§ 37. Mr. Bostonasked the Postmaster-General if he will make a further statement about the progress being made in the local radio stations experiments now taking place in various parts of the country.
§ 39. Mr. Bryanasked the Postmaster-General if he will now state the total amount so far contributed by the British Broadcasting Corporation towards the costs of running local radio stations, over and above the original cost of establishing the stations.
§ Mr. StonehouseThe stations at Leeds and Durham, the last of the B.B.C.'s eight experimental stations, are now broadcasting. The experiment will be reviewed in about a year's time. No further experiments in local broadcasting will be authorised until the present experiment has run its course and been evaluated. The amount of local financial contribution will be considered then. Meanwhile, I shall leave the B.B.C. to get on with the experiment.
§ Mr. BostonI thank my right hon. Friend. Can he confirm his predecessor's assurances that there is no intention of introducing local commercial stations, because of the adverse effect this would have, particularly on local newspapers? Will he also reject suggestions which have been made recently in another place that there should be advertising on Radio One?
§ Mr. StonehouseI can confirm that I am not prepared to allow any commercial broadcasting. I think that we should allow this experiment to run its full course and make our decisions towards the middle of next year.
§ Mr. BryanIf this is so, does the right hon. Gentleman agree with his predecessor's statement on 13th June that he expects that only two or three of these stations will pay their way?