Charles Allen, the Lanarkshire-born accountant and former chief executive of ITV, is a well-known beancounter.

Now the chair of Global Radio, his achievements at ITV were more often than not centred on cost-cutting measures and regulatory issues rather than creativity. His greatest achievement at the commercial broadcaster, now chaired by Michael Grade, was to negotiate a £135 million annual saving in ITV's annual licence fee payments with the communications regulator Ofcom. Mr Allen's experience at ITV is likely to provide some clues as to what he has planned for a merged GCap and Global.

There will be obvious savings in bringing together Global and GCap. After all, the merger of Capital Radio and GWR in 2005 reduced costs by about £25 million. This would no doubt be Global's focus for the first few months in the event of a takeover.

Mr Allen and chief executive Ashley Tabor are also likely to bring in their own people.

One intriguing question is whether Paul Jackson, the managing director of Capital Radio and the son of Global executive Richard Park, will be asked to stay on.

Park Senior is likely to play a key role in a future combination. The former Capital Radio programme controller, who worked at Capital in its glory days of Chris Tarrant in the 1980s and 1990s, may take responsibility for extending the strongest brands through events.

Indeed rebranding will probably be at the centre of Mr Allen's plans. The new management is likely to take GCap's One Network, or at least its less successful stations, and rebrand them as Heart. Global's popular Galaxy brand could also be used to rebrand stations such as Choice.

Mr Allen and his team will need to invest in the quality of the stations in order to compete with the BBC. There is likely to be a hefty budget available to pay for the right presenters.

If Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen do not prove a success in the breakfast slot, then they may look for someone with the appeal of Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles.

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