| Boomtown Rat
Geldof Wants His Own TV Channel By Niamh Connor
The Dubliner who brought the world Live Aid
and the Boomtown Rats now wants to help young
Irish rock bands follow in his footsteps. Bob
Geldof intends doing this by launching an Irish
version of MTV, the international music video TV
channel.
Called Atomic, he says this would employ 50
Irish people and be produced in Dublin using as
much as talent as possible. It would cost £5m to
set up and would earn money through advertising.
But Geldof - who had a string of hits with the
Boomtown Rats but is now known more for his TV
production company - has run into trouble with
the State-backed Independent Radio and Television
Commission (IRTC) which opposes his plan for the
Atomic channel because it fears this could do
damage to TV3, the long-promised independent
third TV channel for Ireland.
Now, after a meeting with Ireland's Arts and
Culture Minister, Ms Sile de Valera, Bob Geldof
says he will go it alone and flout the
regulations if necessary. "I can make the
programmes in Ireland, send them over to London
and beam them up to a satellite which will send
them back down to cable companies in Ireland but
I don't want to do that and why should I",
he charges.
He went on: "It would probably be cheaper
for us to do that but that would be absolutely
obscene and absurd. I want it all done in Ireland.
Why can't I be allowed to do this in my own
country."
Behind the Atomic project is Planet 24, the TV
production company owned by Bob Geldof and which
already produces the hugely-successful Big
Breakfast show for Britain's Channel 4.
Atomic is already operating in Poland and
Romania and is due to start soon in the Ukraine.
"Ireland boxes way above its weight in the
international music scene, industry scouts are
constantly here looking for the new U2 or Boyzone
or whatever but yet young bands have to leave to
get signed to a record deal and we think we could
help change that", he declared.
Minister de Valera said she had assured Bob
Geldof of her support for his project but
explained that the IRTC had been consulted "as
a matter of courtesy." She said she would be
meeting the IRTC soon and would make a decision
on Atomic after that.
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