Britain's commercial radio stations are too concerned with Top-40 records and offer far too few opportunities for the airing of local and live acts. Tony Attwood suggests a solution: go after a franchise yourself!

Given that every independent local radio station in Britain except one (the London news station LBC) gives over 60% of its broadcasting time to music, it is sad, to say the least, that so few musicians are closely associated with these stations. Even sadder is the fact that not only are the 19 ILR stations already established lacking in representation of the musical profession from the board of directors to the day to day administrators, but also, as far as I can see, the next bunch of stations is going to be just as lacking in musical representation.

All right, you may say, musicians don't get to the tops in local radio. So what? They are obviously all far too busy making music to worry about that sort of thing anyway.

Maybe they are too busy, but there are many reasons for wishing that they weren't. Consider what happens when a new ILR franchise is announced. At the moment there are nine such franchises on offer, for stations in Aberdeen/Inverness, Bournemouth, Gloucester, Exeter/Torbay, Southend/Chelmsford, Peterborough, Cardiff, Coventry, and Dundee/Perth. As time passes the Home Office committee will give more regions to the IBA for the development of ILR stations, and these will probably be announced at six-monthly intervals.

Having been allocated an area the IBA settles down to working out the details of transmitter location and power, before inviting applications from consortia who would like to run the station. The number of consortia applying can vary between one (in the case of the now established Wolverhampton station) and seven or more (as is currently thought to be the case in Cardiff).

From what can be seen of the field of applicants for the current set of nine stations, the standard make up of consortia members is a mixture of local personalities, business people and community workers. This continues to be the case in spite of the fact that the 1978 Government White Paper Broadcasting (which forms the basis of the way in which radio is being developed at the moment) specifically asks the IBA to look out for varied forms of consortia which will ensure a true variety in the local stations that are set up. The implication is clearly that the ILR station for Plymouth should not sound the same as the ILR station in Aberdeen. Unfortunately there is a fair chance that it will.

But, you may say, does this matter very much anyway? If the boards of the next set of stations will be made up of business people, interested in radio as profit, there is nothing wrong in that — after all few musicians are known to play for a small fee when a fat one is available. And if do-gooders do want to use local radio as an extension of the social services, that isn't so bad. A lot of good can come of appeals for money to build kidney machines.

Such arguments have a lot of force, but the problem goes deeper than that. In fact the central issue is that the board of directors of any station (which in fact means the people who are the members of the winning consortium) are to some extent tied to the programme formula that they have submitted as part of their application to the IBA. They may of course make some changes — perhaps because of lack of funding in the early years — but the IBA will expect a general adherence to the initial plan by the station. Since the consortium members themselves draw up this application it is not surprising to find that it reflects their own hobby-horses, watered down by mixing in a substantial amount of what everyone else in ILR does — phone-ins, road reports, Top 40 records, phone-ins, local recipes from local housewives, phone-ins...

My point is that in order to improve the quality of programmes on commercial radio in the UK what you need to do is to get in on the ground floor, when a bid is being put in. And since any bid that comes from readers of Sound International is going to be substantially different from the sort of applications the IBA is currently receiving it must inevitably stand a good chance of success (especially if it gently reminds the IBA of its duty by quoting strategic extracts from the White Paper).

Now then, if you are still with me, you'll want to know what to do. Firstly get a copy of the White Paper from HMSO or via a bookseller (price £1.75) and study the parts relating to ILR — there's not much, but what there is is very clear and very helpful. Remember these are the guidelines under which the IBA operates.

Next decide where you want to put your station. You don't have to live in the area, although a strong local presence does help. If the area you choose is one of the nine currently up for grabs, write to the IBA, (Contact Details), and ask for details of how to apply for the franchise. If it is not such an area, go ahead and form a consortium anyway, and constantly inform the IBA of your activities and interest by your chosen area. The IBA does respond to strong local interest in putting certain areas higher up its list of prospective stations. At the same time ask for a copy of the successful application for one of the areas that already has an ILR station. These are free of charge and enable you to see exactly what the IBA has liked in the past.

Now comes the tricky bit. The consortium has to be formed, and the application has to be prepared. A consortium can consist of any number of people you like — normally it is around 20 or 30, but there's nothing to stop you setting up a consortium of 500, providing that you make sure they don't all assume that they will be entitled to a job when the station gets going.

So you register the consortium as a limited company, and start drawing up plans for finance, programming and studio design. Finance may, at first sight, appear to be an insurmountable problem, for stations need around half a million pounds to build the studio and get on the air. But don't worry, there appears to be no shortage of major organisations that are ever-willing to put up vast sums of money for new ILR stations. Banks, insurance companies, international radio and advertising agencies, newspaper groups, and even other ILR stations are all known to be interested. If you let the word out that you are seriously interested in bidding for an ILR franchise they will get in touch with you. And even if they don't you can always approach all the major industries in your chosen area. Since the half million quid does not have to appear as real money until after you have the ILR contract there's no major hassle. You just have to show the IBA a promise of the money — nothing more.

Now comes the question of studio design and programming. In my view the two are totally linked, and as musicians I hope you think so too. My view is straightforward; don't just build the standard DJ and interview studios for your station, build a music recording studio as part of the complex, complete with (at least) 16-track recording facilities. That way you give yourselves enormous flexibility. The music studio can be used as part of the radio station, recording anything from music concerts commissioned especially for broadcasting, through to custom-written jingles and adverts and large-scale discussion programmes.

Let's examine just one of those notions — concerts. What sort of concerts? I would think there are three possibilities. Firstly local rock groups, good enough to be looking for record contracts, but not yet established on the national scene. Secondly, nationally-known groups on tour, who are willing to put in a night at your studio alongside gigs in the local music centres. Thirdly, concerts of classical-romantic and avant-garde music, again by local or touring musicians.

Of course if you really want to go to town you could make your control desk into a mobile unit which can not only go out and record groups and orchestras playing in the neighbourhood but even be offered on loan to anyone with the money to hire it. Radio Clyde have recently made just such a move and, I'm told, have even had enquiries from the USSR as to its availability. And naturally if the whole venture is a success the concerts recorded could be sold off to other ILR stations. Or you could even tie in a deal with a record company...

So I am proposing a music radio station built around a variety of records and particularly music specially performed for the station. Obviously there are many more things that can be put into the station as well — a break away from strict Top 40 programming perhaps, and a policy of deliberately mixing up the styles of music within one programme, etc. I think the IBA might like it and, even if I'm wrong, an application for an ILR station based on an understanding of musicians and their music could give the other groups a good run for their money.

The actual putting-together of the bid doesn't need to cost more than a few hundred pounds — most of which will go on postage, stationery, phone calls, printing and registration of the company. Even if there were only 20 people in the consortium it wouldn't be too much of a strain on each member to raise that sort of cash.

Obviously it would be nice to see musician-orientated consortia springing up all round the country, but even if this doesn't happen, let's hope we can get one together between us, so that the musician's voice is heard at least once in the bidding for ILR stations.

Tony Attwood has recently founded South West Broadcasting, which aims to bid for an ILR franchise in south-west England, and lend support to any groups wishing to set up consortia anywhere in the UK, which offer a radical alternative to the standard format of ILR bidding. Anyone interested is invited to get in touch, via SI.