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The Latest talkSPORT News
From the talkSPORT1089.co.uk News Centre

This website endeavours to bring its readers the very latest news regarding the UK's national commercial sports radio station. In bringing you news on talkSPORT, we will be using a number of sources including the Media Guardian, Media Week, Radio Times and UK Radio.

talkSPORT News Archive: January & February 2005 I March & April 2005 I May 2005

Boyd's Letter Sounds Like the Ranting of a Bitter Man
Added: Monday 30th May

Marcus Stead, Head of News at Icon Radio in Liverpool, has criticised former talkSPORT presenter Tommy Boyd for slamming Kelvin MacKenzie's record at the station.

Tommy Boyd, a former Talk Radio and talkSPORT presenter, was sacked twice by Kelvin MacKenzie following his initial takeover of the station in 1998 and again in 2002 over comments made by a caller to his show regarding the Royal Family hours after the death of the Queen Mother. Boyd had harsh words to say about his former boss and his record at the station and his relaunch of Talk Radio as the UK's first national commercial sports radio station talkSPORT had been a failure in terms of audience figures.

Boyd wrote in the Media Guardian last week saying: "When he took over what was then Talk Radio, it had 2.8 million listeners and rising. As he clears his desk he has just managed a "record" 2.5 million. A record for him at talkSPORT, but the old populist just couldn't make talkSPORT more popular than Talk Radio."

However Head of News at the Liverpool's Icon Radio, Marcus Stead, has criticised the former talkSPORT presenter claiming his letter "sounds like the ranting of a bitter man who wants to get his own back on the man who sacked him twice." Stead also claims: "A man of his experience should know that it is not purely the number of listeners a station attracts that matters, it is the category of listener that is as important."

According to the latest audience figures released by RAJAR, talkSPORT attracts 2.5m listeners each week with more than 80% of the audience male. Of the 2.5m talkSPORT listeners more than 50% of them are ABC1 which is a very sought after demographic for advertisers to target a specific group of people. Talk Radio had a diverse listenership which, although meant it had 2.8m in 1998, in effect was the downfall of the radio station running it into millions of pounds worth of debt as a result.

Stead, who replied to Boyd's letter in the Media Guardian, claims: "Talk Radio tried to be all things to all people. It tried to incorporate sport, women's issues, serious news, lighter news and even mock shock jockery. The station could not work out what it was trying to be and, as a result, whilst audiences were slightly higher than they are now, this proved a major turn-off for advertisers and plunged the station into debt."

"Kelvin MacKenzie has succeeded in turning a loss-making radio station into a profitable one by targeting programming at ABC1 listeners, who, as Tommy well knows, are very attractive to advertisers and, in doing so, has kept expenditure to a minimum, as all commercial businesses must do. UTV would do well to build on talkSPORT's strengths rather than tear it apart as it is heading in the right direction!" says Icon Radio's Head of News at the University of Liverpool.

talkSPORT's Summer Programming Schedule
Added: Friday 27th May

talkSPORT's preliminary programming schedule for the summer months has been released and includes dedicated cricket, rugby and golf shows.

Following the end of the football season, talkSPORT have set aside their specialist football shows Football First and The Final Whistle for the duration of the summer and replaced them with a number of specialist sports shows dedicated to the British & Irish Lions Tour, The Ashes, The Open and the US Open.

Saturday Scoreboard will be replace Football First on a Saturday initially between 12:00pm-5:00pm and then 2:00pm-6:00pm. Sunday Scoreboard will be replacing The Final Whistle between 4:00pm-8:00pm on a Sunday with both shows being hosted by Adrian Durham and a number of pundits and journalists including Gabriele Marcotti, Henry Winter, Rob Beasley, Alvin Martin, Jason Cundy and Gary Stevens.

Patrick Kinghorn will be fronting the Saturday evening show between 6:00pm-8:00pm replace The Final Whistle with Graham Beecroft. During The Ashes Series as England take on Australia, Kinghorn will be hosting a show called G'Day Sport which links up with the land down under taking a look at the lighter side of sport and cricket with guests and interviews.

