Programming of frozen bits of first stage control channel information block enables scheduling information to be included for the second stage of the control channel information. By including some of the scheduling information for the second stage in the first stage frozen bits, the size of the first stage information blocks can be reduced, reducing the overhead required to transmit control information for the traffic channel. In an embodiment, the frozen bits can convey scheduling information that is lower priority than the scheduling information conveyed in the non-frozen bits of the first stage control channel information block. In another embodiment, the frozen bits can include parity bits, or cyclic redundancy check bits that are masked with the scheduling information.