North West based radio company Niocom will buy Central Radio, the Preston-based service currently owned by UTV.

As previously reported, UTV announced late last year that they had failed to make the newish Preston radio station commercially viable and would shut it down on Christmas Eve and hand the licence back to media regulator OfCom. But then the station got a last minute reprieve following the news a serious buyer was in takeover talks.

Niocom was set up to operate community radio station Cheshire FM, and then expanded to buy Southport-based Dune FM. Central Radio will be the firm's third station.

Radio Today quote Niocom's MD David Duffy as follows: "We intend to continue our strategy of developing stations with a strong local identity, staffed by local talent, and meeting local needs. Central is a good fit geographically for our operation, and whilst the station is in a competitive market, we believe that if positioned correctly, it has great potential".