JAILED Blackpool Football Club owner Owen Oyston has sold Morecambe-based commercial radio station, The Bay, to a Cumbrian newspaper publisher as part of a multi-million pound deal.

The station, formerly owned by the Oyston Family Trust, which represented the interests of jailed tycoon, has been sold with another station, the Belfast-based City Beat.

Just a few weeks ago there were reports that media mogul Kelvin Mackenzie had tabled a bid for the station on behalf of his company Talk Radio, but it is believed that the Carlisle-based CN Group, which has bought the station, outbid Mackenzie's £6million offer package.

Oyston originally had interests in a number of stations, including Heartbeat and Goldbeat as well as The Bay. Control of the stations was passed to the Oyston Family Trust after the millionaire football club owner was jailed for rape and the radio authorities questioned his suitability to hold a licence.

Recently plans were mooted to expand the Bay's sports coverage and cover county football matches previously catered for by Preston-based Rock FM. This was believed to form part of Talk Radio's plans and it is not known if this forms part of the CN Group's agenda.

Robin Burgess, chief executive of the CN Group commented: "The Bay is already a successful station which we intend to develop further."

Carl Oyston, Owen's son and current Chairman of Blackpool Football Club, declined to comment on the sale.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.