Plan unveiled for new 'quality' all-speech radio station

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A group of radio executives and broadcasters have announced plans to launch a new "quality" speech radio station for the UK, showcasing independent producers' work and attracting new audiences to the medium. British Public Radio would launch initially as a broadcast stream - offering news, documentaries, comedy and drama - but would eventually offer individual listeners a personalised online radio experience based on their interests.

The team working on the proposal is keen to hear from independent producers, broadcast journalists, community radio stations, publishers, universities and other potential content suppliers, as well as possible investors.

Co-founder Matt Hopper said: "We envisage a service which is accessible, positive in attitude, which is easy to listen to without catering to the lowest common denominator.

"My feeling is we'll be looking at a younger audience than traditionally speech radio stations in the UK bring to them now.

"We do plan a curated stream of programmes, but the capability is there now to provide the individual listener with precisely the kind of programming they want."

Ken Rayner, another of the project's founders, added: "With the amount of information people put into social networks these days, almost without realising it, we can draw on those pieces of information much more readily and create individualised programme streams around them.

"Initially the radio station will be delivered as a broadcast stream. What will develop from that is individualised, personalised broadcasts online, through people's handsets, through people's computers and through people's internet connected televisions and whichever other device comes along."

The last major attempt at launching a commercially funded speech radio service in the UK to rival the BBC was Channel 4 Radio, an ill-fated digital radio consortium in 2007 that won a licence from Ofcom to launch a bouquet of new digital radio services but never got off the ground.

The market leader in broadcast speech radio in the UK, BBC Radio 4, commands a weekly audience of 10.83 million, according to the latest figures from Rajar. TalkSport provides a national commercial talk outlet, alongside LBC which is London-based but available in many areas on digital radio.

Edinburgh had its own all-talk station, Talk 107, for two and a half years before it closed in 2008. In Liverpool, Bauer Media runs City Talk 105.9, but it is no longer an all-speech station.