GMG Radio takes on regional sales for Saga Radio

LONDON – Saga Radio has handed responsibility for selling airtime for certain regions to Guardian Media Group Radio.

The contract covers three Saga FM stations in the East Midlands, West Midlands and Glasgow, and sees GMG sales teams based in the North West, Yorkshire, Newcastle, Bristol, the West and Wales take over airtime sales for the Saga regions.

However, Saga will still handle sales within those regions and in London and there have been no redundancies in its sales operation.

The deal gives GMG Radio's sales offering an additional 10.9m hours, taking it to a total of 36.7m hours. It will have an 8% share of the market, making it the UK's fourth-biggest radio buy in terms of all commercial listening after GCap, Emap and Chrysalis.

Julian Carter, director of sales for GMG Radio, said: "We are delighted to be working with Saga Radio, and the addition of its stations to our own Real Radio and Smooth FM brands means we are now an extremely powerful buy for agencies targeting the adult market."

Until now, Saga has retained control of all its radio sales, according to Saga Radio director Ron Coles, but took the decision because it was impressed by GMG Radio's Manchester sales operation.

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