Under the control of Ron Coles, Midlands Radio plc was floated on the full stock market in 1990.
[2] Following the introduction of the Broadcasting Act of 1990, a number of major groups began to lead a consolidation of the market.
[citation needed] As Mercia and its medium wave frequency were sold in the bundle, GWR announced that 1359 kHz would be rebranded as Classic Gold.
GEM continued to be live and local 24 hours a day until 1997, when Tony Lyman's programme was networked from 12 midday - 3 p.m. across most of the Midlands and the Home Counties on the Classic Gold network, and at this point the name of the station was changed to Classic Gold GEM.
[4][5][6] GWR later merged with Capital Radio to form GCap Media, and GCap was then acquired by Global Radio based in Leicester Square, London[7] with the FM stations adopting national brands such as Heart and Capital.