Independent Radio News

Independent Radio News provides a service of news bulletins, audio and copy to commercial radio stations in the UK and beyond. The managing director of IRN is Tim Molloy, who succeeded long-term MD Jon Perkins in November 2009. Audio was mostly sourced from Sky News, who Reuters had a news supply agreement with at the time. Traffic information service Metro Networks took over the Virgin Radio news contract following the closure of Reuters Radio News.

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. Reuters Radio News ran from 1994 until June 1996 from studios at Gray s Inn Road in London. This was broadcast on the hour from 1900 to 0600 on weekdays, and from 1400 to 0600 on weekends.

Audio was sourced from Sky News and CNN Radio and Virgin bulletins were branded as News from Sky . The service ran from March 4, 1990 until July 4, 1991 and clients included Jazz FM and a number of other smaller, incremental radio stations. On July 5, 1991, Chiltern Radio launched Network News, which broadcast hourly news bulletins and audio cuts on Chiltern s Supergold audio channel on the Astra satellite.

This continued until 31 August 2004, upon which the service moved to a dedicated channel on the Hotbird 4 satellite at 13.0°E On October 5th 1992, ITN took over the running of the IRN operation from LBC and moved into ITN s headquarters on Gray s Inn Road in London. In 2001, audio cuts began to be distributed via internet and from October 2, 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 news service closed down in November 2002, following the decision by Virgin Radio to produce their news in-house. And BSkyB launched Sky News Radio in June 1999 as a rival to the ITN-operated IRN service.

Copy and audio cuts are also used by BFBS Radio, in addition to radio stations in the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, UAE, South Africa and Australia. . The bulletin outcue for many years: Independent Radio News , was dropped and all bulletins were of three minutes duration.

ITN briefly ran ITN Radio News, which broadcast hourly news bulletins on the Astra satellite daily from 0600 to 2300. Other stations, including Sunrise Radio, Radio XL, Panjab Radio and Jazz FM broadcast the IRN bulletins 24/7. IRN include opening and closing contacts at the start and end of their hourly bulletins to allow radio stations to incorporate them into automated programming. Remembrance Sunday The 1100 bulletin on Remembrance Sunday includes coverage of the national two minutes silence at the Centotaph in London. On Astra and IRN 1, 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.

It provided bespoke bulletins to stations including Beat 106, Vibe FM, Kiss 100 and Magic 105.4, but did not provide syndicated hourly news bulletins. 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 IRN 2 channel, a clean feed of Big Ben, atmosphere from the two minutes silence and the last post is broadcast. Queen s Christmas Message The Queen s Christmas Message is broadcast on the Astra and IRN 1 channel at 1500 on Christmas Day. There is no news bulletin or introduction to the speech, and the five minute long broadcast ends with the National Anthem. On the IRN 2 channel, a standard two minute bulletin of national and international news is broadcast. NB A normal two minute bulletin is broadcasts at 12 midnight on New Year s Eve as IRN do not have the rights to broadcast chimes from Big Ben. All audio and copy is distributed by Sky News via the IRN Net Newsroom system and Sky News Radio FTP websites.

Perkins had been MD of IRN since 1989. IRN launched on October 8, 1973 with the first bulletin read at 0600 by Australian newsreader Ken Guy on the opening morning of Britain s first commercial radio station, LBC. IRN was based at LBC studios in Fleet Street in London, and the service was funded by cash payments from subscribing radio stations. Computer technology was introduced in 1985, and in 1987, the Newslink advertising scheme was launched which funded the service and provided cash dividends to client statons. In 1989, satellite distribution of bulletins and audio was introduced. It initally provided bulletins to talkSPORT and subsequently around 80 radio stations before taking over the IRN contract in March 2009. 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. Andy Ivy is the head of Sky News Radio and he is supported by a team of 20+ 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 two minute national and international news bulletin on the hour, 24 hours a day. Many stations take the IRN bulletin during evenings and weekends, when local newsrooms are unstaffed.

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. The satellite service was managed by SMS in Rugby. In 1991, the Sunrise Radio IRN service was introduced.

Client stations contributed audio to the service and IRN also had agreements to use audio from CNN Radio and Sky Sports News. On 15 October 2008, IRN announced that Sky News Radio was to replace ITN as its contracted news supplier from March 2009 for a three-year contract. The final ITN-produced bulletin was broadcast at 1300 on Tuesday March 2, 2009, and was read by Moira Alderson. It supplied news to its own London Radio stations (formerly LBC), plus Scot FM, Heart FM, and Virgin Radio.

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 and a breakfast news service for Kiss 100. On October 1st 2003, satellite distribution of the main IRN service switched from SMS and the Intelsat 707 satellite at 1.0°W to Kingston Communications and the Sirius 2 satellite at 4.8°E. 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 and Channel 4 News television bulletins. The bulletin finished: ..

Copy and scripts were distributed by stations via fax and a premium rate fax back service. Stations can also source their own audio cuts from Sky News and Sky Sports News television. IRN operates two audio channels on the Sirius satellite: IRN1 transmits the hourly news bulletins and some live sports reports.

From ITN this is Independent Radio News . Sky News Radio s first bulletin was at 1400 on the same day. A classified football results check is broadcast every Saturday at 1705. Many community, student and hospital radio stations around the UK take the hourly bulletin service.

All IRN branding was removed and the outcue reverted to a timecheck: It s three minutes past XXX. This 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. The bulletin was read by Ursula Hansford, and was simulcast on Sky News television. IRN has faced many competitors during its history.

Bulletins were broadcast 24 hours a day from Chiltern studios in Dunstable utilising audio from Sky News and CNN Radio. Network News enjoyed considerable success and won the contract to supply news to Virgin Radio upon its launch in April 1993.

IRN2 transmits press conferences, live events and the full Saturday afternoon sports reports service. IRN1 is also broadcast on an audio channel on the Astra 2B satellite. In the event of a major news story (eg royal death or major terrorist incident), audio from Sky News television will be relayed on IRN1 and IRN2 with extended radio bulletins broadcast on the hour and additional two minute bulletins on the half-hour. IRN supplies match reports from every FA Premier League football match, with reporters supplied by sports radio agency World Sports Communications.