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| talkSPORT Station History From Talk Radio UK to talkSPORT 2000 I 2001 I 2002 I 2003 I 2004 I 2005 I 2006 I 2007 I 2008 1994: With the BBC’s Radio 5 being re-launched as a more news orientated Radio Five Live this year, Luxembourg based media group CLT announce plans to launch the UK’s first national commercial talk based radio station, entitled Talk Radio UK. Radio UK Breakfast Show) with Sean Bolger and Samantha Meah, and Ian Collins, a member of the Wild Al Kelly show production team. Tommy Boyd was also in the stations original line-up, presenting the drivetime show between 3:00pm-7:00pm on Talk Radio UK and Anna Raeburn on the Afternoon show from 1:00pm. 1996: Talk Radio UK re-brands itself just Talk Radio, with a new Breakfast Show being put in place, presented by Paul Ross and Carol McGiffin. Former BBC Radio 1 DJ and current Classic FM Breakfast presenter Simon Bates joins Talk Radio along with former musician Jonathan King. 1997: Talk Radio make their first foray into the world of sports radio rights bidding, by purchasing the rights to broadcast the Nationwide Football League from BBC Radio Five Live for the 1997-1998 season. However, these matches do not turn out to be a success for the station, and with the station under new management, they are sold back to the BBC the following season. 1999: Talk Radio purchases rights to broadcast not just Manchester United but other Champions League matches involving Newcastle and Arsenal, as well as shared rights to broadcast the FA Cup, England internationals, UEFA Cup and other events including England's Winter Tours to South Africa, Zimabwe, Pakistan and India and British Lions Tours to South Africa and New Zealand. On the group purchasing 15 other local radio stations, TalkCo Holdings is renamed as The Wireless Group. Later on in the year, The Wireless Group announce plans to rebrand the station the following year as the UK's first national commercial sports radio station, talkSPORT. This will mean the end of most of the remaining talk based shows, including The Big Boys Breakfast with Dave Banks and Nick Ferrari. Despite this, the manager of the English national football team Kevin Keegan gives the station his backing, saying “talkSPORT is the radio station we have all been waiting for”. 2000: The UK's First National Commercial Sports Radio Station January: At Midnight going into Monday 17th January during the James Whale Show, Talk Radio becomes talkSPORT, the UK's first national commercial sports radio station. The station moves from its old Oxford Street studios to a new studio in Hatfield on the south bank of the River Thames near Waterloo Station. 5:00am Bloomberg on the Money 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Adrian Durham 10:00am Derek Hatton on Sports Break 12:00pm Timesmart witn Paul Ross 1:00pm Sportsday with Tony Lockwood & Alvin Martin (Friday: 1:00pm The Memorabillia Show with John Kearns 2:00pm Inside the Boardroom with Brian Moore) 4:00pm The Season Ticket with Tom Watt 7:00pm Football First with Adrian Durham / The Kickabout with Hawksbee & Jacobs / It's Just Like Watching Brazil with Alan Brazil 10:00pm James Whale (Friday: 10:00pm James H Reeve) 2:00am Ian Collins & the Creatures of the Night (Friday: 2:00am Mike Dickin) February: James Whale leaves the airwaves for a few months, due to him contracting cancer. Weekend overnight presenter Mike Dickin fills-in for him. March: After spending over 4 years with the station since it’s Talk Radio days, long-serving Timesmart presenter Paul Ross leaves the station. Jeremy Nicholas replaces him on Timesmart, which is now to air just on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 12:00pm-1:00pm. Sky Sports presenters Rob McCaffrey and Alan McInally replace Tony Lockwood and Alvin Martin on the Sportsday show, with them presenting a new show entitled the Afternoon Sportzone with The Two Macs. April: Alan Brazil is made a permanent presenter of The Sports Breakfast, which is now to be re-titled Breakfast with Brazil. He is still to co-host the show though, with a cycle of presenters, including Gary Newbon, Frank Stapleton, Peter Shilton, Derek Thompson, Brough Scott, Geoffrey Boycott, Ian Darke and Mike Parry, his co-host on It’s Just Like Watching Brazil, which is to be replaced by Football First with Alvin Martin. May: talkSPORT cover their first live FA Cup Final – with Alan Parry and Alvin Martin providing commentary on Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa, the last Cup Final to be played at the old Wembley. June: talkSPORT cover Euro 2000 live from Holland and Belgium, although, at this point unbeknown to the station’s listeners, from The Jolly Hotel in Amsterdam and not live from the stadia at Euro 2000. talkSPORT's commentary teams, commentating on the matches from pictures on television monitors, are Alan Parry and Alvin Martin with Jim Proudfoot and Frank Stapleton as the talkSPORT's secondary pairing. Live sports correspondent Jon Driscoll is the station's reporter, although he is not allowed in the official stadia. Having taken the commercial broadcaster to court in a bitter broadcasting row, the BBC gain a High Court Order against talkSPORT regarding there coverage of the Euro 2000 football tournament. This order requires talkSPORT to make it clear on air that they are not broadcasting the event ‘live’ in the usual sense, that they are not in the stadium, that their commentators are watching the games off the television and that they do not hold the official broadcasting rights for Euro 2000. Exclusive radio rights for Euro 2000 had been bought by BBC Radio Five Live and the Capital Radio Group, and Bob Shennan, head of BBC Sport production and controller-designate of BBC Radio Five Live, said: "talkSPORT's promotion and coverage over the weekend was duping listeners. talkSPORT aren't in the stadium, they don't have the broadcast rights, they don't have a proper sound feed and they haven't paid for it. Their coverage was simply second-hand." talkSPORT however, had been refused a share of the broadcast rights by the EBU, when they bid for the rights earlier in the year. talkSPORT Chief Football Commentator Alan Parry said: “we were quite prepared to pay - probably more than the BBC - to be there. This cosy little cartel, the European Broadcasting Union to which the BBC belongs, said no.” July: On Sunday July 2nd, talkSPORT provide unofficial full match coverage of the Euro 2000 Final: France’s 