this is bbc news, the headlines: the italian government is preparing to introduce radical new restrictions in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus. in a draft decree published in the italian press, the restrictions could include preventing all but emergency travel in and out of the worst affected region, lombardy. all 3,500 people on board the grand princess cruise ship, lying off the coast of san francisco, are being tested for coronavirus. 21 passengers and crew earlier tested positive for the disease. the authorities will bring the ship to a non—commercial port and quarantine people there. the turkish president, recep tayyip erdogan, has ordered his country's coast guard to prevent migrants crossing the aegean to greek islands. pressure continues at turkey's land border, where thousands of young men — some from syria but most from elsewhere — are attempting to get to europe.

now on bbc news, a look at the past, present and future of local radio in the village loudspeaker. and large number of presenters and staff will no longer be required. it's quite a sad situation around the country. the work of local is being taken out of local radio. that person you listen to is your best friend. djs and the radio industry have united in their shock and disbelief. it is the media cockroach, everyone has said it's going to die and it just keeps going. over the last decade, studios across the region have closed. that niche that local radio held is probably gone. the headlines. lancashire's oldest commercial radio station is to close its studios in preston. there will be people that probably have no idea what local radio really is now. local radio means it's the station for where i live it. i think that makes it really special, because we don't focus on what is going on around us. you won't make great radio unless you break the rules. the boss will never tell you you are good. the bosses know nothing about radio.

playing the same records over and over. just about everybody does that here. you cannot punctuate great music with great local content, you may as welljust plug in an ipod. of course it matters. it's about bringing unity together. community radio will be it if it's given a chance. we have come totally full—circle. it'sjust unique, one—to—one relationship. we were the loudspeaker of the village. when local radio started, it was focused on the people, the areas in the community it served. its capital radio day! but since then, the industry has undergone a massive evolution, especially in the commercial sector. once probably local stations now broadcast the majority of programmes from network centres with the local nest and range of programming scaled—back. but with the changes to be expected? in 1973, just before the first local commercial stations arrived, the bbc arranged for three of the biggest stars of radio at the time to make their own predictions. nearly five decades later, we have caught up with them again to see if they were right. last week the bbc announced the summer schedules on radios one and two, and have several steps

in preparation for the arrival of local commercial radio to this country over the next few months. we were fairly accurate in terms of our predictions as to what might happen. kid jensen flying over for the grand duchie and johnny walker has come over from ealing to discuss this. i recall predicting that i thought there radio future would be andl talked about the narrowcasting of broadcasting. a lot of people put down like pigeonholing of music, and you shouldn't say this is that, but i think it's right for a person who is in a particular frame of mind.... one day we could even have six stations in london! do you think we can arrive at the situation where you have a choice of half a dozen stations in london? do you think that's a possibility? do you mean like one station is r&b and one station isjazz? i guess i got a little bit of that right. do you find your choice limited, john with the kind of music programming that you... i don't choose any of

the records of my programme. they are all decided by a panel of executive producers. i was allowed to suggest a record for my producers. no djs went to the meeting. i wanted to be on a playlist panel or something like that, but they were mistrustful of that. like, why does he want to be in these meetings for? the idea of imposing some kind of playlist, or some kind of sound to target some kind of audience that you feel might be receptive to what it is you are doing is not a bad idea. so who is qualified to choose the music for the station? nobody, the people. the people who listen to the station? yeah, and that's the danger. the executive producers stuck in london who don't travel around and meet the people, and the advertisers to siding with the people want to hear. the problem with the commercial radio is they will always be beholden to the advertisers sponsoring or advertising on the station. and there's ways and means in the politics of ways things go that station is playing music that it does not necessarily believe in. i personally am looking forward to the advent of commercial radio, because you tend to get very stagnant.