Richard Park will be presenting a series of shows on talkSPORT for a number of weeks during the summer. He'll be presenting a sports based show on Saturday lunchtime between 12:00pm-2:00pm in the place of Football First with Adrian Durham, Alvin Martin & Gary Stevens. Park is well known for his part on the BBC's Fame Academy as the headmaster but has a long and distinguised career in broadcaster. He has been football commentator and presenter on Radio Clyde in Scotland and has also worked as presenter for BBC Radio Scotland, Magic 105.4 and more recently at LBC 97.3 in London.

Monday Night Racing from Windsor will return to talkSPORT from 6th June hosted by Derek Thompson and former Newcastle, Coventry and Portsmouth forward turned horsetrainer Micky Quinn each Monday between 7:00pm-9:30pm. James Whale will begin his show earlier at 9:30pm and finish at the usual time at 1:00am.

Tuesday and Thursday will continue to have Evening Kick-Off with Adrian Durham scheduled between 7:00pm-10:00pm on talkSPORT. Durham will be rounding up the latest football news, transfer gossip and big breaking stories throughout the summer. Ray Houghton, Alvin Martin, Jason Cundy and Gabriele Marcotti will remain as Evening Kick-Off pundits alongside Adrian Durham on talkSPORT.

Wednesday between 7:00pm-10:00pm will be host to Over & Out (name to be confirmed) with Chris Cowdrey, Jack Bannister and Tony Greig. Members of England's Barmy Army will also be part of the show with all the latest cricket news and interviews involving England's Test Matches, One Day Internationals, County Championship and the Twenty20 Cup which will be live on talkSPORT from 2006.

On Friday evening Evening Kick-Off with Adrian Durham will be the schedule programme on talkSPORT, however changes will be made to the schedule when live events dictate. Rhodri Williams will be hosting a British Lions Preview show alongside Dick Best with commentator John Taylor and reporter Mike Bovill in New Zealand covering the Tour. The British Lions Preview show will be broadcast on the Friday evening between 7:00pm-10:00pm before matches against New Zealand on 24th June, 1st July and 8th July

The Open Championship will be featuring heavily on talkSPORT in July with the usual team of Rupert Bell, Richard Boxall, Robert Lee and Bob Bubka guiding listeners through all the action from St. Andrews. Each evening following coverage of The Open there will be a special Golf Show between 7:00pm-10:00pm from Thursday 14th until Sunday 17th July. Bob Bubka will also be hosting a special preview show from the US ahead of the US Open in June on talkSPORT.

Fame Academy's Richard Park to Host talkSPORT Show
Added: Friday 27th May

Richard Park, famed most for his role as headmaster on the BBC's Fame Academy, will be hosting a Saturday Lunchtime sports-based show on talkSPORT this summer.

Born in Fife in Scotland, Richard's love of music led to his dream of having his first show in 1966 on pirate station Radio Scotland. His in was noticed by the BBC where he became the host of The Radio 1 Club across the UK on the legendary Round Table Show.

Richard returned to his native Scotland in mid 1970's not only continue career as amusic broadcaster, but also spreading his wings into sport at Radio Clyde. From the start Richard programmed the stations playlist which then led to his position of Head of Entertainment and Sport at Clyde. Throughout his 12 years at the station, in front and behind the scenes of broadcasting, not only did Richard bring the likes of everyone from Karen Carpenter to Hot Chocolate to Radio Clyde but commentated for no less than 10 Scottish Cup Finals, as well as reporting from all the worlds greatest stadiums for matches at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986.

It was during his time at Clyde that Richard began amassing a shelf full of accolades, winning the very first Oscar of the radio world becoming Sony Broadcaster of the Year as well as adding Best Sports Presenter at the New York Radio Festival and Scottish Radio & TV Programme of the Year all in the mid eighties.

With his drive to create great radio sounds Richard moved to London in 1987 to become Programme Controller of Capital and innovated hiring broadcasters such as Chris Tarrant, Neil Fox, and Tim Westwood. Richard was the one responsible for turning the stations output into Capital FM and Capital Gold and propelling its listenership to 44% of Londoners as well as obtaining the highest city audience in the world.

