BBC enlists raw talent for radio station to woo black audience

The first national radio station aimed at a black audience has gone on air in an attempt by the BBC to connect with an audience that dismisses it as irrelevant.

1Xtra has recruited a combination of pirate radio DJs and people with no previous broadcasting experience to bring credibility to the station, which will play a mixture of hip-hop, ragga, drum 'n' bass and UK garage.

The station, which is available on digital radio, satellite TV and the internet, also has its own dedicated news team with a brief to provide bulletins and features that reflect the target audience's agenda.

1Xtra went on air at 6pm on Friday with a specially commissioned track, Dangerous, by DJs Rodney P and Skitz, featuring Beverley Knight and Blak Twang. The first programme - a five-hour showcase of 1Xtra DJs and music - was presented by the DJ collective Rampage and the station's breakfast show host, KC.

The launch was attended by the director general, Greg Dyke, and the director of BBC radio, Jenny Abramsky. Ms Abramsky revealed that 1Xtra's budget, understood to be about £6m, is double that of the BBC's other digital radio services.

Wilber Wilberforce, the station's programme editor, said: "We want to let the audience know that the BBC has something more to offer them than they are being given."

The network has been "incubated" by Radio 1, and is based in the same central London building as the pop station. Recently Radio 1 has made strides to include black music, hiring DJs such as Fabio and Grooverider, Trevor Nelson and Tim Westwood, but executives acknowledge it is still at the margins of the schedule.

Ian Parkinson, the head of specialist music at Radio 1, conceded there would be scepticism among the target audience, which is more used to tuning in to pirate stations, which have soared in number from 127 in 1991 to 248 in 2001.

"I was at Radio 1 when dance music passed it by, and black music was nowhere to be heard on the network, so I understand the initial suspicions, but I say give it a chance."

Ms Abramsky acknowledged that audiences would initially be small as digital radio was still in its infancy.

Pirates get altitude slickness

"Does anyone know where I can get a cheap digital car radio?", one enthusiastic new 1Xtra listener asked on the station's website (www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/). Tellingly, there are no replies because, as yet, there's no such thing.

The truth is that the station's target audience (urban, aged 16-25) is the least likely demographic to own digital radios, and for now will tune in via the net or satellite television. What they'll find, on the evidence of the first weekend's broadcasting, is a slick, vital and impressively niche-marketed operation for an audience underserved by analogue radio.

Its mix of R&B, hip-hop, garage and reggae, is presented with all the urgent fervour of a pirate station, but with considerably more élan - there's no maddening talking over tracks, and the reception isn't wrecked by cab firms giving directions to drivers. On daytime shows, some chart tunes from the likes of Nelly and Mary J. Blige do feature, but these are interspersed with plenty of lesser-known tracks and breaking acts.

This being a youth station, there are some mind-numbing moments. The topics up for discussion on Dev and Reg's Saturday lunchtime show included whether the car maketh the man; what music to put on when taking a female home; and the thorny issue of whether Will Smith is past it. They have to spell the name of their show (Lowdown) twice because people are mis-spelling it in emails, and during his loosely football-themed show, Xtra Time, G Money isn't sure how to pronounce epitome.

For all the talk of how phat the tunes are and how "fresh and dangerous" the station is; for every thunderously heavy hip-hop track DJ Semtex plays and every gorgeously slick mix of the latest garage DJ Femme Fatale puts together, there is still something ever so slightly BBC about the proceedings. Fabian, calling in from east London and correctly guessing which tune is being played backwards on Lowdown, wins a 1Xtra rucksack. "Wear it everywhere", wailed Reg. Fabian, a cool-sounding customer, goes very quiet indeed.

· Elisabeth Mahoney is the Guardian's radio critic.