radio one really dig take seriously the competition that was now gradually arriving from commercial radio. there are two strands of local radio, there's the bbc local stations, of course, some of which had already been up and running for a while. bbc local radio was a completely different animal. we were trying at bbc radio leeds those days to do a local version of the today show. and you do a roundtable discussion with four counsellors talking about ring roads, or whether you can have a rapid transit system in leeds. it was very, very local. the other was the ilr, the independent local radio stations. which often had more of an aggressive sell. # radio. i was working in the late 70s for this station called radio 210. started by this eccentric talent spotter called neil french blake. the response was fantastic. from the, what you would call the working classes. it was so funny because the station used to close

down at one o'clock at night, and every now and again steve and i would go and play music in the middle of the night. and he would never be able to do stuff like that these days. there was also another strand of local radio which was incredibly local component of capital's of the presenters got his first break. a radio station for people who are doing these fairly mundane jobs and staff turnover rate was very immense. and united biscuits has this idea of trying to stop that turnover. they installed 500 loudspeakers injust one of their 12 factories. as the radio station works. and then after nine months i heard about a possible they could see where i live, which was london on capital radio. it is said to my friend, i said, who is the port so and so he has to take over from kenny everett, can you imagine? a month later, it's me! right album track, this is musical youth. i began with them about a year and a half into its life, they had money troubles and luckily our chairman was a certain sir dicky poo, as kenny used to call him. richard attenborough. lovely, lovely man.

he was able to keep us on the air. and we have the cartridge machine over here. courtesy of brown wolf and the flying eye, good morning. it used to be a full—service radio station because we had a bit of everything. we did the vet, the doctor, the gasman. fletcher. i think we invented ebay. we did tradio on the morning market. the minute you played to the tradiojingle, the lines were full. if anybody had a problem we would try and help them sorted out. we all used to hate doing furry friends, but it was in the clock and you had to do it. the proposition was that we are from your area. to be honest, we all used to hate doing what's on's. because we found it a bit nonky. we are part of your community, get engaged with us. and that message was heard loud and clear. people loved it. these were just great segments that were

an appointment to listen. which i think is perhaps lacking these days. i homed in on radio aire because i tried ringing my local radio station and i could never get through to the actual dj, that was always a phone operative, whereas radio aire they were not flush with cash, so they did not have many phone operators. so i always got through to the dj so i could speak to the actual person that was on. hello, the north of the midlands calling. all my broadcasting life, you were rated as, do you work on local radio? or do you work on national radio? and of course if you were not on national radio it'sjust not as good as, is it? this rather kind of dismissiveness of local. he is in fact self—employed and he comes from birmingham. the breakfast show of all things was presented by four different people on a rota. one week and every month. you cannot establish a breakfast show by changing the presenter every week. but they did. but you don't actually perform yourself. do you? yes i do. you put on records, are you a diskjockey?

applause. tell them exactly where it is that you work for. um, the bbc so it's not commercial. radio birmingham, i do the breakfast show. i thought, i've got to be on brmb. the independent radio personality is les ross. it got some break people there. it was not the days of can we have to hand this on the personalities. bbc local radio had not amassed the same audience as commercial radio, it probably did not have the same promotion for a start. for a long time, the management, we did not know there was figures. i am world famous in birmingham. capital radio brought the company and from then on listening figures, suddenly were much more important, you know. i understood the relevance of it all. then in the 90s, for some listeners local radio started to become less local. no station now does its own programming 2a hours a day. nowhere is the world

is that happening we are not doing it in gloucestershire. it's a question of pooling resources when you are off—peak. radio can still be good radio no matter where the presenter is or what they are talking about. they don't have to tell you about a localjumble sale. i think it began change in bristol when i got involved a medium weight station that morphed into classic gold as the group that owned it took over more stations around the country. commercially successful and popular, gwrfm has a loyal audience. the great thing about the group was we were always pushing abounds of technology. more snap, less crackle in your pop. the first station to put in computerised playout and it was featured on tomorrow's world showing how we linked four of our radio stations together. i phoned up and the recorded

separate local forecast onto the computers for bournemouth and redding. severe gales affecting the south coast, making it a stormy night in bournemouth. and mine? stay dry in the reading area. oh good, howard. travel and competition results and evenjumble sales in each town is actually controlled from the network centre. a lot of people tried to blame the technology for the loss of localness, and the loss of full—service radio, i think that is wrong. technology was going to happen anyway, but the market changed, the way that people listen to the radio changed. # nice to see you down here.# what was it like to be at a truly local radio station where there we re significant changes? we got the licence, and we went on air may19, 1975. and a very, very good morning plymouth. today is the day, it's well and truly come. they tell me we are no longer rehearsing.

