Chester’s Dee 106.3 buys Silk FM

CHESTER radio station Dee 106.3 has expanded its reach across Cheshire following the acquisition of Macclesfield’s Silk FM.

Dee 106.3 has bought Silk from the Local Radio Company (LRC), the listed Buckinghamshire-based commercial radio group which has just been through a protracted takeover battle.

According to a brief stock market announcement Dee, whose shareholders include the Welsh radio group Town and Country Broadcasting, bought the station, “for a nominal consideration”.

The two stations will have a potential audience of nearly half a million people in a county without a dedicated BBC service. Dee’s Chris Hurst will become the executive chairman of the two stations.

LRC, which has around 20 stations, described last year as “extremely challenging” after losing listeners to BBC stations and seeing advertising revenue drop 8% in the third quarter of 2008.

Last year the group sold seven stations including Southport’s Dune FM and in January it pulled its support from Barrow-in-Furness’s Abbey FM which is now in liquidation. Its remaining North West station is Burnley’s 2BR.