Trevor Dann, former chief executive of the Radio Academy, believes there has been a failure to regulate the local radio landscape "on a scale to match the banking crisis".

Speaking to the Today programme, he said that local stations were gradually becoming "not radio stations but relay stations of playlists and DJs making programmes in London".

His comments come as the Office of Fair Trading looks at the takeover by the biggest commercial radio group in the country, Global Radio, of the Guardian Media Group's radio interests, for £70 million.

Independent radio consultant Grant Goddard told Jim Naughtie the commercial sector has become "increasingly emerged into larger and larger companies", and "listeners to radio in local areas particularly simply don't have as much choice as they used to."

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