Ofcom have awarded the new commercial FM licence for the north east of England to Saga, who have beaten off competition from twelve other companies including Chrysalis, GCap, Guardian Media Group and Australia's Macquarie bank. Saga 97.5 FM will broadcast to around 22million listeners in the Tyne & Wear and Teesside areas and plans to programme "easy, melodic, popular music from the past six decades and today, with news, information and lifestyle-oriented speech, primarily targeting listeners in the north-east region aged 50 and over".
The Saga Group operates a range of services for the over fifties, such as insurance and credit cards, and already operates three radio stations in the east and West Midlands and Glasgow. The new licence could prove particularly lucrative for the group, covering as it does a wide geographical area with a population of interest to advertisers.
Elsewhere, OfCom has handed the new FM commercial licence for Southend On Sea the brand new Southend Radio, which promises "a locally relevant radio station for Southend with news, information, engaging chat and great music from the 60s to today". The station is 80% owned by Stockvale, the backer of St Albans & Watford Broadcasting Company who operate Herfordshire's Mercury 96.6 FM.