He has also stepped back into his radio broadcasting shoes, presenting LBC 97.3FM's Breakfast and Drivetime shows, being responsible for breaking quite a few tabloid worthy stories! He has even returned to sports commentating for Radio Clyde with games such as Celtic v Bayern Munich in the Champions League . With all of this rounded experience it was only natural that Richard should make use of his little black book of celebrities and have his own frequent series on Magic 105.4 in London.

Richard Park will be hosting a 12:00pm-2:00pm sports-based show on talkSPORT throughout the summer on Saturday afternoons.

Football First International Special: Colombia v England
Added: Wednesday 25th May

talkSPORT will broadcast unofficial coverage of Colombia v England on Tuesday 31st May at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey from 9:00pm.

Adrian Durham presents Football First International Special between 7:00pm-11:00pm on talkSPORT with unofficial commentary from Nigel Pearson and Alvin Martin, courtesy of talkSPORT's studio monitors, on England's second match in the United States as they face Colombia at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

talkSPORT will have updates and reports of the USA v England on Saturday 28th May between 8:00pm-10:00pm at the Soldier Field Stadium in Chicago. The station is unable to bring listeners unofficial commentary of the match because it is being broadcast exclusively on Sky Sports and not a free-to-air TV.

Meanwhile, talkSPORT will be covering Liverpool's victory parade on Thursday 26th May as they travel around the city of Liverpool to celebrate their Champions League Final triumph against AC Milan in Istanbul. Coverage with Andy Clarke begins around 6:30pm on talkSPORT.

The full schedule for Tuesday 31st May on talkSPORT is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft 10:00am Ian Collins 1:00pm Sportswatch with Andrew McKenna 1:10pm Hawksbee & Jacobs 4:00pm The Game with Paul Breen-Turner & Mike Parry 7:00pm Football First International Special: Colombia v England with Adrian Durham, Nigel Pearson & Alvin Martin 11:00pm-1:00am James Whale.

BBC to Broadcast England's 2006-2007 Tour to Australia
Added: Wednesday 25th May

The BBC has secured the exclusive radio broadcast rights for England's Tour of Australia in the Winter of 2006-2007 to air on BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra and BBC Radio 4's Test Match Special.

The deal with Cricket Australia means that the BBC will be broadcasting Five Ashes Test and up to 15 One Day International Matches. The BBC will also be providing online audio streaming of the commentary with Jonathan Agnew, Henry Bloefeld and the rest of the Test Match Special team via the BBC website.

Commenting on the deal, a BBC spokesperson said: "I am delighted that Test Match Special will be able to give this tour the prominence and attention it merits." And Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland said: "A long history of expert, insightful, live radio commentary has helped maintain the Ashes legend in Australia and England. And BBC radio and internet coverage will be an important part of serving the interest of traditional Ashes supporters and winning the interest of new fans."

It is not known whether talkSPORT bid for the rights to the tour after selling the rights to the previous 2001 Ashes Tour in Australia back to the BBC for a loss. talkSPORT claimed that they were unable to broadcast commentary of the Tour because their main commentator Geoffrey Boycott had contracted throat cancer. However, rumours in the newspapers claimed that talkSPORT were unable to find a sponsor for the Tour and sell advertising during coverage because it would be broadcast overnight.

Meanwhile, John Taylor will be leading talkSPORT's commentary team for their live coverage of the British & Irish Lions Tour of New Zealand next month. Taylor, previously the voice of ITV Rugby, won his first cap for Wales at the age of 21 and played 26 Tests during a distinguished career which also included two British Lions tours. He was also been voted Wales Greatest Ever Number 7.

Ulster TV Target Further Radio Acquisitions
Added: Tuesday 24th May

Ulster TV is understood to be looking for further acquisitions following its £98.2m takeover of The Wireless Group, according to industry magazine Media Week.

The Guardian Media Group's radio division which owns Jazz FM, Smooth FM and the Real Radio stations, Chrysalis Group's radio business which owns Heart FM, LBC and Galaxy FM, and the Scottish Media Group's media business which owns Virgin Radio are potential targets for the Belfast-based media company. The three businesses are thought to be valued at between £100m and £150m.

