Limassol’s popular Coast FM changes hands

“IT WAS everything I’ve lived for since I was a boy,” said founder of Limassol’s popular Coast fm, David Symonds, which recently changed hands.

“I never got into it to make money but for the love of the medium,” said founder David Symonds, who explained that he sold his shares as they got hit by the fallout from the recession.

Coast FM on the frequency 91.4 changed hands at the end of June, with the new owners keen to attract the Russian market. Nonetheless Symonds still feels proud of what he achieved 10 years ago.

Symonds who has been living in Cyprus for 16 years now founded the station around 10 years ago with an aim to fill a gap in the market. “When we started there wasn’t anybody playing American or English adult contemporary music,” said Symonds. “We were different and a hell of a lot of people enjoyed it,” he added.

According to Symonds one of the main reasons the station “hit the rocks” was because a local station relies on the high street for advertising revenue which could not be met. “I don’t blame people for not being able to pay €200 to €300, but it created a cash flow problem for us,” said Symonds who said it also had to do with people not paying or paying in arrears.

The station’s new owner, who does not want to be named but has been in the radio industry for many years now said the new station should be up and running by September 1. “We want to target the Russian listeners as they are quite a good as well as big share of the market,” he said.

For the moment the station has been playing Russian music but without any presenters, advertisements or DJs.

Symonds is currently applying for a radio licence from the radio authority to get a station going that he wants to be seen as more “international” than “English.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.