COMMERCIAL radio stations are locked in a fierce battle to fill the airwaves over Pendle.

The three-cornered fight to provide programmes for homes in West Craven and Colne is going on between West Yorkshire Radio, the Dalesman and the Yorkshire Dales Radio Group.

The result will be decided in June by the Radio Authority.

Local investors who have put up £430,000 are urging people in Pendle to back the offer from West Yorkshire Radio, which is also known as the Sound of the Dales.

The former acting head of Rainhill Road school in Barnoldswick, Elizabeth Staig has nailed her colours to the mast by joining a group of 17 investors who have pledged cash in their bid for the licence.

She said: "I have joined the Sound of the Dales because their plans to include children is very important and the local element of the programmes have huge potential benefits for the area.

"It is very important a radio station is part of the area it serves. We shall be very visible, and our studio will be visiting Barnoldswick and Earby. We want to recruit local people, including children, to help present the programmes."

Plans for the station will be unveiled to people in Barnoldswick next Thursday, (April 25) in Rainhall Road School, where Miss Staig has taught for two years.

Station backers say newsroom, programming and sales staff for the new service will be recruited locally.

Added Miss Staig: "We hope to employ about 14 staff and some part-timers at two studios, one in Skipton and one in Hawes, and we shall also use a mobile studio touring villages and towns several days a week to take the radio station out to them."

The other two bidders both plan to be based in Skipton and to offer an easy listening format aimed at older people.

Yorkshire Dales Radio, a group of enthusiasts who ran a small station in Skipton last year, propose relaying programmes from other radio stations after 6pm.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.