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This is taken from the Daily Telegraph:
Peter Redhouse
6:34PM BST 22 Jul 2012
Peter Redhouse, who has died aged 80, was the first manager of BBC Radio London and later became general manager of the entire BBC local radio network between 1976 and 1987.
When Frank Gillard, director of BBC Radio in the 1960s, launched his two year local radio experiment in 1967 he left the trickiest stations for a later date. These were the large conurbations, of which London was by far the least “local”. But the experiment was deemed successful and by 1970 Redhouse was installed as the station’s first manager.
He had already had a distinguished career in current affairs radio in the 1960s as one of the regular editors of the Today programme, where he struggled to get the presenter Jack de Manio to tell the right time .
At Radio London, Redhouse devised programmes for commuters (Rush Hour); the Jewish community (You Don’t Have To be Jewish); and for ethnic minority groups (Black Londoners) – teasing out strands of common interest in each. But although he created a viable and highly professional radio station, there were frowns of suspicion from across the way in Broadcasting House, where BBC bosses worried about the impact on the national radio networks. These were amplified with the advent of commercial radio in 1973, when available audiences divided many times and Redhouse had to fend off internal critics who thought Radio London was a luxury.
In 1976 he became general manager in the local radio headquarters unit, responsible for 20 radio stations across England. When Lord Annan produced a report on the state of local radio, he declared that the development of BBC and commercial stations side by side had made the whole thing “a mess”, and recommended that a new radio authority should be established, with BBC stations taken out of the licence fee.
Although many BBC insiders shared Annan’s view, Redhouse’s robust arguments in favour of the BBC retaining local radio made a considerable impact, and by 1980 he and Michael Barton, then controller of BBC Local Radio, were planning the next stage of development.
Peter John Redhouse was born in Walthamstow on September 2 1931, the son of a clerk at the Bank of England. From Leighton Park School, Reading, he went to the London School of Economics, where he read PPE.
For National Service he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, based for a long period at Celle in Germany.
He worked briefly for Monsanto Chemical and then as editor for a trade magazine publishers before joining the BBC as trainee. He worked in the World Service and subsequently moved to current affairs as a producer on the Today programme, eventually becoming programme editor.
In 1970 he was appointed to set up BBC Radio London as the station’s first manager. A story circulating at the BBC (almost certainly apocryphal) suggests that Redhouse was responsible for the first live local radio phone-in, an experience that caused his hair to turn white overnight.
With greater certainty he could claim that the first radio broadcast using a mobile telephone was made on his station.
He was also responsible, as deputy controller of BBC Local Radio, for turning down Kate Adie’s first job application.
In retirement, Redhouse was closely involved in setting up his son’s communications agency Redhouse Lane, later bringing his book-keeping experience to bear as treasurer for Romney Street, the London-based discussion group for public affairs.
Redhouse was not only a shrewd negotiator but also a courteously efficient operator with a huge commitment to public service. A bon vivant, he enjoyed travel across the globe and was a classical music enthusiast.
Peter Redhouse married, in 1954, June Browne, whom he had met at the LSE. She died in 2002. Their son and daughter survive him.
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