Shropshire radio station rebrands following takeover
A Shropshire commercial radio station which was last week sold following poor advertising sales is to be rebranded and merged with two other radio stations by its new owners.
UTV Radio today revealed The Severn, which it purchased from MNA Broadcasting Ltd on Friday, would be re-launched and merged with Wolverhampton's 107.7 The Wolf and 107.2 The Wyre in north Worcestershire.
The three stations will broadcast to a potential TSA of over 900,000 and be known as Signal 107.
The Severn was purchased by UTV after MNA Broadcasting announced in November it was to switch off its transmitters and hand back its license as a result of difficult trading conditions in the current economic climate.
Over the weekend listeners to 106.5, 107.1 and 107.4 FM were teased with back to back music and an announcement saying that "something big was launching soon".
The new station, which is currently broadcasting test transmissions, will launch fully in March providing listeners with local news, travel information and entertainment whilst playing today's best mix of music.
UTV owns UK national radio station talkSPORT and thirteen local stations across England and Wales. UTV’s local radio stations together posted a year-on-year increase of 11% in listening audiences and a 9% increase in listening hours in the last quarter of 2011 according to latest industry figures released by RAJAR.
Calum Macaulay, Director of Local Radio for UTV Media (GB) said: “I’m delighted to be growing UTV’s local network with the launch of Signal 107 across Wolverhampton, Shropshire and North Worcestershire. We’re already working on our plans for March and look forward to launching the new station, with a potential TSA of over 900,000, to offer a direct alternative to Beacon Radio.”
