Tindle sells Kestrel FM to Celador Radio

04/09/2012 - 12:27 | 10 Replies More

Celador Radio has reached agreement to acquire two Kestrel Radio licenses in Basingstoke and Alton.

The acquisition increases Celador’s radio licenses to sixteen and it’s expected the two stations will be re-branded to The Breeze in the near future.

On completion, the stations will temporarily come under the overall management of Steve Jones, Celador’s regional managing director for the South West of England.

Although the station is operating with two Ofcom licences, all programming is shared and broadcast from Basingstoke. Kestrel FM launched on 18 May 1998 by Milestone, and merged with Delta FM in Alton, Bordon, Haslemere and Petersfield in 2010.

“Kestrel together with The Breeze in Andover and Newbury will be incorporated into a new Thames Valley region,” Celador told RadioToday.co.uk.


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Category: Industry News

  • Colin Hanslip

    Such a shame for Basingstoke to lose a great little station to the Breeze. Don’t get me wrong, I like some of the music on the Breeze, but Kestrel have always had great figures in this town.

  • Greg Cook

    Local radio was stolen from the people of Alton in 2010. Delta had great local news and lots of community involvement. Kestrel can’t even pronounce local place names correctly.

    Alton badly needs a community radio station but it won’t be viable unless restrictions on advertising are lifted. There simply isn’t the money around without this.

    • David Way

      Exactly the way I feel there are some of us who would again love to try and obtain a community licence but are put off by the ridiculous restrictions that would be placed on a station serving less than 20,000 people.Breeze will be in effect a regional station albeit a collection of local stations.Ofcom /The Government must change the rules especially when there is no local station left in an area.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003294357207 James Martin

        With you on that David. I hope the new Culture Secretary will take a fresh look at the current situation. CR has so much to give if the playing field is made a bit fairer. My personal view is that CR should NOT be for profit, but both commercial and charitable means should both be allowed to be implemented to allow the station to break even and cover all the costs of its’ operation.

  • David Way

    What does the last paragraph of the press release mean anyway??

    • http://twitter.com/RadioToday Radio Today

      That wasn’t meant to be there, sorry. We re-write the Press Release then delete it, or at least usually do!

  • paulie

    Steve Fox will still be on at 7pm

  • Radio Geordie

    Many of the Incrementals/Small-scale or whatever OFCOM calls them these days, broadcast to an area which is too small for the service to make a profit. Today’s Community Radio licences are proving this point.
    To make money from such small licences, they have to be merged with neighbouring areas firstly to get a decent audience. For them to work commercially, they have to be part of a networked brand.
    Pity the Radio Authority didn’t see that such services were likley to fail. At least OFCOM saw the sense towards the end to change some of the potential licences from small to second ILR sized licences.
    In fact, it’s a miracle that the two Kestrels lasted as long as they did.

  • Charles Williams

    Delta was great. A proper local radio station with lots of local content. In my opinion it was hampered by an unworkable transmitter setup. Something like 5 transmitters to cover such a small area. Constant retuning required when driving around and often a bad signal due to the transmitters being low power and highly directional.

    The reasons for this were historical (Delta was originally 2 separate stations). But it’s the fault of the Radio Authority for not giving the station a workable solution. Instead it clogged up lots of frequencies and still had a crap signal in large parts of its area.
    I used to know someone who worked at the station. He said the figures were great where the signal was strong but not so hot elsewhere. This translated to somewhat average audience figures. You also have to wonder what the overheads are on such a complex setup.

    One transmitter with a decent power output and it might not have suffered as much. Although in the current climate who knows?

  • David Bresslaw

    Hi there,

    Just to let you know…

    I have lived in Haslemere for 27 years and the radio has always been stuck at 97.1FM for all those years (and I listen to the radio for most of the day- while I’m working).

    But now, it has just changed from DELTA to the BREEZE . . .

    Oh dear!! The music has suddenly gone to mega-naff! The previous Delta Radio put out a good mix and even some ‘edgy’ tracks. They would play all the usual Whitney Houston/Michael Jackson general tracks. But also… They played a lot of soft rock: (Whitesnake / Rainbow). They sometimes played classic rock: (David Bowie / T-Rex / Mott the Hoople). Then, the ‘different’ kind of 80s stuff: (Simple Minds / The Cure / Gary Numan). Even, some happening disc/hip-hopp (House of Pain / The Outcasts).

    Now… After 27 years. I was suddenly being driven mad, by constant non-stop soft-safe songs: (Tasmin Archer / Lionel Riche / etc).

    Please… Noooooo!!! This stuff is for old people who are stuck in care homes!!!

    This is not for the general listening public – Builders – Mechanics – Gardeners – Nomeworkers of all types AND all ages.

    HELP . . . THIS MADNESS MUST BE STOPPED!! Its not fair… Its our local radio and the MUSIC CHOICE HAS BEEN RUINED!

    I will keep popping back, but I have been FORCED to go over to ‘Absolute Radio’. Before my brain became seriously damaged.

    Please… What can be done!?

    David Bresslaw.

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