A source close to UTV said the firm is looking to acquire UK radio assets to go with The Wireless Group. The Guardian Media Group's radio businesses are on the market, the source said, adding that Chrysalis and the Scottish Media Group are unwilling to sell their assets.

Last week, shares in Chrysalis rose 2% to 142.75p, thanks to ongoing rumours of takeover interest from Lagardère, a French media company, which owns a number of radio stations around Europe. The company has a market capitalisation of around £234m.

According to newspaper reports, it is believed Chrysalis's radio stations are of particular interest to UTV. The latter thinks it could realise efficiencies and cross-marketing opportunities by merging parts of LBC, owned by Chrysalis, with talkSPORT, owned by The Wireless Group.

UTV Chief Executive John McCann said in a Scotsman on Sunday report that the group might sell some of its individual stations, and that the company would use the purchase of The Wireless Group as a springboard for further UK and Ireland-based radio station acquisitions.

Monday Night Racing from Windsor Returns to talkSPORT
Added: Monday 23rd May

Monday Night Racing from Windsor with Derek Thompson and Micky Quinn is making a return to talkSPORT this summer from Monday 6th June between 7:00pm-9:30pm.

Derek Thompson, Horse Racing Tipster on The Sports Breakfast and host on Digital Horse Racing Channel At the Races, will be presenting Monday Night Racing from Windsor alongside former Newcastle, Coventry and Portsmouth forward Micky Quinn, who used to host the Weekend Sports Breakfast alongside former Aston Villa, Chelsea and Reublic ore Ireland midfielder and ITV football pundit Andy Townsend.

The programme, to be broadcast between 7:00pm-9:30pm, every Monday evening throughout the course of the summer, will air live commentary from the key races from the night's meetings at the Windsor Racecourse as well as the other meetings on the night.

Monday Night Racing has been on talkSPORT for the past five years in one form or another, initially known as Night Riders and hosted by Derek Thompson alongside Charlie McCann and Alex Hammond. Hammond is currently a tipster and presenter on Sky Sports News and is also a host on At the Races alongside Thompson, John McCririck, Shaun Boyce and talkSPORT's Rupert Bell.

talkSPORT will be replacing Football First on Saturday with Saturday Scoreboard between 12:00pm-5:00pm hosted by Adrian Durham. Sunday Scoreboard with be replacing The Final Whistle on Sunday 5th June between 4:00pm-8:00pm and will also be hosted by Adrian Durham alongside Rob Beasley from the News of the World and Gabriele Marcotti. However, pundits are expected to be rotated throughout the summer.

The full schedule on Monday 6th June on talkSPORT is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft 10:00am Ian Collins 1:00pm Sportswatch with Andrew McKenna 1:10pm Hawksbee & Jacobs 4:00pm The Game with Paul Breen-Turner & Mike Parry 7:00pm Monday Night Racing from Windsor with Derek Thompson & Micky Quinn 9:30pm-1:00am James Whale.

Tommy Boyd Slams MacKenzie's talkSPORT Record
Added: Monday 23rd May

Former talkSPORT presenter Tommy Boyd has slammed Kelvin MacKenzie's record at the station following his takeover of Talk Radio in 1998 and the rebranding in 2000.

Boyd, currently presenting a Saturday evening show on BBC Southern Counties Radio between 10:00pm-1:00am, was a presenter on Talk Radio UK when the station launched in 1995 as Drivetime presenter. Three years later in 1998 the former Editor of the Sun Newspaper, Kelvin MacKenzie, launched a takeover for Talk Radio and succeeded. He sacked many of the station's popular presenters including Nick Abbot, Lorraine Kelly, Anna Raeburn, Scott Chisholm, Danny Baker, and, of course, Tommy Boyd.

When Talk Radio was relaunched as talkSPORT, the UK's first national commercial sports radio station, in 2000, Boyd returned to the station to fill-in for James Whale and Mike Dickin but eventually landed his very own talk show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings between 10:00am-2:00am following the departure of Mancunian James H Reeve, who later joined now defuct sports radiostation TEAMtalk 252.

