FORMER CHIEF OF BFBS DIES

"Charismatic, difficult, determined, farseeing and above all a man of principle"

The passing of Ian Woolf on 30th June severed the last link between the men, who created the Forces Broadcasting Service and the present day organisation.

Ian was 20 years of age when he found himself posted to the Army Broadcasting Service Station in Naples following a training course at Eaton Square.

When he arrived in Naples, he discovered a senior officer was planning to send wine, rather than broadcasting equipment to the new station in Udine. Despite being a junior officer, he refused to allow the wine to be transported and would not give in to the threat of a court martial. Ian got his own way and the wine remained in Naples.

In later years, when he was asked how he came to join the Forces Broadcasting Service, he explained that originality was highly regarded by the selection board. He passed was because of his tale when making a parachute drop in Burma with the underground organisation, SOE, he bet a friend he could play a flute on the way down. He won his bet.

Ian's next appointment was with the Army Broadcasting Service in Trieste where he persuaded a very talented team of young servicemen how to enjoy broadcasting. He even turned a blind eye to the locally made shoulder flashes of the Forces Broadcasting Service, which they wore on their uniforms, until the Command banned them. Ian spoke Italian and so became the conduit between his engineering staff, who were all Italian and the service broadcasters. During the time of acute political tension, it was agreed that the British troops would pull out within 14 days and the families would be sent back to the UK. The evacuation plans were short lived but the families took sometime to return. In the meantime, Ian set up a bar at the station to which suitable ladies could be invited. On one occasion, the staff entertained Ivy Benson and the entire Girl’s Band.

In 1954, he arrived as the new Station Commander of FBS Nairobi. His tenure was dominated by the Emergency and his first problem was to ensure coverage for the servicemen who were fighting the Mau Mau in the Mount Kenya area. On one occasion, Ian was out with a unit on an anti-terrorist operation when he was caught up in a Mau Mau ambush. As the escort fought back, he switched on his microphone. Back in the studio, he realised his tape of the encounter, in which several terrorists had been killed, included women’s voices. The Command wanted the programme to be dropped but he argued his case and it was broadcast minus the women’s voices, as the army did not like the idea of the public knowing there had been women terrorists.

During the annual Wireless for the Blind Appeal, Ian and the team came up with the idea of selling airtime at £25 for 15 minutes. The sponsor would get a credit at the beginning, middle and end of the piece. A total of £4,000 was raised, trebling the previous year’s pledges. However, he received a stern letter from the local Command Secretary, who told him it was not ethical to use War Office property and staff for advertising.

In 1957, he was posted to Cologne as the Senior Programme Director and he took the station over on 1st January 1958 from Dennis Scuse who left to join the BBC. He set out his principles, which included improving the programme gathering reach of the station and improving reception. He discovered many senior officers felt BFN’s role should be to educate its audience. Ian argued that, first you need to entertain, then to inform and finally to educate - for unless you can capture an audience by entertaining it, you could hardly hope to be able to educate it.

In 1962, Ian Woolf became involved in setting up a Head Office – BFBS London and straight away, he ensured his staff achieved the highest standards and the output would provide a boost for the stations overseas.

In 1971, Ian Woolf heard that the British Forces were to be withdrawn from Malta. This decision would obviously affect BFBS Malta. After negotiations between Lord Carrington and Dom Mintoff, a new agreement was reached and BFBS continued. However, Ian was very keen to change the style of Forces Broadcasting. He wanted more news and more information. He wanted to devise a system, which would cater for the 70 per cent of a service audience, which was under 30 and had been reared on popular radio in the UK. This was the task he set Bob Pierson and the target date was 1st January 1977. Ian had spent time in America studying popular broadcasting and he believed that BFBS should be using the formula of the Daily Mirror and The Sun rather than The Times and The Guardian. Despite opposition from the Command for this sudden change in style, Ian Woolf and Bob Pierson stuck to their guns and Format 77 became a reality.

In the early sixties, a decision had been made for all of the Forces Stations to be known as the British Forces Broadcasting Service. Ian Woolf, the Station Controller of BFN Germany was unhappy but concentrated his efforts on opening a studio in Berlin and a smaller one in Herford. This was followed shortly afterwards by a studio in Bielefeld.

As well as his interest in radio, he believed that the MoD should give serious consideration to the formation of a BFBS television service. At a BFN Advisory Committee meeting in 1959, he advocated the setting up of a television service but the idea was rejected as far-fetched and expensive. When the issue was put forward in 1975, one back bencher in Parliament suggested, as the British troops in Germany were costing the British taxpayer more than £400,000,00 a year, would it not be better to ‘transmit’ the troops back to Britain and save money. However, in the end, the MoD agreed with Ian Woolf. For Ian it was the end of a long battle. With no board of directors to support him, he had forced through the idea of BFBS Television, overcoming seemingly insuperable barriers, cash conscious Treasury, technical uncertainties and the all-powerful copyright holders. BFBS TV was to become a reality.

In 1983, BFBS was merged with the SKC to become the Services Sound and Vision Corporation. For Ian Woolf, it was the end of a 38-year association with the Forces Broadcasting Service.

When he left, the organisation that had begun its life in a harem in Algiers was now among the most professional in the world of broadcasting.

Ian Woolf was charismatic, difficult, determined, farseeing and above all else, a man of principle. He became an irritant with the MoD when they tried to obstruct his carefully worked out plans. However, he was invariably right!