The Guardian Media Group has bailed out of the race for the new Manchester radio licence - they were hoping to launch an
LBC speech station for the city but realised at the last minute no one in Manchester had anything interesting to say (actually, it turned out the potential reach of the station was 700,000 people less than anticipated which impacts on possible revenues and, given that speech radio is much more expensive than music radio, made the proposal unviable).
As previously reported, most of the major radio groups are bidding for the Manchester licence - with Capital hoping to expand its
Xfm franchise there and EMAP looking to extend the Kerrang radio service it launched in the Midlands last year to the North West.
GMG Radio told reporters they are now turning their attention to the Solent regional licence which OfCom advertised last week.
It is unclear if they will got with a talk station proposal there, or opt to extend its Jazz FM or Smooth FM formats to the region - Kelvin MacKenzie's Wireless Group have already announced their intent to bid for the Solent licence with a talk station proposition.