the existing licensees in commercial radio industry had been discontent with the auctioning of fm licences to new industry players. in 1988, the government announced the national metropolitan radio plan 1988, which allowed for a limited number of metropolitan am commercial to bid at auction for the right to convert their operation to fm. recognising the national strategic importance of the am transmission facilities of these services, a feature of the plan, was an independent valuation of the am facilities, which were then acquired by the commonwealth and used primarily for provision of radio for the print handicapped services and parliamentary broadcasting.