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Yes Stu, your memory is good.  The 43 did run Nechells - Londonderry for a number of years from around 1980.  The route between the City Centre and Smethwick was via Five Ways, Ladywood, Heath Street and Soho  (which was its terminus before being extended to Soho as a result of Sandwell area revisions).

I think the 69 is going to be a combination of the 649 and 669.

A little bit of history may help here.

Midland Red provided the first Birmingham - Cannock service in the 1920s.  This (numbered 104 from 1928) ran via Sutton Coldfield, Streetly and Brownhills about every 2 hours, but was withdrawn in 1971.

Harper Bros of Heath Hayes ran a very successful service between Cannock and Aldridge via Brownhills from the 1920s, which was extended first to Kingstanding and, eventually, Birmingham in 1965.  In 1971 it started a Hednesford - Birmingham express service via Cannock and the M6.  Harpers were taken over by Midland Red in 1974, and the motorway service was soon transformed into the successful X31 Rugeley - Cannock - M6 - Birmingham.

I believe the X31 was finally defeated by traffic congestion on the M6, and the Cannock - Birmingham service (latterly 156) lost traffic to West Midlands Travel south of Brownhills after deregulation.  Arriva's current 32/33 on this corridor now stop at Brownhills or run to Walsall instead.

More recently, of course, TWM ran the 951 group between Birmingham and Cannock/Hednesford via Walsall, but NXWM  now clearly finds only the Birmingham - Walsall section worthwhile except in the peaks because Arriva have won the Walsall - Cannock traffic.

I guess here lies the problem.  NXWM provides frequent Birmingham - Walsall services (which anyone else would find difficult to dent), and Arriva provides frequent Walsall - Cannock services (which anyone else ...).   And there is a direct train service that is quicker.