UTV Radio has warned it will switch off Valleys Radio and hand the licence back to Ofcom if a buyer for the station cannot be found within a month.
The group had asked Ofcom for permission to relocate Valleys Radio 45 miles away to Swansea, sharing premises with The Wave and Swansea Sound.
The regulator rejected the move, saying said it was ‘unconvinced’that the two areas had much in common. It had offered to look at the situation again next year.
UTV director of local radio Calum Macaulay said in a statement: ‘We have explored every possible alternative that would have kept Valleys Radio open as a profitable station and within the UTV Radio group.”
In the past year, UTV has disposed of radio stations in Dundee, Stockport and Edinburgh, which between them were making a loss of £1.5m.
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