The BBC was accused of “ripping the heart out” of local radio today as the corporation slashes services and diverts cash online.
Nearly 50 jobs will be lost in the controversial overhaul of programming across England.
The corporation’s director of nations, Rhodri Talfan Davies, was grilled about the cuts by MPs on the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
Chairman Julian Knight blasted the “unprecedented cuts to BBC local radio”.
Attacking the executive over the shake-up, Conservative Simon Jupp told Mr Talfan Davies: “You’re ripping the heart out of it.”
But the BBC chief hit back: "I don't accept that premise.
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"I think we are keeping 39 local stations across England. We are keeping local bases of at least 25 staff in each of our local bases.
"We are strengthening the size of our local news teams, we are investing in investigative journalism across 22 of our local bases.
"This is fundamentally not about a reduction in services.
“It is about making sure our portfolio of local services that we deliver across radio, television and online keep pace with the way audiences are changing."
He insisted that without changes, the BBC would be “managing decline” and claimed: “This isn’t about a cuts strategy, this is about rebalancing.”
He admitted £11million was being slashed from local radio, with £4m pumped back into the BBC Sounds on-demand audio service and podcasting.
Mr Talfan Davies blamed a licence fee freeze and inflation for a £400m funding black hole the broadcaster faces by 2026/2027.
He said the cuts were designed to "strengthen our online news service" and "focus our spend" where it makes "the biggest difference to audiences".
Under the plans, local programming will be restricted to weekdays between 6am and 2pm.
The BBC will produce 18 afternoon programmes across England that will be shared among its 39 stations.
Ten local programmes will be shared between 6pm and 10pm on weekdays, all day on Saturday and on Sunday mornings - serving areas broadly mirroring existing local TV areas.
The BBC’s director of England Jason Horton told the committee the broadcaster faced "tough" decisions as it decided which new areas should share local radio content.
He said: "These are tough choices for us and some of those regions are big.
"But we are looking at both the historical element and in terms of the regional television news programmes where we continue to serve an audience across all of those areas.
"But, equally, we will ensure that when we are looking at the sharing, if there is a community of interest that straddles the boundaries which we have set out in our proposals, then we will look to share in a different way."
Highlighting the “place local radio has in people’s lives in this country”, Labour MP Julie Elliott warned the executives: “Sometimes you need to stand back and think, ‘How does this look to people who have paid their licence fee and support the organisation and are just getting these changes that make no sense?’”
