Local station 103.6FM Tameside have given two of Radio Republic’s most established names, Phil Beckett and Martin Coogan, a prime slot (11pm-1am, Monday-Thurday) and so far they’ve responded with great tracks by Stereolab and Midlake.

But Radio Republic’s Myspace says that they still intend to create their own Manchester radio station, meaning that this is just a temporary move. For now, open this .m3u file in your media player to stream 103.6FM Tameside.

For the past two years, Oldham-based radio station, 96.2 The Revolution, has had an alternative music policy. Listeners could expect music from bands such as Fleet Foxes and Herman Dune, shows dedicated to genres including Northern Soul, rock and old-school house, and locally based presenters such as The Smiths’ ex-drummer Mike Joyce.

In the past week, however, Wham!, Justin Timberlake and Elton John have popped up on the playlist. The change may be due to a decline in listening figures and rumours are circulating that the station has new part owners. And we’re not the only one’s wondering what’s going on. A spokesperson from The Revolution admitted to Metro: ‘We don’t know what’s happening.’ This doesn’t bode well, does it?

Turns out that local TV and radio presenter Steve Penk bought the Rev out and has subsequently completely reprogrammed its schedule – including a weekday breakfast show hosted by him (so expect plenty more where this came from), and a Sunday show featuring, er, Pat Sharp.

The music policy has changed completely too, from interesting, radio-friendly indie (the kind of stuff many hoped XFM Manchester would bring) to pointless drivel. Penk, whose name is dropped practically between every track, cites listening figures plummeting from 80,000 to 17,000 as the reason for the change – but thousands of listeners now feel alienated.

To bring the story fully up to date, How-Do.co.uk reports that several of the Rev’s former presenters – including familiar names from the local music scene such as Mike Joyce, Mani and Martin Coogan – have formed a breakaway group, codenamed Radio Republic. They’re currently looking for investors to help get their phoenix out of the flames.

UPDATE: As pointed out in a comment, Radio Republic now has its own website, http://www.revradio.co.uk, with a test broadcast. It’s hosted by Manchester Radio Online.

That, I guess, is why the North West Business Leadership Team – aka North West’s leading businesses – have awarded it the Lever Prize and a cash award:

The judges were impressed by the breadth and scope of the Festival, with a programme created by leading artists from across the spectrum of popular culture, innovation and the arts. They were also attracted by the Festival’s unique approach in delivering a programme of newly-commissioned work, which reflects the NWBLT’s commitment to innovation and world-class research and development.

It seems slightly strange to me, however, that the award is going to a large, well-funded but unproven arts organisation that has so far only hosted a couple of events.

Couldn’t the prize money (£10,000) be better used by a small, struggling organisation in the region? All FM perhaps?

But things are looking better now: the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has just awarded it £10,372 in grant aid to fund a participation manager, and a further £8,205 for a technician. I hear these two positions would have been in particular danger otherwise.

Also, a further £2,000 is apparently on its way from Barclays Bank, to fund the production of a Polish community programme. And there’s word too that more funding may be heading All FM’s way… but nothing is signed and sealed as yet.

For anyone who has yet to discover All FM, I’d recommend Mog’s Standing in the Shadows of Lev (Saturdays, 9am-11am) and The Every Other Monday Show (every other Monday, 9pm-11pm). The station broadcasts online or on 96.9FM in South Manchester.

All FM are also seeking volunteers if anyone’s interested. Call Danielle on 0161 248 6888 or email danielle@allfm.org.

We’re getting ready to rock in the North West! The station won’t be launching ’til 2008 as we have got to wait for a bulk order of Harley Davidsons for staff!

No, seriously, that’s what a big media bigwig said. I can’t quite believe it myself. GMG owns the Manchester Evening News, Channel M and Century FM, you’ll recall.

The new station – Rock Talk – will broadcast classic, heavy, soft and popular rock on 106.1FM. No more than 10% of output will be current. The station is aiming particularly at over-35s.

Here’s a bit about the ‘talk’ side:

Speech will not fall below 60% during weekday peak time and 55% during weekend peak time and will cater for the tastes and interests of listeners in the Manchester area. Content will include relevant local travel, weather, sports news, what’s on, charitable and community information

Rocktalk.com is already owned by US station K-Rock, and rocktalk.co.uk belongs to UKClimbing.com. I notice rocktalkmanchester.com, .co.uk etc haven’t been registered yet, leaving them wide open to possible ownership disputes a few months from now.

What do you think then? Will Rock Talk be a good addition to the airwaves, or an even more MOR XFM Manchester? You can read details of the other 10 licence applications at UKOnAir.

For those who did: how was it?

The BBC is continuing the trend today, by asking listeners of Five Live to write their first ever blog post for its website. By mid-afternoon, they’ve already had 150 respondents, most embracing blogging’s self-referential style with ease.

Annoyingly, however, the posts are just displayed as one long page of comments on the Five Live Breakfast blog. Whatever happened to user-friendliness, BBC?

Minor gripes aside, hopefully some of those people participating will enjoy the experience so much that they set their own blogs up.

It’s something that almost certainly wouldn’t have existed without the internet. Neither would you be able to watch the video below, of Down The Tiny Steps‘ performance.

Generally, the hour-long internet-only broadcast doesn’t really work. It’s too busy, there are too many presenters, too many sound clips and it’s all happening too quickly.

Emily Rose, one of the two female presenters, is simply rubbish but Alex James is pretty good and Tony Wilson is his usual self.

Musically, it’s a mixed bag too. Camera Obscura and Clinic get some welcome exposure and New Order do a decent cover of Joy Division’s These Days.

But Jamie T gets to perform his faux-reggae rubbish and the AyePod or NayPod part of the show is a mockery of a joke.

The biggest encouragement is that it’s refreshingly non-Londoncentric, being recorded in Blueprint Studios in Salford and featuring mostly bands from outside the South East.

Here, for those old enough to reminisce, and for us young enough to laugh, is Madonna at the Hacienda nightclub in 1983, performing Holiday for The Tube.

The lead business story in today’s Manchester Evening News was of interest, however: the paper’s ‘ultimate owner’, Guardian Media Group, paid £60m for GCap Media’s Century stations.

The move saw former DJ John Myers regaining control of Century FM, the station he established, as well as Smooth FM. Capital Gold and Xfm – both still owned by GCap – will be relocated in the deal.

As the article notes, GMG now owns seven of the top 10 regional stations in the UK, and two of the top three. MEN readers clearly weren’t keen on this prospect, with Mike from Stockport commenting “so much for a level playing field“.

Elsewhere on the Manchester radio horizon, 11 bids (or is that ‘beds’) have been made for the vacant 106.1FM licence, including GMG’s proposed Rock Talk Manchester – “a speech and rock music service for 35 to 64-year-olds”.

The recipient of possibly the last major FM licence in the UK could well launch a talk station, with Emap proposing Piccadilly Talk and the rather optimistic Chrysalis already establishing a website for GMBC.

The latter – who also propose classic rock station The Arrow – own London talk station LBC (‘Real life, real London’), whose Managing Director is called David Lloyd. No, not that David Lloyd.

Also among the 11 bids are Mast Radio and Manchester Sound (both ethnic music) and MNR Radio, UK1 FM Manchester and Manchester Citylife (all AOR-focused). More details here and here.

According to the Press Gazette, an announcement of the winner will come in the New Year.