However, a further two years later in April 2002, Boyd was sacked by MacKenzie and his management team once again for this time "failing to block on-air remarks by a caller who threatened to shoot the Royal Family" hours after the death of the Queen Mother. Ian Collins would go on to leave his Creatures of the Night show to become the replacement for Boyd at the weekend on the Unbranded Show.

Writing in the Media Guardian, Boyd claims that MacKenzie's "triumph" as boss of talkSPORT was nothing more that "talking talkSPORT up while keeping the station costs down: by relocating to cheap premises, introducing "voluntary" wage cuts and getting rid of as many staff as possible (some of us more than once)."

MacKenzie will be leaving talkSPORT in the very near future as Ulster TV seal their £98.2m takeover of The Wireless Group, but will walk away with over £7m following the selling of his shares in the company and his pay-off to cancel his contract as Chief Executive and Chairman of The Wireless Group.

Boyd claims that the relaunch of talkSPORT has been a failure in terms of audience figures:  "When he took over what was then Talk Radio, it had 2.8 million listeners and rising. As he clears his desk he has just managed a "record" 2.5 million. A record for him at talkSPORT, but the old populist just couldn't make talkSPORT more popular than Talk Radio."

MacKenzie launched talkSPORT in 2000 claiming that the station would be the new home of sport on the radio and that it would be a platform for male sports listeners to share their opinions on their passion. Boyd claims that commercial speech radio in the UK needs an overhaul and its female listeners: "His missing women listeners can come back. Maybe the time is right for commercial speech radio in the UK to take a good look at the US model, rebrand it for the home market, and do it even better then they do.

"Balancing the books by lowering costs is good business practice, but if you take over a national radio station, lose listeners, and after six years you're still 10% down on the figures you inherited, in radio terms you haven't triumphed. Maybe UTV recognises there is a place for talk about football alongside good talk about everything else; it could recover MacKenzie's audience losses and increase audience", claims Boyd.

Tommy Boyd, presenter on BBC Southern Counties, was writing in the Media Guardian on 23rd May.

Ulster TV: "We'll Talk to MacKenzie"
Added: Thursday 19th May

Ulster TV this week said it was "looking forward" to discussions with Kelvin MacKenzie and other senior management at The Wireless Group over the future of the company

Former Sun Editor and Chief Executive of The Wireless Group MacKenzie is "upset" and "irritated" that his bid to buy the company he founded looks to have been thwarted by UTV. Writing in the Media Guardian this week MacKenzie said he had received "the standard DCM - Don't Come Monday" following UTV's £98m deal to buy The Wireless Group, and was staring unemployment in the face.

A UTV spokeswoman said: "We have put in place an offer for The Wireless Group plc which is subject to shareholder approval. If they elect to approve this offer, we look forward to having a discussion with Kelvin MacKenzie and other Wireless executives at that stage."

MacKenzie bought Talk Radio in 1998 and described how hard he and his colleagues had worked to reinvent the station as talkSPORT. In the latest RAJAR figures talkSPORT beat Virgin Radio for the first time with an increase of 500,000 listeners in the last quarter. At the time MacKenzie said: "This is a fantastic chapter in the success story of talkSPORT. There has been a lot of talk in the music radio industry recently about speech formats not working in commercial terms, but we are proving them wrong."

This week he said "talkSPORT is just the beginning" and that there should be a fleet of profitable commercial speech stations across the country as there are in America and Australia. Under MacKenzie, The Wireless Gtoup had plans to develop commercial talk stations across the UK under the brand allTalk FM. The first of these is due to launch in Edinburgh later this year. The company has submitted bids to media regulator OFCOM for FM licences in Manchester and the Solent region.

"I'm sure Ulster TV will have its own ideas on how to run the company but I implore them to stay out of the self-satisfied tent of radio executives who, despite all the evidence to the contrary believe they and the industry are doing just fine," said MacKenzie.

