Radio groups voice confidence as Bill lobby goes to Parliament. (news).

The leading commercial radio groups are voicing confidence that they are winning the argument to further relax ownership rules laid down within the new Communications Bill after taking their message directly to Parliament.

A group of key players--including GWR chairman Ralph Bernard, Capital Radio chief executive David Mansfield and Chrysalis Radio chief executive Phil Riley--last Monday attended a joint House of Commons and House of Lords' committee which has been charged with looking at the draft, in a bid to press their case for changes to the proposed new legislation.

The group, under the remit of the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA), is concerned that proposals about radio ownership within the draft bill are too restrictive in comparison to those suggested for TV and newspapers.

Bernard says he is confident the association's arguments were sympathetically received. "The CRCA case was well put," he says. "The papers that we previously gave the committee had clearly been read and I think we were given a very fair hearing. I don't think there were any suggestions from the committee to indicate they were not sympathetic, so I'm very hopeful."

A key area of the CRCA's concerns is the draft bill's strict ownership rules for radio, compared to those for television and newspapers and in light of the suggested freeing up of existing regulations about foreign ownership of stations. The draft bill proposes that at least three commercial groups plus the BBC operate in ...