The Guardian - Friday April 23, 2004

In a move redolent of Jamie Oliver's televised experiment with unemployed youngsters for Channel 4, a new internet radio station is set to launch next month run more or less entirely by trainees. The station - which is yet to be named - will be run by would-be DJs and producers who apply to a new radio course being run by music college Pointblank.

The courses have places for about 10 youngsters, who will learn the tricks of the trade from a roster of established talent such as Kiss FM's Robin Banks, the Dreem Teem's Timmi Magic and Choice FM's Dave VJ. The Point Blank chief executive and founder, Rob Cowan, said the course would help fill the gap in radio training, providing qualified DJs and producers to the increasing number of analogue and digital stations in the UK.

"If you want to be a music producer it's now a case of sitting at home in your bedroom, because apart from the BBC and three big record companies, there's virtually nowhere to go. With radio there are plenty of pirate and internet stations, but few opportunities to be trained." Trainees will get the opportunity to broadcast on their first day and throughout the two-month course. Mr Cowan admitted the results might be a little "car crashy", but said feedback from many of the celebrity tutors said this was the best way to get on in radio.

Robin Banks, who fronts Kiss FM's drivetime show, has been drafted in as the station's controller, while Dave Soley - who produces the breakfast show for Choice FM - is the main tutor. The other DJs will lecture on a regular basis.

However, unlike Jamie's Kitchen, where wannabe chefs were picked from the nation's dole queues, Point Blank charges its budding radio stars around £990 for the course.Mr Cowan said the company was working with local councils and other groups to run summer courses for deprived youngsters. "Not everyone can afford the fees, so we are working with youth clubs and schools and organisations like the Prince's Trust and Youth Music to provide the same course structure on a subsidised basis." Mr Cowan also said he was talking to broadcasters, including Channel 4, about a new TV show in which a group of deprived teenagers would be put into the studio and filmed in a "fly on the wall style."