i removed that first day because with dozens of people walking in and out and i wasjust doing the show. they say when they started this job you will be all alone, never had so many people in the studio and my whole life. i remember the local bbc said we cannot ignore you, it's a very big thing and your radio station. —— a new radio station. they are going to broadcast you for about three or four minutes. would you do me a favour and don't play a commercial for the next five or seven minutes? we have looked to the revenue which we need to make our station a viable proposition. ourchairman wasa guiding influence to us all. what effect is your advertising revenue likely to have on local newspapers? i believe that local radio, once it has carved out a place for itself, will be seen as competent entry to the other media. what people overlooked, i think, at the time was that we were not looking to get rich. but the station did quickly become

a success, thanks to if you magic ingredients. you can phone the station and express your view on the government, or the council or the local golf club. you will have a vehicle to say whatever you like within legal limits. on the air, and you will be heard all over plymouth and southeast cornwall. the audience figures in a city give it the highest market share of any local station in the country. at that time we had presenters that all came from plymouth and it works because we knew what we were talking about, we knew every road. we knew most people who owned stores and fish and chip shops. ian, of course, he was the naughty boy. it was an electrical storm, on the corner i cannot remember the name of it now, she said he won't advertise because nobody listens to us, so david said, right, all presenters we wished him a happy birthday. one of the top line presenters and people adored him.

we said happy birthday to so—and—so, happy 50th birthday. next day, he comes and was inundated with your calls. didn't say it was your birthday. said cannot believe how many people listen to plymouth sound and advertised. am i going to get a call from the radio authority because he said too much? and he alwaysjust pulled back at the time we were reaching for the red phone to ring up and say stop him. i used to get threats and things like that, and one night somebody rang me live and said be careful when you leave the building tonight. this was live on air. if you've got anything going on like a car—boot sale or charity events, or whateverjust come in. wednesday at lunch time reception would be packed. it went crazy, it was like pop star stuff. there was a figure there that played their music, and elicit on the radio to it. those days are gone. —— they listened. there were evenings

where i would cover up the flashing lights of the phone with the cd because i did not want to take any more calls, and then you see the light flashing. go out to reception and the police are there because people have called the police to say they couldn't get through to plymouth sound to put a dedication on. i will always remember that. it wasn't like going to work, i never worked from 1975 until gwr sacked me. the board decided to accept an offer from gwr radio to buy us. it was bottom line up, nothing to do with talent, just make this and do that. it failed. our great philosophy meant to be for the community, with the community and about the community would have stayed. that did not stay, and it was gwr. they asset stripped and brought in trains seals that would work long shifts. you would find that people

would come and that did not really have a radio they would just see lively personalities around the office and said they would be good on the radio. talentless, not their fault. they wanted to be in radio. grabbing a buddy from an office and taking them on the breakfast show without any prior presenting experience was not good. it had become unrecognisable to those that knew in the early days. i don't think it worked. they clearly didn't because the ratings plummeted. the new plymouth sound. choose the style that suits you best. it was a networking of the music. gwr was the antichrist of commercial radio. the total opposite of what we believed in. although heard arguments on people who want to tightly programme radio stations, when i was working at

radio west. when they hired these guys from new zealand or canada or something and would focus test songs of the radio with focus groups there. he would say it not the song again, they only played that 37 seconds ago. people only listen to the radio for 20 minutes or half an hour, i used to listen to radio all day, but if my friendsjust elicited all day and complained to tracks they repeated. too few records repeating too often. we had a positioning statement we had to use we don't talk over the entry of your favourite songs. so i would say that over the intro of a song and say we don't talk over the intro of your favourite songs, and i know you are not that keen on this

one so it's ok. if pc would be there and sitting in the office, and it would be on the phone. how dare you play erasure when it should be pet shop boys, with the difference ? don't tell anybody but i remember going to the other side of the studio when i was playing three or four in a row and practising my golf swing. they put on whatever record it was, and ijust disliked it so much that i immediately threw off the cans, the headphones, on the desk and turned the speakers down. ijust did not want to hear it. i got around by singing coming up after the break we got celine dion, i'm terribly sorry. we had a computerised selector from america that comes in. it becomes a bit homogenized. suddenly people in the canteen were talking like, "not that song again. " i have to be fair and say that the younger listener likes the music, the music that was played all day, all the time, they liked.

