BBC to hold Radio Foyle briefing

Head of BBC Northern Ireland, Peter Johnston and other senior corporation figures will meet with local representatives in the city on Friday.

The meeting comes amid ongoing fears that more than half of the local station's programming and a number of jobs could be lost at the Northland Road based station.

There has been speculation that the cuts could include the axing of the station's flagship ‘News at One’ slot and the popular Sean Coyle and Mark Patterson programmes

Now in a letter inviting various civic leaders to the discussions, scheduled to take place at the Nerve Centre, the BBC's Head of Corporate and Community Affairs, Mark Adair says the planned scheduling changes are designed to "refresh BBC Radio Foyle's programming".

"We are proud of the service which BBC Radio Foyle provides and its contribution to community and cultural life in the North West.

"Our ambition is to secure its future and to find more ways of more fully exploiting its potential."

Mr Adair added: " Audience needs will guide everything that we do and we have just completed a large-scale piece of research in the Foyle area that will help inform our plans for the station's schedule.

" We have recently been considering a number of development options for BBC Radio Foyle. These are intended to enhance the impact and benefits of its work and to develop the station's role as a production base for the BBC's region-wide services."

He says the review into Radio Foyle comes within the context of "changes in technology, listening habits and the stretching financial efficiencies that we have been obliged to make across different aspects of BBC Northern Ireland's work."

Foyle MP Mark Durkan said it is vital that Londonderry is served by a strong community based local radio station.

"We are all under pressure, but to do the permanent damage by cutting out and cutting down the range of opportunities at Radio Foyle could be terminal.”

It's thought that at least four jobs are at risk at the station.

Meanwhile, the ad hoc group set up to defend Radio Foyle from cuts proposed by the BBC has said it is to ask the organization’s governing body, the BBC Trust, to protect the station and safeguard its future.

The lobby group has collected more than 3,000 signatures on a petition protesting against the cuts; there have been more than fifteen hundred contributions to a Facebook discussion group railing against the proposals.

A pamphlet, published by the ‘Save Radio Foyle’ campaign, is being sent this week to the twelve members of the BBC Trust – headed by chairman, Sir Michael Lyons – and to the one dozen men and women who comprise the local advisory body, the Northern Ireland Audience Council.

In it, former BBC NI Head of Programmes, Don Anderson, warns the BBC against proceeding with its plan: “I cannot believe that Radio Foyle is being allowed to die a death of a thousand cuts. Such an act flies in the face of what the BBC stands for.”

Campaign spokesperson, Conal McFeely, says he and his colleagues have been overwhelmed by the breadth of support the campaign has received. “Clearly this issue has alarmed people right across the North West. The campaign against the cuts is being supported by the two local bishops, the region’s three MPs, by all four main parties and by all the local councils.

“The BBC’s original proposal for savings at Radio Foyle would have cut around 60% of its output, including popular daily programmes such as The News At One, Sean Coyle and Mark Patterson. The weekend schedule would also have been savaged, with Saturday Sport and Eamon Friel’s Saturday Club both being scrapped.”

Mr McFeely said the campaign group will study any new proposals to determine whether the threat to Radio Foyle’s future has been removed.