Tune-in to 1978

Tracking down programme schedules for the original ILR stations is a bit of a hit and miss affair. They were never granted any column inches in the TV Times as the ITV contractors had little vested interest in the stations, though ATV, Granada and Scottish did have minority holdings in BRMB, Piccadilly and Clyde.

Local newspapers would carry listings and each station would often publish publicity leaflets or their own mini newspaper.  There was some coverage in the NME as I recall and between 1972 and 1975 we had the subscription-only Script "the magazine on alternative radio"  whose remit covered the offshore and land-based pirates as well as both commercial and BBC local radio. 

Re-titled Radio Guide in 1975, by 1976 it dealt exclusively with the ILR stations and later that year was published by Independent Television Publications, the association of ITV companies behind the TV Times.  As a stand-alone ITP magazine it was short-lived and in 1978 became part of the quarterly Tune-in (a TV Times Extra). In 1980 that too was dropped just on the point when the network of stations was expanding beyond the initial nineteen.

So what was on your local commercial station forty years ago? The Christmas edition of Tune-in features cover stars Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard. The Radio Guide, from Beacon to Victory, features dozens of familiar names though I reckon there's no more than a handful still regularly on-air.