Mean Fiddler buys Ritz station as Winter eyes shares option. (News).

Ritz Music Group announced last Friday that it has sold its troubled country radio station Ritz 1035 to the Mean Fiddler Music Group.

RMG chairman Ron Winter revealed early that afternoon that the sale was going through. In a statement, Mean Fiddler Music Group confirmed that more than 90% of the consideration for the transaction is being satisfied by Mean Fiddler shares at a valuation of 50p per share.

Winter says the station will remain based at RMG's Wembley HQ for at least six months and continue to be branded "Ritz" for the meantime. A month ago, the station was hit by claims from a string of DJs, claiming that they were owed sums adding up to a total of 45,000 [pounds sterling].

The deal was completed two days after Ritz subsidiary Ritz Music Operations failed in a High Court counter claim against A-Z Music Services, and was ordered to be wound up. A-Z Music Services had brought the winding up order against RMO, claiming it was owed 211,105.91 [pounds sterling].

The court heard that Winter was bringing a counter suit for a number of claims against Alpharank trading as A-Z Music Services. These claims, which included an allegation that A-Z chief Paddy Prendergast had charged above market rates for work done, totalled 516,473 [pounds sterling].

However, the judge dismissed the cross claims because he said there was no evidence presented to court "beyond Winter's statement". The judge said he regarded this "opposition as pure smokescreen" and ruled that if Winter's cross claims did exist ...