(but sorry Eamonn, this isn't going to be a helpful post because I don't listen to it anymore, but I did work in it for years.) I used to read the travel news for various local radio stations in the north, and present their What's On guides (yes, full of jam tombolas).

There's a wonderful bit of archive footage from BBC Radio Sheffield with a listener live on air appealing for help because he was stuck under a wardrobe (which he'd dropped on himself while attempting to carry it down the stairs), and was hoping one of his neighbours could stop in ad rescue him.

anyway. good luck with the article, and hope you get some helpful replies.

on Radio Merseyside, don't get much chance to listen to him myself but that fact that his show exists is a major boon to local music, serves the John Peel role for Merseyside, local acts in session etc. Dave presents the new band stage at the mathew St festival every year, carries a bit of authority and is a nice bloke to boot.
On a more mainstream line, Billy Butler has provided a service since at least the early 70s and while he may be best known for his 'Hold Your Plums' fruit machine based quiz and his music choices may veer toward the older end of the market he is equally likely to have a guset slot from the likes of Pete Wylie. Total institution and serves exactly the purpose that local BBC should - would be of very little interest to anybody 10 miles down the road

Billy Butler gets a big thumbs up from me.

(& I love hold your plums - my late wife used to tape it for me & send the cassette to me when I was at sea in the early 80s)

Foz has been part of the furniture at Radio Suffolk for so long that it's easy to forget that not every local radio DJ commissions original sessions from local bands to be broadcast on the drivetime show, welcomes in touring artists for a chat and a couple of live songs, curates a stage at the largest and longest-running free festival in the UK, ran their own promotions with local artists supporting imported blues bands, has regular features where he invites local worthies of note in to talk about their influences, writes a column in the local listings magazine and presents OBs from (for example) The Maverick Festival in between compereing on the main stage. He's our own low-mortgage Bob Harris.

I don't know if he's still wandering around the various local radios of the East Midlands but I hope so. He was one of those who would turn his hand to all manner of stuff from music radio to sports reporting, in a way that I think is quite typical in local radio. Most fondly remembered around my place for the late 80s Radio Trent rock show he did with Mark Spivey - plenty of local music, nearly as broad as Peel, but with less deliberately obscure stuff and a higher quality threshold. Discovered everything from Napalm Death to the Go-Betweens through the show.

I'll recommend Vic Galloway from Radio Scotland. Pretty much every Scottish band of the past fifteen years got their first airplay via him.

does the Beat from BBC Nottingham on a Saturday night covering Leicester, Derby & Lincoln as well. Always a healthy dose of regional new talent pushed through his show and the local festivals, a Mercury award judge and a full time biology teacher. If he doesn't fit your bill Eamonn I don't know who does.

Magnificent weekly show, been going for over 25 years.

"Eclectic and innovative" says the iPlayer. I wouldn't disagree, and here's last week's playlist -

Peter Tosh - Heavy Razor (ShaJahShoka dub plate) - Columbia/Legacy 88697 74691
Sunshot Band / I Roy - Wise dub - Jet Set
Ernest Ranglin - Ranglin doddlin' - Soul Jazz Records
Pole - Wipfel dub - Pole
Little Annie - Rise dub - Southern Records
Sepalcure - Yuh huh see - Hotflush
The Spits - My mess - In the Red
Thee Cormans - The creep - In the Red
Dirty Beaches - Speedway king - Zoo Music
Vincent Black Lightning - Karaoke kid - Eli Records
The Paperhead - Dear Mr. Vacant - Nashville's Dead
Big Troubles - Minor keys - Slumberland
Zion Train - Ital stew - Universal Egg
Thomas Truax - Grandmother's advice - Psycho Teddy
Merry Hell - This time - Mrs. Carey
Half Man Half Biscuit - Rock & roll is full of bad wools - Probe Plus probe
John Cale - Perfection - Double Six
Neon Indian - Deadbeat summer - Lefse Records
Christina Vantzou - Homemade mountains - Kranky
Tim Hecker - Sketch - Kranky
Mike Patton - Method of Infinite Descent - Ipecac
Oneohtrix Point Never - Alexander Scriabin (edit) - Air Texture
Charalambides - Immovable - Kranky
Rob St. John - Your Phantom limb - Song by Toad Records
Steve Hauschildt - Already replaced - Kranky kranky
Creations Unlimited - Chrystal illusion - Numero
Little Axe - Garfield Elementary - On U Sound
Iain Chambers - Rituals and pastimes - Transformed Dreams

My local radio station - BBC Three Counties for Herts, Beds and Bucks, is unrelentingly dire. I never listen to it by choice and they can can it tomorrow for me. Dull dull music choice, geriatric presenters with hits from the 50s to the present day. I am more likely to listen to The Range 95.3 KHYI out of Plano Texas on the fab Revo Axis Internet radio than 3CR.

So influential down the years, it seems rude to call him a local radio DJ.

His GLR 'demo-clash' on Sundays was a must-listen for me and a must-enter for any unsigned band, including mine (we won three weeks on the run), Suede, Dodgy and others.

Steve Lamacq ate his lunch.

There are some amazing presenters on local radio throughout the country, particularly present single genre shows such as country, blues, jazz, etc

I do wonder how people will discover new genres of music without these kind of shows that are provided on a local basis

He may be an occasional buffoon, he may have been responsible for THAT introduction to Spandau Ballet, but I still hope that every region has a Robert Elms equivalent.
His show makes a Londoner, new or old, constantly view their city with a fresh outlook, picking up on the tiny details that make each square mile different from the next. It keeps me excited about London and consequently (of course) excited about life.
Elms' show is exactly the kind of local radio that needs to be retained if we're to be spared a slide into a huge bowl of homogeneous gloop.

And then there's Danny Baker...

...for deadline, but if you are going historical (""), then Charlie Gillett in London MUST get a mention.

I love Sean Rowley's 'Joy of Music' show which was on BBC London but is now on BBC Kent.

We did a thread a few months ago about favourite music DJs and if you can be fagged to read through it, there is some local ones mentioned here.

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/hang-dj-music-djs-you-would-recomm...

then I stumbled across this little gem while looking up the band Stornoway on Wikipedia... (must be true if it's on Wikipedia)

"Stornoway's first radio play came in March 2006 with a demo version of "I Saw You Blink" on BBC Oxford Introducing. Radio presenter Tim Bearder was an early champion of the band and was suspended from work after barricading himself in the studio and playing an hour of Stornoway songs from their demo EP The Early Adventures of Stornoway."