[Jon]

It's to do with protecting the commercial radio sector as any new BBC station would have to pass a test to see if it'd affect different commercial sectors. 

A BBC 'Gold' station would affect the revenues of Bauer's Greatest Hits, Smooth and Gold from Global and the independent Boom Radio which has made real strides to accommodate older disenfranchised Radio 2 listeners.

Since 1996, Radio 2 has evolved with the times gradually which is why the likes of Steve Wright were introduced to the station to target former Radio 1 listeners as those who listened to the likes of Perry Como under former controller Frances Line were decreasing due to age. 

This time round, older listeners have plenty of alternatives when R2 targets the next generation of listeners.

Through considering everyone pays the same license fee shouldn’t all age groups be equally covered by the BBC?

Well that will be the argument. Of course you could argue all the other age groups have commercial radio stations targeted at them in addition to a BBC service. I guess in reality the argument here is BBC Local stations in England at least should be catering for the older market, but I think that’s going increasingly younger too.