the industry was changing just like it is today. the radio industry constantly has to evolve, and around that time 88, 89, 90, 91 there was real change coming in. that was smooth operator. and then people would correct your pronunciation. we were the there for the music and the chance to win but ultimately we listen because we like the person who is on the air. they are the people that want you to hang out with. and the they are the people in the know but they are not so far in the know, it's the know that you live it. if that makes sense. it's very important to have a personality on radio. to justify your existence because it's very easy for an eight—year—old to play records. there are so many radio stations who don't allow their presenters to develop a personality and are very strict on how they present. it would say, page one come out of news, time check,

read the weather. page two, play two songs. people say to me, i have to say mention this station and mention the time and every link, i've got to commit very strict rules on how they present but it's very difficult to develop a personality. the power of the radio station brand had to go first and remember them doing it, picking up the line and throwing the cards away and doing what they would normally do. isn't radio about more than a brand? i can remember, before he got into radio i was an air conditioning engineer in sydney, australia, if i was in the van with an apprentice we listened to triple m rock station. if i was on my own i would always listen 2am talk stations. i didn't want to be on my own. are there to here so be on the rear that is genuine, to do it

on the radio and might make a mistake, might stumble over the words but my guess of the wrong but it's human nature. you don't want everything polished to perfection all the time. some local stations around the country that used to have local heritage names had been replaced by brands. think about a branch as they put a lot of money into it, so the big companies behind it but a breakfast show on with some national stars on the hard breakfast show on local radio stations around the country. they are all clearly defined radio stations like the tap, turn on the tap you know what's going to come out of it. when you put smooth radio want you know what's going to get. we seen a lot of local radio presenters lose theirjobs, it's quite a sad situation around the country. when i left him when i did my last show i will never forget, going out to the car park at 10am there was pack of listeners all had come down for the last link in the car park. it was so lovely and sweet neighbourly cards and presence of things. that just shows that you connected

with them which was really sweet. local radio programme has received a thank you card with a difference. the card was sent following the death of an avid fan called john. we had not heard from john for a while, and it had been mentioned in the court arrives in everyone saw it with great sadness. it was completely unexpected. they had planned it that way and thanks bbc radio for all of their programmes and local interest. and it makes you re—evaluate what you do and think, we really do something that really matters to people. there we are. now the john martin studio. somebody once described it to me as local radio, you're first and you're last out. and then you are still there when the story is going on and people returning to it year after year. the floods are really good example of that. events have been organised by bbc radio can be seen with the very handsome toby foster there. he has seen or saw firsthand, some of the experiences by the people who have been affected by the flooding, how devastating was it? it was horrendous.

a week ofjust devastation. people are going to be out of their houses for months. the tv cameras may have gone but the reality and aftermath is still something that people live through. that's what local radio can give you, but i don't think anybody else can do it. on the great change the radio of the last five or ten years with the democratisation of that, anybody can run a radio station i'iow. it was an incredible launch, because it was the first time commercial radio had ever come across the bridge of course. after decades working for both commercial and bbc radio in cornwall duncan warren has launched his own station with his son. invested heavily in technology at the start, so we don't need a staff of thousands to help run the station. 56% of people in cornwall are listening on dab. we've now become the main listening force. as we grow, our output grow we hired more presenters. this radio station for people

