Bauer Media has quietly closed one of the radio stations it bought recently.
DAB-only Sam FM Thames Valley – which was one of the 27 radio stations Bauer acquired from Celador Radio less than a month ago – is no longer on-air and has been removed from the Sam FM app and website.
Instead, The Breeze has taken over its spot on DAB to match its FM service.
The station started life after JACK fm was replaced by The Breeze on 107FM in 2017. Sam FM Thames Valley shared all programmes with Sam FM South Coast, which is now owned by Nation Broadcasting.
Sam FM is still on-air in Bristol, Swindon and the South Coast, but Bauer has not yet released any details reagarding the future of the brand.
RadioToday’s take
This appears to be a casualty of Bauer taking control of the Celador Radio group and selling some of the stations on to Nation Broadcasting.
The situation at the former Celador broadcasting HQ in Southampton must be a confusing one, with some staff now working for Bauer (albeit in Hold Separate) and some employed by Nation.
Sam FM South Coast provides programmes for the rest of the stations in the Bauer network, but the station providing the network programmes is owned by Nation.
Posted on Wednesday, March 6th, 2019 at 1:34 pm by Roy Martin