerly, there was a strictly defined protocol for such occasions that all ILR stations were required to follow which included suspending normal programming and advertising. IRN would broadcast a news flash after confirmation of the death, then a five-minute news bulletin on the next hour followed by a one-minute version of the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

. The IRN network channel would then switch to special programming which consisted of light instrumental music and announcements every ten minutes, with extended news bulletins on the hour and half-hour. The special service of music programming would normally last for three hours, although extended and additional bulletins would continue for the next 24–48 hours. Over time, however, the status of the obituary protocol has declined to the point where there is no longer any statutory instruction, obligation or procedure defined anywhere, either in the Ofcom code nor any station's licence. It is generally accepted that broadcasters will adopt a suitable tone of some kind, but there is no formal requirement for them to do so, and the nature of any obituary response is entirely down to the individual stations. Although there is no formal obituary list of members of the royal family, it is widely accepted to include King Charles and Prince William. In the event of a major news story or royal death, most commercial stations in recent years have produced their own programming with suitably adjusted music and news bulletins every 15–30 minutes. IRN was strongly criticised by many of its client stations for its handling of the death of

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was th ...

on 30 March 2002. A staff member pressed the wrong button and failed to alert the 258 stations on the network to the news, resulting in many presenters and newsreaders first hearing about the death from other news sources. IRN editor Jon Godel subsequently issued an apology in a memo addressed to "all news editors and programme controllers" in which he admitted this was "not IRN's finest hour". The most recent obituary procedures have been activated following the

death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

on 9 April 2021, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022.

Special bulletins

Remembrance Sunday

The 11:00 bulletin on

Remembrance Sunday Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...

includes coverage of the national two minutes silence at

The Cenotaph The Cenotaph is a war memorial on Whitehall in London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it was unveiled in 1920 as the United Kingdom's national memorial to the British and Commonwealth dead of the First World War, was rededicated in 19 ...

in London. On Astra and IRN1, the bulletin starts at 10:59:00 with the newsreader crossing to Big Ben at approximately 10:59:55 for the two minutes silence and the

Last Post The "Last Post" is either an A or a B♭ bugle call, primarily within British infantry and Australian infantry regiments, or a D or an E♭ cavalry trumpet call in British cavalry and Royal Regiment of Artillery (Royal Horse Artillery and Ro ...

. At approximately 11:03:27, the newsreader resumes with a brief summary of other news before finishing the bulletin at 11:04:00. On the IRN2 channel, a clean feed of Big Ben, atmosphere from the two minutes silence and the last post is broadcast. On

Armistice Day Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, Fran ...

, the standard two-minute IRN bulletin is broadcast at 11:00 on IRN1. "Ambient silence" is transmitted on IRN2 for stations wishing to observe two minutes silence. In the case of Armistice Day falling on a Sunday, the above Remembrance Sunday arrangements apply.

Royal Christmas Message

The Royal Christmas Message is broadcast on the Astra and IRN1 channel at 15:00 on Christmas Day. There is no news bulletin or introduction to the speech, and the five minute long broadcast ends with the National Anthem.

Audio and copy

All audio and copy is distributed by Sky News via the IRN website. In addition to scripts and copy written by IRN journalists, access is also available to

Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency, and the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is part of PA Media Group Limited, a private company with 26 shareholders, most of whom are national and re ...

news wires, weather forecasts from the

Met Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelop ...

and a breakfast showprep service from Murf Media. Stations can also source their own audio cuts from Sky News and Sky Sports News television channels. IRN also provide a feed of Sky News national news and sports stories to radio station websites. IRN operates two audio channels on the Eutelsat 9B satellite: IRN1 transmits the hourly news bulletins, live sports reports and the classified football results. IRN2 transmits live press conferences, Prime Minister's Questions and other significant Parliamentary events. IRN1 is also broadcast on an audio channel on the Astra 2B satellite. In the event of a major news story (e.g. royal death or major terrorist incident), audio from Sky News television will be relayed on IRN1. The Sky News audio feed will be interrupted with the normal hourly news bulletins, which may be extended to three minutes duration, along with additional one minute bulletins on the half-hour. A continuous audio feed of Sky News television without interruption for news bulletins will be relayed on IRN2. Many community, student and hospital radio stations around the UK take the hourly bulletin service. Copy and audio cuts are also used by BFBS Radio in addition to stations in the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, UAE, South Africa and Australia.

IRN Sport

IRN's sports output includes weekday breakfast, lunchtime and afternoon sports bulletins, audio cuts and packages and a full Saturday afternoon sports service. Joe Rawson is the editor of IRN Sport. IRN supplies match reports from every English Premier League football match with reporters supplied by sports radio agency World Sports Communications and also sells licences to local stations to allow them to broadcast football match reports and commentaries. Up to three reports each half, plus previews, goal flashes and half-time and full-time reports are sent from each match via the IRN1, IRN2 and Astra satellite channels. One featured match each Saturday features live clockstart reports at 15:14, 15:26, 15:38, 16:14, 16:26 and 16:38. A classified football results check is broadcast every Saturday at 17:05. The service also includes reports from Six Nations Rugby matches plus England home football and rugby union matches.

References

External links

Independent Radio NewsSky News RadioLatest Bulletin
{{Coord, 51.5161, -0.1385, type:landmark_region:GB-WSM, display=title British news radio programmes Sky News 1973 establishments in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1973 News agencies based in the United Kingdom