who work on sites, builders, tradesmen, painters and decorators who have the radio on the whole time. they have a much higher time spent listening than people who work in offices. how they have 300 community radio stations dotted around the country and there's planned for even more of them to appear. it's very much a different ball game because you are more or less reliant completely on volunteers. with focus on what's going on around us and have a lot of guests, they are trying to raise awareness for issues around the community and local artists and i think that makes it very special. voice fm is fantastic — and you look at the board behind us now, it'sjust so many varied shows like a business show, a football show and there's our show, lots of different people coming

together and really varied. as you can tell, i'm a accent, i'm from portugal originally. i was little insecure and i asked can i speak on air? the person said, that makes you unique. that makes them incredible. voice gave me the opportunity to grow and be more confident about myself. which i'm really grateful for. it's about bringing a community together, bringing small names and voices out, that's what it's about. the problem with community radio is that is restricted in their funding. we need to be de—restricted. if we canjust go out there and earn our money and compete with the big boys in the same terms, then we would not only give them a run for their money, but we would provide an even bigger and better service for this area. i see any advertising money that we bring in as helping to support the local economy. setting up and running black cat radio with the team of directors is probably the hardest thing of ever done. i believe community radio

is the new local commercial radio. the local station sold out to the big boys, the big boys are in it to make money, we are in it to make programmes. which is exactly where we started off in the 70s. radio is dead, long live radio. 90% of people are still consuming it in various forms at the moment. hopefully radio will always have its place in people's lives. it's a magic medium and i still think is magic. and must never be allowed to die. do it as a hobby, don't do it as a career. it's almost soul destroying when you see them closed down. now got people listening on dab radios, fm radios, smart speakers, listening on their mobile phones. that's great, because radio is in more places than it's ever been. radio's in great shape. it's just taken a long time to get to where it should have been regulated to be. what local radio can do that no one else can —

it can tell the story of where i live in. video did not kill the radio star, we thought automation would kill the radio star, we thought network would kill, but none of it has. great radio is still great radio, and that's what it's all about. hello. saturday brought contrasting with the forgings across the british isles. te south and east. dry the most part, further north and west it turned out to be a pretty wet and windy sort of day. notjust on the coast either. much of that brought about by this weather front, which through sunday takes relatively mild air over towards the continent, it leaves us with something slightly fresher. the isobars begin to open up a touch but there's still a fairfew of them, so it's a brighter today, yes, but there will be a scattering of showers. no great organisation about them, i suspect, the heaviest of them out towards the west and a few more of them as well. the temperatures just falling back a degree or two, from the lofty heights of saturday.

and we get into a showery regime to finish of the week but for monday and tuesday, they look to be a mild and wet and windy. and for all of that you have to look quite a way out into the atlantic, but with time, so that system works its way towards the western side of the british isles. monday starts off dry enough, don't be fooled. northern ireland, you cloud up in the morning and here comes that wind and rain and that pushes into the west of scotland widely across the west of england, through wales and it's really quite heavy rain in there. and it's driest for longest further towards the east. especially in the east of scotland and eastern side of england. you get to see the wind and rain there later on in the day on monday and just when you hope the frontal system would move away, itjust kinks a wee bit there so we keep the cloud and the rain for the greater part of england and wales. for scotland and northern ireland, something a little bit brighter but plenty of showers to be had across the north and west of scotland

on what is going to be a blustery day right across the piste, but that front really makes a difference. because across central and southern areas, look at this, 15, 16, possibly 17 degrees. it's not overly cold further north but you are closer to about 8—12 degrees or so because the air is coming in from just south of west and we keep it coming from that sort of direction through wednesday. but the weather front will have moved away, taking the very mildest of the air with it. brighter skies for many of us on wednesday, but still with a packet of showers across many northern and western areas, much drier, brighter across the east but notjust as mild as was the case was for some of you during the course of tuesday. the second half of the week, as i say, the temperatures just begin to dribble away. no more than 17, not bad for the time of year.

welcome to bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: italy is preparing emergency measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak which could stop people entering or leaving the worst affected regions. passengers stuck on board a huge cruise ship moored off the californian coast, are being tested for the coronavirus. hello and welcome to bbc news. the italian government says it will adopt emergency measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. it comes after over 1,200

new cases were reported