Scottish Radio Holdings

Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) was a Scottish media company which owned 22 radio stations, and around 30 local newspapers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

History

SRH had its origins in the 1970s when Glasgow was awarded the third license for a commercial station in the UK. As a result, in 1973 Radio Clyde began broadcasting and unlike the two existing stations, both in London, was an immediate success helped in part by strong financial backers that included Sean Connery and Jackie Stewart.

In 1991, when laws controlling the ownership of commercial stations were relaxed, the station merged with Radio Forth to form SRH and immediately floated on the London Stock Exchange.

In 1995 it acquired Morton Newspapers which owned around 20 newspapers in Northern Ireland, and since then expanded operations by acquiring further publications in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

SRH was acquired by rival media group Emap on June 21, 2005. The group's newspaper interests were sold off, as were the firm's radio operations in the Republic of Ireland; SRH's UK radio operations were integrated into those of Emap, with the two SRH-owned Vibe FM stations becoming Kiss 101 and Kiss 105-108, and the group's FM stations in Scotland forming a local version of the Big City Network which Emap were already operating in England. Emap also took on SRH's AM stations in Scotland, Wave 105 on England's south coast, and two stations in Northern Ireland from SRH.

Emap's consumer media interests, including radio stations, were later taken over by Bauer Media Group.