RADIO station staff in an Armistice Day row with BBC bosses were furious today after being told: "You could have broadcast the two minutes' silence after all."

Employees at Blackburn-based Radio Lancashire and listeners were disgusted when the station broadcast the 11 o'clock news on Monday instead of remembering the country's war dead.

Staff complained that they were prevented by senior management from broadcasting the two-minute silence.

But it has now been revealed that the station would have been allowed to observe the silence if it had featured in an outside broadcast of a local event.

The revelation, by BBC spokesman Tim Brassell, was greeted with amazement in the Radio Lancashire newsroom.

Presenter and National Union of Journalists official Steve Becker said: "We were forbidden under any circumstances to broadcast anybody else's two minutes' silence. "The edict was passed down to us in a memo read to our station manager by the head of broadcasting for the North West.

"If it is the case that we could have broadcast a two-minute silence we are extremely angry to only learn about it in retrospect and we will be taking the matter further.

"All of this still does not explain why this decision was taken in the first place and why local radio stations could not observe the silence during normal programming."

All BBC stations have traditionally broadcast the two minutes' silence on Remembrance Sunday.

But the Royal British Legion's call for a silence on the 11th hour of the 11th day prompted BBC bosses to agree the mark of respect could be broadcast on BBC 1 and Radio 2 on Monday.

The BBC spokesman added: "In the case of local and regional stations, a memo was sent out which simply said that stations not planning to cover local events would have access, if they wished, to a package which would run around 11am and which contained veterans' remembrance and local material.

"This was a BBC corporate decision and no one person was responsible. BBC Radio Lancashire could have had an outside broadcast including the two minutes' silence and several stations did just that. "

"Every BBC outlet observed the two minutes' silence on Sunday."

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