The go-ahead has been given to turn local radio services Banbury Sound, Rugby FM and four Touch FM stations into rhythmic-based, music-led services for 15-29 year-olds.
Quidem, which owns the six stations in question, has entered into an agreement with Global to broadcast one of its brands across all the frequencies it owns.
Neither party has confirmed to RadioToday which brand will appear, but from the new approved Formats, Capital is the most likely to be rolled out from Global’s station in Birmingham.
The format change request went to consultation, of which only two people responded, both against the move.
In approving the change, Ofcom said:: “We recognise that a broadly-based, locally-focused service in the market is being removed, it would be replaced by a service that would, in a different way, be distinctive from the other local analogue stations available in each licence area”.
RadioToday revealed in September that Quidem and Global had partnered for the move, which will result in at least 13 redundancies at Banbury Sound, Rugby FM and Touch.
Posted on Thursday, November 14th, 2019 at 12:36 pm by Roy Martin