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Business News Media
Two south London FM stations go off air
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 6 April 2009
Two south London radio stations, South 107.3 and Time 106.8 in Lewisham and Greenwich respectively, have gone off air this weekend after a new buyer couldn’t afford to run them.
As previously reported, Litt Corporation announced it was selling the two local radio stations on their own websites last October. They were sold to an individual in February, but he reportedly told staff almost immediately he couldn’t afford to fund the stations, and that one would have to be sold to fund the other. He also told staff that he couldn’t afford to pay them until that sale was secured.
Many staff continued to work hoping a buyer could be found, but things looked ominous when the stations switched to back to back music on Tuesday last week. They went off air this weekend. A spokesperson for the stations told RadioToday.co.uk: “We wish to thank to every single listener throughout our years of broadcasting and every single person who was involved with the stations past and present whom without would have made South, South-East London & North West Kent a much quieter place on the radio dial”.
Time 106.7 began life as a community radio station in 1990, originally known as Radio Thamesmead, while South 107.3 FM was previously urban station First Love Radio. It’s the second time in a year that a UK radio station has been bought by a non-traditional radio owner, only to close soon afterwards – as previously reported, Merseyside’s KCR went off air last week after being bought by a company called Polaris Media last year – though that ultimately went off air at the order of media regulator OfCom for initially suspending the service and then relaunching with a new format without getting permission.
