The station will be wholly owned by GMG Radio and its parent company the Guardian Media Group. The winning bid beat those from rivals including: two from Chrysalis, which pitched with its digital rock station The Arrow and a speech station GMBC based on LBC; and Emap, which fielded Piccadilly Talk.
RockTalk will provide "a speech and rock music service for 35- to 64-year-olds, which contains a strong commitment to local news, current affairs and interactive debate for the Manchester area. Comprehensive local, national, world news and information will be included, with a wide variety of rock music played during off-peak and bank holidays", according to the GMG Radio application.
The licence is issued for a period of 12 years and Ofcom said that it expects RockTalk 106.1 to begin broadcasting at the earliest opportunity and no later than two years from this award date.
John Myers, GMG Radio chief executive, said: "We're getting ready to rock in the North West. The station won't be launching until 2008 as we have got to wait for a bulk order of Harley Davidson's for staff."
The new station joins GMG Radio's existing stations in the north-west 105.4 Century FM and 100.4 Smooth FM.
.jpg)
.jpg)