I can’t leave you with the reassurance that whimsy and passion will get you through so we’re not done with the rough n ready just yet. I’ve kind of avoided telling you some tips as they’re what you’d expect in a more basic primer. If you don’t think you could come up with that couplet in Public Broadcasting – and have it work – then at least use this as a reassurance that it is possible to use an ambiguous title or first line and turn out something good in ready time.

So, let’s stick with that first title: ‘Public Broadcaster’
Here, you’ve got the broadcaster’s public status to consider and the fact that this is them in the act of broadcasting, rather than say production or promotion. If those other elements creep in because of the way they otherwise fit then so be it. But that’s your mental brief: this is a song about a public entity that projects a certain image and provides a given service. Whether you want to sit under the speaker or the electronic ‘ticker tape’ when you write it is up to you.

What you want is a few key phrases or objects associated with being a public broadcaster or looking across at a public broadcaster. Whether you see any benefit in censoring your collection (I don’t) is up to you and your writing style, but stick with things that have a ready association either alone or combined, with the subject matter.
‘Free’ ‘access’ ‘control’ ‘independent’ ‘variety’ ‘obscure’ ‘service of introducing new music or breaking new bands’ ‘giving actors and production staff work’ ‘training ground for Hollywood/Broadway/Roxy artists and their career’
I’m sure you can think of more. Go ahead and name names: ‘The Bill’ ‘Play School’ ‘Doctor Who’. If you can place these in the narrative of the song, either through sly wink or spoken allusion, then this is very likely to work.

Save us this service
Never leave us nervous

Here you’ve got a bit of alliteration and a neat folded couplet and you haven’t had to wrack your brains to arrive at it. Don’t cling onto it at all costs if you find the ‘caravan has moved on’ but do note it somewhere. There’ll be other services to save potentially.
As neat as it is in some way, this couplet is not strong enough in stand un-surrounded. So, here already, through the dictates of structure and flow, you’re finding some of the decisions being made for you. If you’ve jotted down a few thoughts then so much the better for striking when the iron is hot and developing more verses and parts of the song. You can use as much of this as you want in the finished product.

An excess of access they argue
An insight into oversight that is out of sight

Writing down scraps like this is good because it breaks from expected pattern. As long as you can make it work by sending the musicians into other time signatures and they’re OK with that, you’re onto something. The effect that elongated rhythms has is a consideration but not for you the lyricist.

You’ll notice I’m still free forming. The second line follows from the first but not with any strong conviction to do so in the way one might in conversation. This veering from the path paradoxically leads one back deeper into the text. And helps the savvy listener to appreciate how it works in the medium it’s in. It’s even mimetic when you see the way that the radical doubt mirrors the line length and word pattern; as if there is a sudden gallop in the discussion because of the emotions involved.

There are many choices in which lines to use, what couplets complement, and what puts the verve in the verses and a crush on the chorus, you can only try out different things and see which works. The fact that a seasoned professional might complete their piece a lot faster, or use phrases or concepts that you’d kill for, is not to deprive you of being that novice – learn the skills, admire the audacity. One day it will be your turn. But only if there is a supply of those willing to be acolytes. Now and then.