§ Mrs. Knightasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will reconsider his decision not to see a delegation concerning bad reception of Radio Birmingham.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesI am always willing to meet a delegation if that would serve a useful purpose, but I do not think it would do so in this case. The medium wave reception of Radio Birmingham is being considered by the Home Office local radio working party, which was set up following the recent White Paper on broadcasting (Cmnd. 7294). The intention is that a comprehensive frequency plan should be prepared in order to make the most effective use of the frequencies 599W available for local radio, in the context of the planning of the expansion of the BBC and IBA local radio services generally. Detailed assignments of frequencies to new stations, and any necessary revisions to existing assignments, are dependent upon the progress made with this plan. The working party will be considering the prospects for improving BBC Radio Birmingham MF reception and will reach its conclusions as soon as practicable.