[IanJRedman]

There were loss making smaller sallie stations that wouldn't have survived in the old GCap portfolio that required them being part of a regional network.    Note during the pandemic that when Bauer acquired stations from Lincs, Wireless, Celador and UKRD that there was a panic to rebrand and relaunch them as Greatest Hits Radio in the quickest time possible when the ad market crashed due to the lockdowns.  When Bauer's accountants saw the books for some of those stations, it had to be done promptly.

Yes - changes were made a lot sooner than originally anticipated. I know for the ex-Celador stations, there was an interim period (a couple of months?) in which the stations were effectively GHR, but with their old name and a separate breakfast show, which wasn't part of the original plan.

The only 'catch' was that the new stations weren't yet able to properly network with GHR at the time, so the presenters had to voicetrack separate shows, which were played out while those same presenters were broadcasting live on the other GHR stations...