The opportunity to reach an adult population of 1.25m in south Hampshire, east Dorset, the Isle of Wight and parts of Sussex attracted diverse bids including Emap with its Kerrang! rock format, Saga Radio, Virgin Radio Classic Rock, GMG Radio, and a children's radio station involving Hit Entertainment.
The winning station goes by the name of Original 106 and will serve the 40-59 age group with music, 24-hour local news and peak-time speech-based programming.
The station is 95% owned by CanWest MediaWorks UK and 5% by Seven Broadcast.
Another foreign bidder was Emmis, a US group with outposts in Eastern Europe that is believed to be interested in acquiring UK radio companies, possibly Chrysalis or The Local Radio Company.
Ofcom awarded two other radio licences covering much smaller population areas. The Local Radio Company won the Swindon licence and Palm FM won the Torbay license.
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