In the past there have been privately run towers
Really!!!!! Please enlighten me where?? I am not aware of any privately run towers present or past in the 29 years I was with MOT/Airways that provided an air traffic control service. (Unicom is not an air traffic control service if that's the road you are going down)
Airways even provide ATC at the military / air force (if u can call it that) airfields.
Always have......
Bigone
re your questions
1. Yes they are so approach them
2. New students are generally farmed out to Towers, VERY few have gone straight to radar, those that have are folks with existing knowledge of the system having worked in it eg. Flight Service, Blip Drivers. People seeking employment as an existing ATCO will get radar unless Airways do a SPECIFIC recruitment drive for towers.
3. You get choices but at the end of the day they will send you where the need is. In a lot of cases they will send you to a Unit just to get your Rating and then move you. This may have changed over the past year since I left but was certainly the case when I worked for them.