The BBC should replace the Asian Network with a children's radio station, according to a coalition of teachers and education experts.
The Sound Start Group believes a service airing daily songs, stories, games and quizzes for Children would be better than the current service for Asians.
The group wants to forge a partnership with the BBC to run a two-year trial of a children’s radio station at a cost £3.6 million, compared to the Asian Network’s £9.2 million annual budget, the [link=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/7960229/BBC-should-replace-Asian-Network-with-childrens-radio-station.html?]Telegraph[/link] reports.
Baroness Warnock, the philosopher and former head teacher who is leading the campaign, told the newspaper: “Children’s radio is a rare and endangered species driven to near extinction under BBC husbandry.
“It cannot remain hostage to the whim of BBC executives or commercial pressure, and access should not depend only on computers."
A recent public poll found a new channel for children to be most wanted by listeners, compared with speech, news, sport or Asian options.