Cantons of Aargau and Solothurn support CH-Media majority at Radio 32

Radio 32 AG will continue to provide the service mandate contained in the license unchanged, writes the Solothurn government council in its statement to the Federal Office of Communications Bakom. The continuation of broadcasting operations, the previous coverage of the canton of Solothurn and the radio program targeted at the Solothurn-Olten coverage area would continue to be guaranteed.

The Solothurn government council therefore has no objections to the approval of the application for the economic transfer of Radio 32.

In its brief statement, the Aargau government council writes that it agrees with the concession transfer to CH Media Holding.

CH Media, a merger of AZ Medien and NZZ Regionalmedien, had announced in early December that it intended to acquire a majority stake in Radio 32 (Werbewoche.ch reported). The majority shareholding is subject to approval by the Bakom.

The media company, which among other things publishes the Aargauer newspaper and Solothurn newspaper as well as the Lucerne Newspaper which publishes the radio station, has held a 21.9 percent stake in Radio 32 to date. CH Media takes over the 36.28 percent share of Lagerhäuser Centralschweiz. Other shareholders are and remain Zofinger Tagblatt (21.82 percent) and Netbasket, based in the canton of Zug (20 percent).

Radio program as before

All employees of Radio 32 will be taken on, as the media company notes. The regional station's editorial office is in Solothurn.

In its application to Bakom, CH Media writes that Radio 32 will continue to offer a professional 24-hour program with a targeted regional focus. True to the guiding journalistic criteria of "current", "regional" and "close to listeners", the program will be aimed at the majority of the population in the coverage area.

CH Media already owns Radio Argovia, Radio 24, Radio Pilatus, Radio FM1, Radio Melody and Vergin Radio Switzerland Hits and Rock. (SDA)