Jocelyn Hay (pictured below), who established the Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV) as the main consumer voice in the UK for Public Service Broadcasting, has died at the age of 86.
A former freelance writer and broadcaster, Hay founded VLV in 1983 in response to the first threat to change BBC Radio 4 into a news-only station. What began as a campaign for diversity in radio later spread to encompass quality and diversity in all broadcasting.
The CBA awarded Jocelyn Hay the Elizabeth R Award for an Exceptional Contribution to Public Service Broadcasting in 1999. She was made a CBE in 2005 for her campaigning work on the quality of TV and radio in the UK.
BBC Director-General, Tony Hall, paid tribute to Hay on the VLV website: “Jocelyn Hay had a huge impact on broadcasting in this country. She never stopped campaigning for better quality programmes and for all broadcasters to put their audiences first. She always believed it was every broadcaster’s duty to make engaging programmes that captured the public’s imagination.”
She was a widely respected authority on broadcasting policy across the spectrum of issues and regularly consulted by leading industry figures, journalists, policymakers and regulators, and will be greatly missed.
Jocelyn Hay CBE FRSA died on Tuesday 21 January 2014, aged 86