THE award-winning City-beat radio station in Belfast has been purchased by Q Local Media Ltd, which owns a network of six local stations across the north.
And the acquisition of City-beat from Carlisle-based CN Group Ltd has been heralded by its new owners as a "significant step" for the Q Group.
Belfast Citybeat - a twice Arqiva 'Station Of The Year' and multi-Sony Award winner since it first went on air in October 1996 - broadcasts to greater Belfast on 96.7FM and on DAB digital radio across all of Northern Ireland.
The Q group, a sister company of The Irish News, Farmweek and Interpress, operates Q102.9 in Derry), Q97.2FM (Coleraine), Q107FM (Ballymena), Q106/7FM (Mid-Ulster), Q100.5FM (Newry and Mourne) and Q101.2FM (Omagh/ Enniskillen).
And the addition of City-beat, which provides a mix of adult contemporary music, entertainment, competitions and essential information, will give the Q group an average weekly listenership of around 250,000.
"This acquisition is a significant step for the Q Group in that Citybeat has a proven track record throughout Greater Belfast and will complement our existing presence throughout Northern Ireland," said Dominic Fitzpatrick, executive chairman of Q Local Media Ltd.
"As a local company, we are committed to further investment throughout the group and look forward to continuing to serve both listeners and advertisers of Citybeat 96.7/102.5FM in the future," he added.
Yesterday's announcement comes amid a changing landscape of radio ownership across Britain and Ireland, where a number of stations and groups have been - or are in the midst of - changing hands.
Earlier this month Belfast-based media group UTV said it was exploring options to offload some or all its stable of 13 independent local radio stations in Britain, which include Juice FM in Liverpool and Pulse in Yorkshire.
But it stressed that any disposal would not include talkSPORT, Sport Magazine, talkSPORT International or any of UTV's eight Irish radio stations, which include U105 in Belfast.
Meanwhile, it was announced yesterday that UTV Media was to launch three new stations talkRADIO, talk-SPORT 2 and talkBUSINESS .
It also plans to return Virgin Radio to the UK airwaves under a partnership with the Virgin Group.