[London Lite]

That is the sad thing about the nationalisation of local radio - most of them were actually profitable. It's just the likes of Global, Bauer etc. wanted them to be even more profitable.

Yet there were some stations that relied on group support in the pre-Heart/Capital era.

Lincs is an interesting one as for years there were the only commercial alternative to Radio Lincolnshire, so quickly built up a loyal following and still has a 25% share in their market despite the extra choice provided by DAB. So it's really a test to see if listeners will move across to listening on DAB or stick with Greatest Hits on FM.

As mentioned by Spencer, there have been small budget locals that are descended from the previous local stations that were replaced by GHR on DAB such as This is the Coast and V2 Radio. This is the Coast will also operate the new SSDAB multiplex for the area.

SSDAB is the last throw of the dice for local commercial radio. It'll finally prove if listeners are really interested in local content via radio or they'll stick to the national commercial or BBC stations as they do now.