HC Deb 15 March 1971 vol 813 cc885-8
1. Mr. Lane

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he will now make a statement on the development of local radio.

3. Mr. Dykes

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications when he expects to announce plans for the establishment of commercial local radio for the Greater London area.

4. Mr. Molloy

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications if he will make a further statement regarding commercial radio.

17. Mr. Fowler

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he will make a further statement on his plans to introduce commercial radio.

26. Mr. Whitehead

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications if he will make a further statement about the future of local radio, and on the re-allocation of national broadcasting frequencies.

The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (Mr. Christopher Chataway)

I cannot anticipate the White Paper which will be published soon.

Mr. Lane

Will my right hon. Friend leave ample scope in the White Paper for variety, so that over a period of two years the public may have the opportunity of listening to and comparing both commercial and non-commercial forms of local radio?

Mr. Chataway

I will certainly bear my hon. Friend's views in mind.

Mr. Molloy

Is the Minister aware of an article on local radio appearing in today's Guardian which attributes to a Mr. Anthony Cadman, described as a director of Commercial Broadcasting Consultants, the view that 96 per cent. of the British people do not want educating, and that local radio must have a diet of hot pop? That is a view which, I should have thought, called for the right hon. Gentleman's condemnation. Will the Minister take advantage of this present opportunity to say that minority interests will be protected, and that—

Mr. Speaker

Order. Not, I hope, at such length.

Mr. Molloy

It is a very important subject. Can the Minister say that if this sort of thing is to be pressed on him he will abandon commercial radio and leave local radio to the B.B.C.?

Mr. Chataway

I would not necessarily share the hon. Gentleman's views, or those of the gentleman he quotes.

Mr. Fowler

Bearing in mind the journalists who have recently been made redundant, will not my right hon. Friend recognise the urgency of announcing what fresh opportunities for journalists will be available in commercial radio? Can he give any assurance on that point today?

Mr. Chataway

I prefer to leave it until the White Paper is published, and I hope that that will be quite shortly now—within the next few weeks.

Mr. Whitehead

Without anticipating the White Paper, can the Minister tell the House that the Ministry is no longer considering the appropriation to one medium wave band of wavelengths which are at the moment held by the B.B.C., and particularly Radio 1?

Mr. Chataway

No, Sir. We have considered quite a number of proposals including, for example, the proposal made from the Opposition Front Bench by the right hon. Member for Bristol, South-East (Mr. Benn) that Radio 1, and particularly all local radio, should go to the new authority.

Sir G. Nabarro

Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind that I have constantly asked him to deal with the sterile position in Worcestershire where there is no local radio coverage whatever between Birmingham on the one side and Oxford in the South? Can we not have a Radio Malvern, or a Radio Pershore, or a Radio Upton on Severn or a Radio Broadway?

Mr. Chataway

I know my hon. Friend's strength of feeling on this matter and will certainly bear it in mind.

Mr. Greville Janner

When considering local radio in the Leicester area, will the Minister bear in mind the great popularity of Radio Leicester and the representations made to him by the Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University, and cannot he at least give some indication which will set people's minds at rest regarding the Leicester area?

Mr. Chataway

I will certainly bear in mind what the hon. Gentleman says but, as he knows, I made it quite clear last August, when giving permission to the B.B.C. to go ahead with 12 further stations, that continuance of B.B.C. local radio was to be on a provisional basis.

Mr. Tilney

Since we have an admirable B.B.C. Merseyside radio, can my right hon. Friend say whether, bearing in mind that newspapers accept advertisements and do not suffer a change in their policies, there is any reason why the B.B.C. locally should not accept advertisements?

Mr. Chataway

The view which the B.B.C. has always taken about advertisements, and it is one with which I sympathise, is that the domino theory would be likely to apply; and that once the Corporation had accepted advertisements in any service it would continually be pressed into accepting them in others.

Mr. Richard

Without anticipating the White Paper, will the right hon. Gentleman say that it is his object in bringing these proposals to the House to provide an alternative comprehensive radio service, and that any proposal, such as that referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Molloy) that the service was to be solely or even overwhelmingly a pop service, would not commend itself to him?

Mr. Chataway

It has been made absolutely clear throughout that we would expect from commercial radio, as we would expect from commercial television, a balanced output.