Media UK

GWR Group

GWR Group plc was one of the largest radio companies in the UK until its merger, on 9 May 2005, with Capital Radio Group to form GCap Media.

History

The company started in 1982 as a single commercial radio station - Wiltshire Radio, based just outside Swindon. Broadcasting to a potential audience of 630,000 people, the station cost (coincidentally) £630,000 to set up. As at 2005, many of the senior management of the Group date back to the original Wiltshire Radio.

The growth of GWR has been achieved both by organic expansion of existing businesses and by acquisition, the Group often doubling in size as new stations were acquired. Indeed, the first "acquisition" was, in fact, a partnership: Wiltshire Radio joined with Radio West in Bristol to form GWR in 1985. Then, in 1989 GWR - by then comprising stations in Bristol, Swindon and Plymouth - merged with Consolidated Radio Holdings, a group of similar size to GWR, covering stations in Reading and Bournemouth.

In the following years, intense activity was associated with the licence application for Classic FM, which saw GWR Group running the consortium which won the licence. In December 1996 GWR took control of Classic FM by buying the 83% it did not already own.

In 1994 local radio acquisitions were in the Midlands, with stations in Wolverhampton, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Coventry joining the Group in January, and Mid Anglia: Peterborough, Cambridge and King's Lynn were acquired in June. In March 1997, King's Lynn was sold and in 1995 an addition to the Group was the former Chiltern Group, with stations in Gloucester, Luton, St. Albans, Bedford, Milton Keynes and Northampton.

This took the Group up to 28 licences (the then limit was 35). St. Albans was sold in June 1997, and the next local radio acquisition was East Anglian Radio, with stations in Norwich, Bury St. Edmunds, Ipswich and Colchester. Radio Wyvern in Hereford and Worcester completed the Group's coverage of the M5 corridor. In January 1999, GWR acquired Orchard Media, based in the West of England, with four independent radio licences: Orchard FM, Gemini FM, Westward Radio (now Classic Gold 666/954), and Lantern FM, serving a total population of over one million people in the counties of Devon, Somerset and Dorset.

In June 1999, GWR acquired Plymouth Sound from The Local Radio Company.

The Group began the new Millennium by acquiring DMG Radio from Daily Mail & General Trust, adding stations in Southend-on-Sea, Harlow, St Albans and Crawley to the company's portfolio, then Marcher Radio with stations in Birkenhead, Colwyn Bay, Bangor and Wrexham.

Overseas

Parallel with UK developments has been the Group's policy of developing overseas. The Group owns 48% of FM Plus, the most successful station in Sofia and the other major cities of Bulgaria.

Classic FM is available in a number of overseas locations, with versions of the station broadcasting in Holland, Finland and South Africa.

DAB Digital Radio

GWR is the majority shareholder in Digital One, the company which holds the licence to operate the national digital radio network.

The Digital One multiplex was launched in November 1999, with two GWR-run digital-only services: Core - a fresh hits channel, which is wholly owned by GWR - and classic rock station Planet Rock, which is run for NTL by GWR. GWR's national classical music service, Classic FM, is also on the multiplex.

GWR has created a wholly owned subsidiary, Now Digital, to apply for local digital licences. The Group holds 30% of the Digital Radio Group, which operates the third London digital radio multiplex.