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September 30, 2004updated 22 Nov 2022 12:10pm

12 radio stations offer bids for Scottish licence

By Press Gazette

Twelve bids have been received by Ofcom for the east central Scotland FM radio licence.

The contenders are SAGA FM; Sunrise Radio’s Time FM; Emap’s Castle FM; Celador’s 4LIFE FM; Red 107FM – a joint venture between Scottish Media Group and Kingdom Radio; Chrysalis Radio’s The Arrow; SMG’s Virgin Classic Rock; Wireless Group’s Dunedin FM; CN Group’s Citybeat Edinburgh; Guardian Media Group’s Smooth FM; Forth 3, which is backed by Scottish Radio Holdings; and GWR’s 107FM The Rock.

All 12 applications are aimed at older listeners.

Only two bids are purely speech – Forth 3, with an output of news, politics and business, and Dunedin FM, which is purely talk, with a local emphasis.

Castle FM, which has backing from Emap (20 per cent), Scotsman Publications (10 per cent) and Andrew Neil (10 per cent), is committed to a minimum of 20 per cent speech in daytime, and Guardian Media Group’s Smooth FM will play general music, and feature talk for 50 to 65-year-olds.

Saga FM, which won the Glasgow FM licensing round last year, and the others – except for The Rock, The Arrow, Red FM and Citybeat, who are all classic rock specialists – are different combinations of generalist music and speech.

The winner will be announced in December, for a licence which will run for 12 years.

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