VLV People

 

Jocelyn Hay, CBE, Honorary President and Founder of VLV

Jocelyn Hay was a freelance writer and broadcaster before she founded Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV) in 1983 in response to the first threat to turn BBC Radio 4 into an all news and current affairs network. Having launched and won that campaign, issues arose which required the attention of a consumer body which could speak on the full range of broadcasting issues. Along with other colleagues, Mrs Hay set up Voice of the Listener (as it then was) becoming Executive Chair.

She then ceased broadcasting in her own right but until 1994 continued to direct the training agency, London Media Workshops, which specialised in writing, directing and producing radio, television and video programmes. The Voice of the Listener became Voice of the Listener & Viewer in 1991.

Having been appointed an MBE in 1999, she was made a CBE in 2005 for her work with VLV. She was awarded the Elizabeth R Award for an Exceptional Contribution to Public Service Broadcasting by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association in 1999 and in 2007 was presented with the European Women of Achievement Award (Humanitarian category) by the European Union of Women, British section. She is a trustee of Mediawise (formerly Presswise) and of The Voice of the Listener Trust. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and member of the Society of Authors.

Mrs Hay was Head of Press and Public Relations at Girl Guide Commonwealth Headquarters from 1973-1978 while bringing up her family and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Relations. Her past experience also includes membership of OFTEL’s Consumer Advisory Panel, the Government Stakeholder Group on Digital Television, the Steering Group of the European Information Society Forum and the Council of the European Institute for the Media. She was Founder President of the European Alliance of Listeners’s & Viewers’ Associations (EURALVA) from 1995 to 2007.  

She is a widely respected authority on broadcasting policy across all the issues and is regularly consulted by leading industry players, journalists, policy-makers and regulators.                               

Mrs Hay is the widow of a former Army officer and mother of two daughters. She has travelled widely, lived in seven overseas countries and three of the nations of the UK. She has at BA (Hons) and is a Fellow of the RSA. She now lives in Kent. 

 

- Chair of VLV

to be confirmed

VLV Board of Directors

VLV, a not for profit private company, is governed by a Board of Directors. The Directors are:

 

Hugh Peltor CBE - Honorary Treasurer

Hugh Peltor served for thirty-five years in the Royal Navy spending much of his early time in submarines and commanding the diesel submarine HMS ACHERON and the Polaris submarine HMS RESOLUTION. Later he commanded the Guided Missile Destroyer HMS GLAMORGAN. He retired as a Captain in 1991 at the age of 52. On retirement Hugh became Director of the British Radio and Electronic Equipment Manufacturers Association (BREMA); a London based Trade Association representing the consumer electronics industry.  The promotion and development of digital technology for radio and television were the main priorities working with Government Departments, the broadcasters, retail industry and the CBI. Much time was spent in Brussels addressing trade policy and consumer protection issues affecting the industry. He retired in 2004 at the age of 66. Hugh is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society, a Younger Brother of Trinity House and President of the local Sea Cadet Unit. Doreen and he have been married 42 years, have three sons and four grandchildren and live in North West London. 

 

Carol Cattley

Carol Cattley has a BA Hons degree from the Open University and has worked and travelled widely as a journalist in a variety of roles both in this country and overseas. For a decade in the eighties she collaborated with her late husband in producing a fortnightly newsletter on African political and financial affairs.  She has a particular interest in Art and founded the Art Goodwill service which has been providing resources for teachers for the past thirty years. Carol is also interested in media and technical literacy in the converging media environment and is one of the members who represents VLV at events on this increasingly important subject.

Sophie Chalk

Sophie Chalk has worked as a producer/director in television and radio since 1989. Credits as a producer/director include TVam, GTMV, Sky News, Yorkshire Television, Jazz FM, BBC World Service and Radio 4. She set up the independent production company, Rooftop Productions in 1998, and joined IBT as Director of Campaigns in 2006. She is also currently working as a visiting lecturer for One World Media touring the country lecturing on representation of the developing world in UK media.

 

Robert Clark

After a career managing state benefit provision in East London that ended with early retirement, Robert has spent the last ten years doing voluntary work, mostly for community organisations.  He has been a member of VLV since the early 1990s and has a passion and concern for diverse, high quality Radio.  Robert took an active part in the consumer consultation on BBC Charter renewal.  He is the VLV representative on the groups monitoring the interests of consumers during digital switch over.  Robert also attends consultative meetings at Ofcom on behalf of VLV.

