Big City is a network of 20 local independent radio stations, which includes Key 103 in Manchester, 96.3 Radio Aire in Leeds, Radio City 96.7 in Liverpool and Metro Radio in Newcastle, stewarded by managing director Travis Baxter. As a group the stations reach 4.8m listeners across the country.
Big City originally encompassed eight regional radio stations, but was expanded at the beginning of last year to include 12 additional stations that the Emap had taken on as a result of the £391m purchase of Scottish Radio Holdings in August 2005.
As part of the deal, Scottish Radio Holdings had to put its Glasgow and Ayr digital licence up for sale, so not to fall foul of ownership rules for digital licences.
The deal meant that Emap took control of SRH stations including Radio Clyde and Radio Forth, which it combined with its existing radio assets, including Kiss FM and a number of stations based on magazine brands such as Smash Hits and Kerrang!.
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