MATURE listeners’ radio station Original 106 went off the airwaves forever last night, to be replaced by Coast 106.

The move comes after Canadian-owned Original sold the 106 frequency to UK entertainment giant Celador, at one time the owner of TV’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire quiz show.

Celador, now one of the UK’s largest film producers, plans to invest £1m in converting the Southampton-based station to Coast, which will keep a music policy aimed to appeal to the over 40s, vowing to axe all “pop pap”.

It’s two years since Original launched but the station struggled to get above two per cent audience share, when the business plan targeted 14 per cent within three years.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo, Celador bought Original in August for an undisclosed sum and is now keen to win over the estimated 1.6m listeners in the region, which stretches from Bournemouth to Chichester.

For the next month Coast will be running what’s known as a “music sustaining service” – essentially just back-to-back records, before relaunching the station at midnight on October 29.

Almost all Original’s DJs are to be replaced, with only Richard Skinner retained to head-up a “strong weekend line-up”. In total, the changeover will see around six job losses, including managing director Tom Hunter. He has been replaced by former Tindle Radio chief executive Kevin Stewart.

A former member of staff, who did not want to be named, said; “It is very sad because staff there worked their socks off for more than two years but it never made any money.”

Paul Smith, pictured, chairman of Celador parent Complete Communications, who describes himself as semiretired after reportedly making £106m from the sale of the worldwide rights to his hit TV formats including Millionaire, is a radio enthusiast.

He said: “Radio is my passion and I amabsolutely thrilled to be able to bring a radio station to the region that really delivers what a huge, under-served section of the community want.

“The music on the Coast will entertain and our presenters will inform– there won’t be any pop pap or trivial speech – just quality music and information.”