And we were hoping for a fight! Following a decision by the competition authorities that said GWR couldn't own more than 25% in the Bristol branch of the dance music station Vibe Radio the radio group have sold their share in the company off to their business partners Scottish Radio Holdings.
As previously reported GWR set up Vibe with SRH to run a dance station in East England. In a deal late last year GWR acquired the Bristol dance station Galaxy off Chrysalis. They transferred it to the joint company and rebranded it with the Vibe name.
GWR already dominate the commercial radio sector in Bristol but bosses hoped by transferring the station to the jointly owned company, and given up coming media legislation which will reduce radio ownership restrictions, that the deal would get the OK from the radio regulator. But the regulator passed the deal onto the competitions authority who decided GWR would become too dominant in the Bristol radio market if they owned anything more than 25% of the new company. Not interested in a minority stake GWR have decided to call the project off.
The group's chairman Ralph Bernard yesterday told reporters: "Following the Competition Minister's statement last week, we have reviewed the proposed remedies and concluded that they were commercially unworkable and we were not prepared to implement them. We believe that a swift disposal of our investment is in the best interests of GWR."