Kinghorn Dropped from The Game Over Boxing Comments
Added: Tuesday 17th May

talkSPORT's Patrick Kinghorn was dropped as host of The Game because of comments he made about the Amir Khan fight, according to Charles Sale in the Daily Mail.

Kinghorn and co-host Jason Cundy were sensationally dropped from talkSPORT's Drivetime show, The Game, and replaced by Paul Breen-Turner and Mike Parry, the current co-host of The Weekend Sports Breakfast alongside former Republic of Ireland International Midfielder Andy Townsend.

The rumour for the removal from The Game was down to poor audience figures, which in relation to talkSPORT receiving their highest ever overall reach, market share and hours listened suggested that Kinghorn and Cundy could have been letting the side down. However, information has emerged that Kinghorn was relieved from his position due to comments made about the Amir Kahn and Mario Kindelan amateur boxing fight at the weekend.

According to Charles Sale in the Daily Mail's Sports Agenda column on Tuesday 17th May: "Kinghorn has been stood down from the radio programme after making comments on air that could have been construed as suggesting Mario Kindelan was never going to win the Olympic rematch at Bolton's Reebok Stadium."

Sale also reports that: "talkSPORT are sensitive to unsubstantiated boxing comment, however widespread, after having to pay a six-figure sum following remarks made last year by The Sports Breakfast presenter Graham Beecroft concerning a Barry McGuigan fight.

This website was told that Patrick Kinghorn and Jason Cundy will still be working for talkSPORT and that Paul Breen-Turner and Mike Parry are "short-term" presenters for The Game before new permanent presenters are found for the show, perhaps when UTV have finalised their takeover of The Wireless Group.

Meanwhile, Virgin Radio Breakfast show hosts Pete & Geoff have called an end to their three-year double act, telling bosses they want to leave the show at the end of the year but will remain at Virgin Radio.

The Game with Patrick Kinghorn & Jason Cundy
Added: Monday 16th May

Patrick Kinghorn and Jason Cundy have been relieved from their position on The Game on talkSPORT and have been replaced in the "short-term" by Paul Breen-Turner and Mike Parry.

Paul Breen-Turner and Gary Stevens, standing-in for Mike Parry, presented The Game, in association with The Times, today with Parry joining Been-Turner on the show from Tuesday 17th May. Parry was unavailable to co-present the show today and was not scheduled to be on the mid-morning show with Ian Collins today between 10:00am-1:00pm on talkSPORT either.

Patrick Kinghorn made his first appearance on talkSPORT in 2003 as horse racing tipster during the Hawksbee & Jacobs show as part of their sponsorship with horse racing TV channel At the Races. Kinghorn was given his very own show during the summer on a Saturday evening between 6:00pm-8:00pm to round-up the day's sporting news and action. He was also teamed up with Mike Parry on The Sports Breakfast on several occasions when Alan Brazil was absent from the show for whatever reason.

At the beginning of the 2003-2004 Premiership season and following the departures of Richard Kaufman and Bill Young from talkSPORT, Kinghorn was paired up with former Republic of Ireland legend Tony Cascarino to present a new-look Drivetime show. They also presented a number of special shows together including one for Euro 2004 and the Carling Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Tony Cascarino left talkSPORT in February following an apparent breakdown of negotiations regarding his contract at the station. Kinghorn was teamed up with former Chelsea, Ipswich, Tottenham and Portsmouth defender Jason Cundy with their partnership lasting for only a few months before being removed from The Game. The rumours are that Kinghorn & Cundy's show was getting poor audience figures in the wake of the latest RAJAR news which shows talkSPORT with its highest ever reach, market share and hours listened.

An insider at talkSPORT assures this website that Paul Breen-Turner and Mike Parry are "short-term" replacements for Kinghorn and Cundy who remain with talkSPORT for the time being. There is no news or information as to whether they will be presenting any shows in the near future but it is believed Cundy will remain as a pundit on Final Whistle and Evening Kick-Off with Adrian Durham.

MacKenzie Lambasts "Self-Satisfied" Radio Industry
Added: Monday 16th May

Chairman and Chief Executive Kelvin MacKenzie has told how losing out to Ulster TV in the battle to buy talkSPORT owner The Wireless Group was "both upsetting and irritating".

