Beacon due to be sold in £40m deal
Wolverhampton's Beacon radio station is set to be sold to a German media group as part of deal worth up to £40 million, according to reports this weekend.
Wolverhampton's Beacon radio station is set to be sold to a German media group as part of deal worth up to £40 million, according to reports this weekend.
Bauer Media is said to be in talks with Beacon's owner, Global Radio, about acquiring the Wolverhampton stations along with BRMB, Mercia and Wyvern in the West Midlands and Heart 106 in the East Midlands.
Global has agreed to sell off five stations in the Midlands so its £375 million takeover of GCap Media can go ahead without being referred to the Competition Commisson by the Office of Fair Trading.
In return it has been allowed to keep Heart, LBC, Capital and Xfm in London.
Bauer Media is understood to have become Global's preferred bidder, beating off competition from former Chrysalis Radio chief executive, Phil Riley, and Midlands radio entrepreneur Mike Owen.
As well as owning a string of radio stations including Kiss and Magic, Bauer also owns celebrity magazines Heat and Grazia, as well as men's mags FHM and Zoo.
Based at studios in Tettenhall Road, Beacon and its sister stations have been up for sale for more than eight months.
The slow sale is thought to be a reflection of the tough market for radio, which has been hurt by the dramatic fall in advertising income that has also hit TV stations and the print media.
It has even been suggested that, although the five stations involved in the sale are valued at around £40 million, more recent industry estimates have fallen to between £15 million and £20 million.
But Beacon, which broadcasts to Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall, will be seen as a particularly strong brand by its new owners.
With Fresh and Jo as its popular Breakfast Show hosts, it has broadcast live coverage of Wolves promotion chase, reaching more than 240,000 people a week.
One of the country's first commercial radio stations, Beacon first started broadcasting on April 12, 1976. Known as Beacon 303 in its early days, it was the first commercial radio station in the country to be profitable. But in 1993 the station ran into trouble because of financial collapse of its parent company.
The following year it was bought in a £3.7 million deal by the fast-growing GWR Group from Bristol.
In 2005 it became part of the GCap group following a £711 million merger between GWR and Capital Radio, which brought together 50 analogue radio stations and almost 100 digital stations.
GCap was bought by Global last year creating a radio business potentially so large and dominant that the Office of Fair Trading had to request it sell off of some stations.
No-one at Global Radio was available to comment early today.
