Virgin Radio could struggle to fetch the £70 million auction price hoped for by SMG, its owner.
Potential bidders in the first round, which closes today, were thought to include Global Radio, owner of Heart and Galaxy, UTV, owner of talkSPORT, Absolute Radio and Vitruvian Private Equity, which is advised by Phil Riley, the former Chrysalis Radio boss.
Guardian Media Group, owner of the Smooth and Real stations, indicated yesterday that it was not going to bid, and others said that it was difficult to raise financing.
The sale process was also affected by the decision this week by commercial-market leader GCap Media to abandon its digital stations that use the DAB standard.
Virgin Radio transmits nationally on the poorer-quality AM frequency, and on FM only in London, making it particularly dependent on digital transmission to ensure that it can retain listeners in the long term.
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SMG has been trying to sell Virgin Radio so that it can concentrate on commercial television. A flotation was abandoned last year.
SMG then raised £95 million to shore up debts and put Virgin Radio back on the market in the hope it would achieve a better price because it would not appear to be under pressure to reduce borrowings.