Party leaders greet commercial radio in 1973

As LBC launched in 1973, the party leaders issued goodwill messages for broadcast, not least because this was to be the UK’s first ‘all news' station. Radio 4 had only recently adopted a more newsy approach, following the focusing of BBC network services after the ‘Broadcasting in the 70s’ review.

Prime Minister, Edward Heath, gave some fulsome encouragement from the Conservatives. Harold Wilson, Labour leader, tried to square his cordial welcome with the fact he’d hated the very idea of commercial radio; and Jeremy Thorpe for the Liberals probably had a few other things on his mind but chipped in anyway.

Edward Heath governed until 1974, when his party was usurped by a returning Harold Wilson. Ted died in 2005, still spitting feathers at That Woman who’d replaced him as party leader. Harold, the pipe-smoking symbol of a Swinging 60s Britain resigned abruptly in 1976, and died in 1995. Jeremy Thorpe, with whom a ‘friend’ claimed to have had a gay relationship, in those such different, illegal days, was forced to resign as Liberal leader in 1976. He was acquitted of conspiracy to murder.