From: "Christopher England" <(Address removed)>

I mean, here in Liverpool we have an excellent little station called
Juice FM. It's all local, local voices dominate, local output, and
absolutely no networking or coming from somewhere else. I don't
particularly like the disjointed way of modern day bland back-to-back
music, but it does it really well, and its RAJAR is constantly climbing,
and yet it is owned by a company that owns many radio stations. They let
it remain a local radio station.

Yes a shining example of how local radio CAN work. I must admit it aint my thing but you have to pat them on the back for providing a service for the age group similar to Radio 1's target audience, it does seem popular with da yoof of Merseyside.

In contrast, buying up stations, sacking all the local staff and
networking to them from somewhere else does seem very wrong. Surely, if
a radio station can't be run as a local service then the licence should
be handed back and it should be re-advertised. If companies want to run
quasi-national services, then they should ask Ofcom to advertise for
applications for a new tier of quasi-national networks, not just buy up
and convert stations with other remits.

I couldn't agree more.
Also a big pat on the back for Southport's Dune FM 107.9 for soldiering on against some heavy competition from the big boys in the area, proper local radio with not a sign of networking.