Questions around the future of London based Club Asia radio continue to swirl the industry, as a buyer is due to be announced.

There is unconfirmed speculation in the Asian media industry, AIM Magazine can reveal, that the recently bankrupted youth station has been bought by its chief rival Sunrise radio.

Industry watchers point towards various clues. Sunrise TV has started teasing viewers with adverts touting that a new media outlet, ‘Buzz Asia’, was “coming soon”.

The domain names – buzzasiaradio.com and buzzasiaonline.com – have also been bought, according to the magazine BizAsia. The domain registration details bring up no information on its owners, but both were bought as recently as 11th September.

A spokesperson for the accountancy firm Mazars, which has handled Club Asia’s affairs since it went into administration, said they were unwilling to make a statement today about its status. Ofcom was similarly unresponsive at the time of publication.

But industry insiders say it is unlikely Sunrise Radio would push to buy Club Asia radio itself. This is partly because a newly launched Club Asia’s commercial success would end up cannibalising its own revenue from Sunrise and (youth focused) Yarr Radio.

Furthermore, it’s unlikely media regulator Ofcom would allow Sunrise to buy its chief commercial rival in London. Some say therefore that Sunrise offered a bid to buy Club Asia as part of a consortium.

East London based Club Asia announced it had gone into administration just over a month ago. It’s weekly audience numbered around 200,000 listeners at the time.

On 18th August its former management confirmed the news and Mazars said it was looking for buyers.

There was reports that a number of buyers were interested, including the owners of Panjab Radio.

No one from Sunrise Radio had offered a statement by the time of publication.