While the Radio Centre aims to represent the interests of commercial radio, the unofficial Radio Council was set up with the BBC's involvement and has only five members.
William Rodgers, chief executive of UKRD Group and the Local Radio Company, said there is a concern among radio operators who do not understand the purpose of the council and are unaware of what issues are being discussed.
‘When there is no clarity about what they are speaking about you start to wonder who the council is representing,' he said.
The Radio Council was set up in April. It is chaired by Tim Davie, the BBC's director of audio and music. Other members include Travis Baxter, managing director of radio at Bauer; Stuart Taylor, chief executive of GMG radio and Ashley Tabor, group chief executive at Global Radio.
Radio Centre chief executive Andrew Harrison is also part of the council. He described the council as ‘a small informal group of major broadcasters aiming to give senior decision-makers a regular forum do discuss common interests.'
Jimmy Buckland, business development manager at UTV, owner of Talk Sport, said the council doesn't represent smaller stations. This has also been an area of contention for the Radio Centre with UTV resigning from the organisation last month.
Harrison said the council already has a bias toward the commercial sector representation and members didn't want to make the group bigger. He said if it's to drive change in the industry it has to do that through the major stations which fund it.
When the council initially formed, it's stated remit was to promote digital radio and lobby for more Government investment.
Last month the Radio Council said it was discussing plans for an online portal that will include all UK radio stations from a single platform. This will affect all radio advertisers as the platform has the potential to offer new ways of running ads.
Radio operators who don't belong to the Radio Council claimed they were not consulted about the portal, although Harrison said they will be included in discussions next year.
There is a concern that a move too quickly on to digital platforms could damage the relationship local stations have with listeners. Harrison says this will be an issue for the new Digital Radio UK board, which some council members are also part of.