ABSTRACT
In one sense, the launch of the present system of local radio in Britain, which occurred in 1967, could be seen as an instance of history repeating itself, for it marked the arrival of a technology for which there was no apparent demand. We commonly assume that most inventions and new technologies are developed in response to a felt need, or at least that their potential is fairly clear from the outset, but this was not altogether true of the birth of radio in the first years of the twentieth century.
