We had an anonymous phone message left early Friday morning last week claiming that Isle of Wight Radio had bought The Beacon.
We texted Paul Topping, one of the owners of IW Radio, to find out if it was true. He hasn’t confirmed or denied it to us at the time of publishing.
Some light might have been cast by a few readers’ comments.
Readers strengthen rumours
We put out the following pre-9am on Friday, ‘Anonymous unconfirmed vmail this morning: “IW Radio have taken over the Beacon”: Building their own News International?’, to Twitter and Facebook.
Interestingly two people replied with some certainty, “This happened ages ago. I thought it was common knowledge” and “Yes it did happen ages ago , But we weren’t / didn’t want to say !” A couple of the other comments were less complimentary.
A media empire in the making?
When Martin Potter started the IW Gazette paper (RIP) and WightFM Internet based-radio station (RIP) to run along side his Island Life magazine, the County Press ran an article, labelling him the Rupert Murdoch of the Isle of Wight.
As the story sharing that appeared to be going on between the County Press and Isle of Wight Radio looks to be happening less these days, we wonder if they’ll also start apply this label to Paul Topping and Claire Willis, the public faces of IWR ownership?
