Sky Radio to Close a Station in Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Radio said Thursday it will close its Danish FM radio station because it had not been given the nationwide audience coverage which the government had promised two years ago when the commercial station won its broadcast license.

Sky Radio, part of the global media group News Corp., operated Sky Radio P5 featuring popular music, brief news shows every 30 minutes and a daily news magazine.

Sky Radio P5 had been promised a coverage of 78 percent of Denmark but only got 63 percent, station manager Kasper Krueger said.

“Based on this, we have decided to terminate our broadcast permission because we can not operate a commercial radio station on these terms,” said Krueger.

On Nov. 15, 2003, the station broke the state-owned Danish Broadcasting Corp.’s 78-year radio monopoly when it started airing its nationwide commercial FM radio network.

News Corp. paid 54 million kroner ($8.5 million) in June 2003 for the eight-year nationwide FM license.