Description
Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group owning, among other brands, Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio, Jazz FM, and Magic.
History
In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in 1947. Consequently, Emap Radio Limited was renamed to Bauer Radio Limited.
Emap's assets included national stations Kiss, Kerrang! and Magic, and local stations under the Big City Network brand in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These included 22 local FM stations in Scotland which Emap had bought from Scottish Radio Holdings in 2005.
In April 2011, Bauer Radio announced it would be restructuring its radio portfolio into two divisions: locally focused and heritage stations – including many of the Big City stations, South Coast station Wave 105 and London station Magic 105.4 FM – would become part of the "Bauer Place" division, with branded music-category stations such as Kiss and Kerrang forming a second sub-brand, "Bauer Passion". The Big City Network identity was dropped as part of the restructuring.
In April 2013, Bauer announced it would merge its two North East England stations, Metro Radio and TFM. Both stations broadcast shared programming from Newcastle and Manchester while carrying separate branding, news bulletins and advertising.
In September 2014, Bauer announced it would be restructuring its radio portfolio as from January 2015. Magic AM in England was dropped in favour of the stations reverting to their heritage station names. The stations then formed part of the new 'City 2' network serving both Scotland and Northern England. A 'City 3' network on DAB replacing The Hits Radio (in most areas) launched on Monday 19 January 2015. As part of this restructuring, the Place and Passion network banners introduced in 2011 were replaced by the Bauer City and Bauer National divisions. (The 'City 3' network was withdrawn in favour of reverting to the networked The Hits service from September 2017.)
At the beginning of March 2016, Bauer moved two of its stations, Planet Rock and Absolute 80s, from Digital One onto the Sound Digital multiplex, reducing the availability of these stations (areas including East Anglia, the South West, parts of Kent, Cumbria, and large areas of Wales and Scotland had no Sound Digital network transmitters at all). The issue was reported in local media in some areas. Planet Rock and Absolute 80s on D1 began broadcasting just a retune message loop from 18 April and the switch-off occurred on 30 April.
On 6 May 2016, Bauer announced it had bought Midlands radio group Orion Media for an undisclosed fee, reportedly between £40 and £50 million. It was subsequently confirmed that Orion's stations Free Radio (West Midlands) and Gem (East Midlands) would become part of the Bauer City portfolio, with Gem introducing a version of the City sonic logo device to its presentation from August 2016.
On 16 August 2018, Bauer announced that it had bought Jazz FM for an undisclosed sum.
In February 2019, Bauer purchased Lincs FM Group, Celador and the local stations owned by Wireless Group and the following month Bauer purchased the ten FM stations owned by UKRD.
On 14 April 2020 the Competition and Markets Authority revoked the Initial Enforcement Orders in relation to the acquisition by Bauer Radio Group Limited of certain assets of the Celador Entertainment Limited business on 1 March, certain assets of the Lincs FM Group Limited business on 1 March 2019, and of UKRD Group Limited on 12 March 2019 and Scala Radio LP of certain assets of Wireless Group Limited business on 1 March 2019.