 

David Eggington

David Eggington has been an active VLV member for the past thirteen years, and during that time has attended many of the spring and autumn conferences, and taken part in VLV visits to various TV and radio stations. His visit to Radio Merseyside in 1999 led to him becoming a volunteer member of the station's 'A' Team for a couple of years, answering listeners' queries. He has now retired to live in his wife's home town, Sheffield, and has been active in responding to the government's Review of the BBC's Royal Charter, and more recently OFCOM's PSB Reviews and attended the Parliamentary Select Committee's public consultation meeting in York on the future of local and regional media. Most of his working life was spent in the careers guidance field.

 

Norman Green

Norman Green started his career at EMI Research Laboratories working on military projects including television cameras for the Black Knight rocket.  Norman then moved to the Central Research Laboratories of the Rank Organisation working on diverse projects. In 1964, Norman joined the Engineering Department of ABC Television working on investigations into various colour systems.  In 1972, he was appointed the first Head of Engineering at the Independent Television Companies Association (ITCA), responsible for the Engineering Secretariat serving the 14 ITV Programme Companies and ITN.  As Head of Technology for ITV, Norman was a member of many national and international committees concerned with the technical standardisation of television and was a member of the European Broadcasting Union’s Bureau where he represented all British Broadcasters, including the BBC. He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society.

Dr Matthew Hibberd

Dr Matthew Hibberd is Deputy Head of Department, Senior Lecturer and Director of the MSc in Public Relations by Online Learning in the Department of Film, Media and Journalism, University of Stirling. He is also a Visiting Professor in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social Communications (CICS), Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and is a Fellow of the College of Teachers (FCollT). Matthew is a co-investigator on a Flanders Funding Council project examining political participation. His book Il grande viaggio della BBC: storia del servizio pubblico britannico dagli anni Venti al digitale was published in 2006 and he is also author of The Media in Italy (Open University Press, 2008).

 

Professor Máire Messenger Davies

Máire Messenger Davies is Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Centre for Media Research, Schools of Media and Performing Arts, University of Ulster.  She was previously Professor of Journalism at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Wales.  She has a long standing interest in children's broadcasting and the media and has contributed to many publications on the subject.

 

Shyama Perera

Details to follow

 

Lewis Rudd

Lewis Rudd worked for ITV for more than 40 years. He joined Granada as a graduate trainee after leaving Oxford and spent 5 years as a researcher and producer in current affairs (including This Week) at Rediffusion.  He was subsequently Head of Childrens' Programmes at various companies, including Central Television and Carlton Television. His programmes included Magpie, Rainbow, Worzel Gummidge and Wise Up.  Lewis was also Executive Producer of the Glyndebourne operas and a number of peak-time dramas, including Goodnight Mr Tom. He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the RTS and BAFTA.

 

Professor Jeanette Steemers

Jeanette Steemers is Professor of Media and Communications at the Communications and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) at the University of Westminster in London.  A graduate in German and Russian at the University of Bath, she completed her PhD on public service broadcasting in West Germany in 1990, also at the University of Bath.  After working for media and telecommunications research company, CIT Research, and international television distributor and children's producer HIT Entertainment (Bob the Builder, Thomas and Friends, Angelina Ballerina), she rejoined academia in 1993 working at the University of Luton until 2000 before moving to De Montford University.  She joined the University of Westminster in 2006.

 

Professor Bob Usherwood

Bob Usherwood was appointed to Sheffield University in October 1976 as a public library specialist.  During his time in the Department of Information Studies, the public library service was a major focus of his research and teaching but his interests also included, management especially human resource management; professional ethics; intellectual freedom; the political and policy dimension of libraries and information services; books and reading, the mass media and the social and political aspects of information technology. He was and is a strong advocate of qualitative research methods and used these to demonstrate the value and impact of library and information services. He was Head of the Department’s Library and Information Management Research Group and the founding Director of the Centre for the Public Library and Information in Society.

On his retirement in 2005, he took up a long-standing invitation to become a Fellow of The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce.  In addition, Bob also undertakes work for the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).

 

VLV Patrons

Lord Barnet PC JP

Archibishop Lord Eames of Armagh

Sir Francis Graham-Smith FRS

Lord Inglewood MEP

Lord Phillips of Sudbury OBE

Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE

Lady Solti

Sir John Tusa

 

VLV Staff

VLV staff are based at the main office in Gravesend, Kent

Linda Forbes - Conference Secretary

Sue Washbrook - Membership Secretary