2-1 Extra Time win over Italy. Alan Parry and Alvin Martin provide unofficial commentary on the match from The Jolly Hotel in Amsterdam and not from De Kuip in Rotterdam. Between the 20th and the 23rd July, talkSPORT provide full live coverage of The Open Golf Championship from St Andrews Golf Course in Fife, Scotland. Andy Gray, Richard Kaufman, Richard Boxall and Robert Lee preside over Tiger Woods’ victory by providing live commentary, with reports and interviews from Bob Bubka, Rupert Bell and Sarah Sanderson. August: talkSPORT make a number of changes to their weekday schedule at the end of the summer. Having filled in for the returning James Whale, Mike Dickin replaces Derek Hatton on the 10:00am weekday morning show, whilst Rob McCaffrey and Alan McInally leave the talkSPORT afternoon show in order to concentrate on their Sky Sports TV commitments. Sky Sports Rob Wotton replaces them on The Afternoon Sportzone. talkSPORT also make a number of changes to their weekend schedule after it returns to normal at the start of the football season. The main change sees Gary Newbon take over the flagship football phone-in 505 on a permanent basis, replacing last seasons regular duo John Fashanu and Tony Lockwood, the latter becoming the Chief Football Correspondent. Former Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty is introduced to the airwaves, as he is to present Sunday afternoon show Call he Doc with Jeremy Nicholas. November: talkSPORT attempt to purchase exclusive live FA Premiership rights, with the station bidding £27 million to cover the Premier League over the next three seasons. However, they are outbid by BBC Radio Five Live, who bid £45 million. Despite this setback, later that month talkSPORT strike up a big deal with The FA Premier League, ensuring that they can send a reporter to every live Premiership game as of the 2001-02 season. This deal would mean that the station could provide instant goal updates, which would be especially influential to Saturday football scoreline service Football First with Adrian Durham and Alvin Martin. December: After having taken the commercial station to court in the summer, the BBC gain another agreement with talkSPORT, making them ensure that in future, unlike they did for Euro 2000, the station airs frequent disclaimers when broadcasting unauthorised commentaries on sporting events they do not have broadcast rights for. This agreement meant that talkSPORT must make it clear on air in regular intervals of 15 minutes, whenever a major incident happens in the event and at the beginning and end of each broadcast, and in any advertising for it, that the stations coverage is unofficial. They also have to state that any background sound used comes from a studio and not the event, and that coverage is being described from television monitors and not from the event. Reacting to this news, BBC Director of Radio Jenny Abramsky said “The BBC is prepared to compete fairly in the open market for sports rights and other broadcasters must honour agreements reached between sports rights owners and broadcasters in such a market-place." However, Chairman and Chief Executive of The Wireless Group, Kelvin MacKenzie, said he felt that talkSPORT had been “locked out” of the bidding process for Euro 2000, and vowed that, in the future, talkSPORT will provide unofficial coverage of every sporting event that he feels the station has been unfairly barred from the bidding process. 2001: Hawksbee & Jacobs Replace Tom Watt on Drivetime January: At the start of the year, talkSPORT decide to revamp it’s drivetime show, with The Season Ticket with Tom Watt being replaced by former Kickabout presenters Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs between Monday and Thursday. Click here to read talkSPORT Station History for 2001. |
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| 1995: On February 14th, Talk Radio UK end test transmissions and go on air beginning live broadcasts. Caesar the Geezer is the first presenter to be heard on the station. Of the original team, only 2 members would be there at the launch of talkSPORT. They were Asher Gould, then the producer of The Dish (The Talk |
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| 1998: Talk Radio broadcasts their first World Cup from France, with them bringing in the top Sky Sports commentary team of Alan Parry and Andy Gray to commentate on the major matches. Talk Radio also picks up rights to air all Manchester United matches in the UEFA Champions League for the 1998/1999 season, a competition the Red Devils go onto win beating Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp in Barcelona 2-1. In November, TalkCo Holdings, whose Chairman and Chief Executive is former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, purchase the station from CLT. This leads to a mass clearout of Talk Radio's presenters Nick Abbot (right), Anna Raeburn, Tommy Boyd and Peter Deeley, with them putting in place a sports orientated schedule. |
| With the advent of a sports radio station, this sees the introduction of the UK's first Sports Breakfast show. The Sports Breakfast initially used a rotation of presenters, mainly Alan Brazil, Gary Newbon, Brough Scott, Geoffrey Boycott, Ian Darke and Sports Breakfast sports newsreader Adrian Durham.
Despite its re-branding to a sports based station, a few of Talk Radio’s old talk based presenters were retained. These were Derek Hatton, James Whale, Ian Collins and Mike Dickin. The initial regular weekeday talkSPORT schedule was a follows: |
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| September:
Having been taken to court by the BBC for the supposed unauthorised coverage of the Euro 2000 football tournament, talkSPORT announce plans for unofficial coverage of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Their team covering the Games from a Sydney studio include Alan Brazil, Tessa Sanderson, Andrew McKenna and Athletics Correspondent Steve Smith.
October: Former presenter Tony Lockwood leaves the station in order to become a freelance football reporter on the television. Jon Driscoll replaces him as the talkSPORT Chief Football Correspondent. talkSPORT provide live coverage on England’s 1-0 test series win and 2-1 one day international series defeat in Pakistan, with commentary provided by the talkSPORT at the Test team of Geoffrey Boycott, Mark Nicholas, Chris Cowdrey, Chris Broad, Jack Bannister and Bob Woolmer. |
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