Former Key 103 presenter, Steve Penk is now the proud owner of Oldham’s The Revolution .
Music changes, Rajar ratings, website disappearing and an unwillingness to speak to the media. Yes, How-Do’s spidey senses were right to be tingling.
Indeed it was only when Revolution’s previous owners UKRD decided to answer the phone and talk to How-Do that we realised something was well and truly up - and low and behold a press release arrives from Mr Penk himself - in the guise of Altrincham’s RMS PR .
So what does this mean for the station and their increasingly irate listeners? Well, we’re not all that sure as we couldn’t get in touch with Steve Penk today, although we do have some quotes:
"For some time I’ve been looking at various possible acquisitions but was very keen to find something in the two UK markets I know best, the North West and the South East.
Gonna start a revolution
"The Revolution fits the brief perfectly and I have big plans for the radio station. The North West is a fantastic market currently dominated by the huge radio groups and the BBC."
Penk has more than 30 years industry experience and he bought the entire share capital of Oldham FM limited. Advised by law firm Heatons LLP, their corporate partner, Jim Truscott said that he was aiming to build up the 1.4% market share that Revolution currently holds:
"The station was failing to demonstrate commercial viability so my client has seized the opportunity to turn the business round and offer positive prospects for the station."
But before legions of indie fans throw their arms up to their new saviour, we have a couple of questions to ask - we would have asked direct, but as we say, he never phoned us back and we know how influential we can be :
Who instigated the music change?
And would the takeover have happened if Ofcom had said ‘no’ to those changes?
With a background at Key 103, Fox FM, Virgin and Capital, it seems unlikely that The Revolution will go back to a market dominated by Xfm.
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