TELEVISION boss Greg Dyke yesterday told how he was trying to put an end to the traditional South-East bias shown by the BBC.

Officially launching a television studio at a North-East college, the BBC's Director General for the past three-and-a-half years said he was making great strides towards this ambition.

"I have just opened a new BBC training facility in Newcastle," said Middlesex-born Mr Dyke, who studied for a degree at York University and once worked for the Journal, in Newcastle.

"When the idea was first mentioned, my colleagues said it should be outside London - then suggested Oxford. I said Oxford was 'London in the country' and that we should go to Newcastle. So hopefully when I leave the BBC it will not be as 'South-East-centric' as it was when I first got there."

Mr Dyke opened the TV studio in the design media centre at Darlington College of Technology.

The facility forms an integral part of a host of courses provided by the department of journalism, media and arts, which is the only media Centre of Vocational Excellence in the North and has just been awarded Beacon Status for its high standards.

The studio is also being hired by private companies, including the evangelical satellite channel God TV.

Mr Dyke got the cameras rolling by pressing a button on a laptop computer putting the TV studio on the air. He then became its first inter- viewee as he was questioned live by students. He urged the aspiring journalists to be determined in their attempts to work in the industry.

"Coming to a place like Darlington College is a very good way of getting in because you will do work placements and get yourself known," he said. "We now take people from a diverse range of backgrounds. It used to be Oxbridge graduates but that is no longer the case."

Mr Dyke was presented with a framed newspaper page marking his visit by the college's principal and chief executive Sarah Farley. She said the success of the department was down to the commitment of staff and the close links they enjoyed with industry. She said: "We are proof that a college and employers can work together to develop excellent training."