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Business News Deals Media
Now Bauer Media buys UKRD
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 6 March 2019
Another Bauer Media local radio acquisition?!?! Oh yes. Very soon there won’t be any local radio stations in the UK that aren’t either part of Global or Bauer.
Following recent deals to buy Celador Radio, Lincs FM Group and the local stations owned by the Wireless Group, Bauer yesterday announced it is acquiring UKRD, a significant smaller player in local radio in the UK. The deal brings to Bauer ten radio stations across Yorkshire, East Anglia and the South and South West of England.
Confirming this, Bauer Media UK boss Paul Keenan said: “These stations are an excellent addition to our business and further extend our reach into completely new areas of the UK. This further demonstrates our long-term commitment and belief in commercial radio which has never been so exciting – for both listeners and advertisers”.
Confirming the deal from its side, UKRD CEO William Rogers added: “UKRD’s radio stations will make a great addition to the Bauer portfolio and the opportunities that may well present themselves to many of our talented and highly professional people will be greatly enhanced by this acquisition”.
It will be interesting to see if Bauer, once it has completed this flurry of local radio acquisitions, looks to make any new economies across its network of local stations. Bauer, like Global, has long shared shows across that network, though not quite to the same extent and – unlike its rival – it still operates an assortment of local brands around the country.
Last week, Global announced that it was capitalising on recent changes to broadcasting rules and would further reduce the amount of local programming on its regional stations, resulting in a lot more shows coming from London. It remains to be seen whether Bauer will try to do the same across its recently expanded network of stations.
