Celador still looking to buy

Celador Radio, who own stations including The Coast and The Breeze on the south coast, are continuing to look for radio stations to buy.

The news comes as temporary management consultant Bob Hoad completes his restructuring of the group's headquarters in Southampton, with Matt Bashford appointed as Regional Managing Director for Solent.

Bob Hoad was brought in under a temporary contract last year to look at the management and sales operation at the Solent Broadcast Centre. He told RadioToday.co.uk: "It has been immensely enjoyable working with the Solent business and I feel my work here is now completed. It is time for me to move on and leave the general running to a permanent manager. I am pleased to hand over a strong, committed and successful team and am confident they will all continue to grow from strength to strength. I am extremely proud of the business that I am handing over."

Matt Bashford previously worked on the south coast at Juice in Brighton, but joins Celador from Global where he's spent three years as Managing Director at Galaxy North East.

Matt says: "I am delighted to be moving back down South and to take up this very exciting position in Celador Radio. The Coast and The Breeze are strong brands and carrying on the great work that Bob has delivered is a challenge that I am very much looking forward to."

RadioToday understands that Bob will stay on with Celador until the end of March and the group tell us he'll be brought back in to help manage newly-acquired businesses and teams as the company continues to look for stations to buy.

Last year, Celador bought five stations. [link=https://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.6085]The Quay from Portsmouth FC[/link] and the Southampton and Winchester licences from [link=https://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.5811]Play Radio[/link] gave them three that became The Breeze; while the [link=https://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.6249]purchase of Tomahawk Radio[/link] gave them Star and Jack in Bristol. Ofcom has approved a format change request for Star, prompting speculation it is to rebrand as The Breeze.

Celador applied for the Solent regional licence back in 2005, but lost out to Original 106. The group went on to [link=https://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.3699]buy the station[/link] from Original in 2008.