History
It was established by John Myers and John Simons of Border Radio Holdings, a subsidiary of Border Television. The brand was later expanded to two further stations in North West England and the East Midlands.
In 2000, ownership of the stations was transferred to Capital Radio Group, when Capital Radio Group bought Border Television. The buy-out was largely seen as Capital attempting to gain control of Century and its three regional licences, especially when Border Television itself was rapidly sold on to Granada Media Group.
Under the ownership of Capital the stations were subtly rebranded from Century Radio to Century FM. There was also a transfer away from the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties music format, which clashed with Capital's Capital Gold brand to a more modern music format. The south-coast based Ocean FM also took the "Century Format" but did not take the Century brand name.
With the merger of Capital and GWR in 2005, the Century brand became part of GCap Media, however, the terms of the merger forced the sale of 106 Century FM to Chrysalis Group. Under the ownership of Chrysalis Group, 106 Century FM relaunched as Heart 106 at Midnight on Friday 26 August 2005. Later in 2005, Ocean FM also began to move away from the Century format dropping Century branding, straplines, and networked programming for a more individual approach.
Finally, on 18 October 2006, it was announced that the two remaining Century stations had been sold to GMG Radio. Perhaps ironically, GMG Radio is run by Myers and Simons who created the original Century brand in 1994.
Century Digital was replaced by Real Radio on DAB, a GMG Radio brand, in London on 23 March 2007, leaving Birmingham as the only area with Century Digital available, it finally closed a few days later. In 2008, Century FM changed its name to Century Radio and adopted a new logo, matching that of sister station Real Radio. On 31 March 2009, after over 14 years of using the Century name, Century Radio was renamed Real Radio to fit in with the branding and network programming of the other stations in the Real Radio network.
Read more about this topic: Century Network
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