Kevin Branigan’s Bay Broadcasting Buys Out Radio Nova Partners

Bay Broadcasting has taken 100% ownership of Ireland’s only rock station, Radio Nova.

The Bay group is headed by station CEO Kevin Branigan, who has been involved with Radio Nova since it was launched in 2010. Bay Broadcasting has purchased shares from veteran radio investors Vienna Investments – a group which includes Red FM and Electric Media’s Dermot Hanrahan, concert promoter Peter Aiken and impresario Maurice Cassidy – as well as from WLR boss Des Whelan, and tech investor, Pat McDonagh.

Bay, which also owns Classic Hits 4FM and is a shareholder in Sunshine 106.8, had a 38% stake in Nova and is understood to have bought-out all other shareholders as part of a move to develop "a more strategic plan for its radio assets." The buyout is understood to have been approved by the BAI at its monthly meeting yesterday and is now expected to be considered by the competition authority – where it is unlikely to meet any resistance.

Radio Nova was granted a 10-year licence by the BAI in 2010, to broadcast a rock music service to Dublin and the wider commuter belt. The station has 136,000 listeners.

The station's CEO, Kevin Branigan, paid tribute to the departing sharholders. "We've benefitted from a very experienced and dynamic board and shareholder base up to now and this has helped us get to a very good market position,” he said.

Branigan now points to investment in programming as being key to the station's future growth plans. "We've already begun a growth strategy with the appointment of broadcaster Colm Hayes as Programme Director earlier this year and our audience is on an upward growth curve,” Branigan said.

Nova is based at Castleforbes House in Dublin 1, alongside Classic Hits and Sunshine 106.8. It is the only Dublin radio station to have the commuter belt counties of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow within its franchise area. Its long-term goal is to secure a fully national rock music licence.