GMG Pulls Out Of Manchester Radio Race
Guardian Media Group Radio has decided that it will now not submit an application for the new Manchester radio licence, on the grounds that it is not commercially viable.
The move represents a complete U-turn for the company, which announced its intention to create a 24-hour speech and news station for the region, dubbed Channel M Radio, in October last year.
However, the company now claims that Channel M Radio will not be created as GMG Radio “does not believe it is possible to launch a commercially viable quality product to serve the smaller than thought transmission area.”
The company states that it had initially hoped to serve a larger area than the 1.3 million TSA currently advertised by industry regulator, OFCOM.
Explaining the company’s re-think, GMG Radio’s chief Executive John Myers said: “We’ve done all the numbers and do not believe it is possible to provide a quality talk station for Manchester whilst still making a commercial return when the potential audience is smaller than we had hoped for.”
He added: “At GMG we pride ourselves on our programming output, proved by the fact we employ the current Sony Programmer of the Year, and would not want to submit a proposal that cut corners in order to make money and thus did a disservice to the people of Manchester.”
GMG had originally planned to pool the resources of the Manchester Evening News and Channel M Television, already based in the city, to provide speech based content around the clock. However, the company will now turn its attention to an application for the Solent regional licence, due to be advertised by Ofcom in the next few weeks (see Ofcom Extends Radio Licence Programme).
The race for Manchester’s last remaining FM licence remains a hotly contested one, however, with Capital Radio’s alternative music station, Xfm, and Emap’s rock focused Kerrang! both lining up to bid for the area’s remaining slice of radio air space (see Kerrang Joins Race For Manchester Radio Licence).
Guardian Media Group: 020 7713 4452 www.gmgplc.co.uk/
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