The former editor of tabloid newspaper The Sun, who build talkSPORT into one of the UK's most listened to commercial radio stations in his seven years at the helm, described how he and his management team "flogged ourselves to death" to turn around the once ailing radio station.

"When I first bought talkSPORT in the November of 1998 it was called Talk Radio and was a commercial disaster losing £11m a year with a turnover of £6.6m. Our biggest rival, Virgin Radio, was storming ahead with an audience of 4.6 million and profits north of £15m. So we set about reinventing the station, turning the format from news to sport. It worked," he writes in the Media Guardian.

"In converting Talk Radio to talkSPORT I took the view that for the ordinary working guy (and the talkSPORT audience is 77% bloke), sport represents an emotional as well as information-led reaction. Generally sports fans get hugely agitated by what is going on in a way that they don't when talking about politics and consumer issues. It's at the very soul of what they are. "

"We flogged ourselves to death and as I hand over the keys to my friends from UTV, talkSPORT's audience is at a record 2.5 million. Virgin listeners, however, have now collapsed to 2.4 million. Thank you Lord."

MacKenzie, who is standing down as the Chairman and Chief Executive of The Wireless Group in the wake of last week's takeover, tried to lead a management buyout but struggled to find financial backers. A £100m bid he made with US finance house Veronis Suhler Stevenson collapsed in February when they pulled out.

As he prepares to leave the company he helped to buy for £15.5m nearly seven years ago, MacKenzie fires a warning shot over the bows of the commercial radio industry. He believes commercial broadcasters must find and invest in fresh new formats fast, and that speech radio should be given most attention.

"talkSPORT is just the beginning. It should spawn the spread of popular and profitable commercial speech stations across the UK, which is overdue. All that is missing are the people who have the foresight to invest in speech stations that will make speech formats the huge success that they are in USA and Australia."

The ITV franchise owner, he said, should not be lulled in to the false sense that the radio industry is doing well: "I'm sure Ulster TV will have its own ideas on how to run the company but I implore them to stay out of the self-satisfied tent of radio executives who, despite all the evidence to the contrary, believe they and the industry and doing just fine."

His disappointment at leaving the group he took over in 1998 will doubtless be eased by the £6m-plus in stock and options he will take with him, along with a severance payment of about £1m. As to his plans for the future, MacKenzie reveals that he has been approached to appear on the next series of ITV's jungle reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!.

He said that "with unemployment staring me in the face" he was now in negotiations with the show. Sadly, for fans of his abrasive style the former tabloid editor reckons that "eating donkey's balls or taking it up the rear end from a badger are deal breakers".

To read the full article written in the Media Guardian by Kelvin MacKenzie, click here. Please note that you need to be registered with the Media Guardian to read the article.

McCann Signals Ulster TV's Intentions for talkSPORT
Added: Sunday 15th May

Ulster TV Chief Executive John McCann has signalled his intentions for talkSPORT and The Wireless Group's local radio stations saying: "Ulster will buy rights for talkSPORT."

Following last week's £98.2 bid by Belfast-based media group Ulster TV for The Wireless Group, the deal looks to be sealed shortly and will own national station talkSPORT, 21 local and regional stations, plus the upcoming licences for Belfast and Edinburgh. It will also own the Northern Ireland ITV franchise and internet and telecommunications businesses.

"Around Easter we became aware that Kelvin Mackenzie hadn't been able to put a takeover package together. We approached Goldman Sachs to say not only could we put a deal together, we would buy the whole thing. We told them we could complete the due diligence in three weeks", said John McCann, UTV Chief Executive.

McCann praised MacKenzie for taking talkSPORT from a failing station as Talk Radio into what it is today as the UK's number two commercial radio station behind Classic FM and ahead of Virgin Radio with 2.5m listeners each week compared to Virgin Radio's 2.4m: "Kelvin has done a great job in getting talkSPORT listenership to where it is today. We will build further on that, and bring greater expertise to the stations."

Two-thirds of the profits of the profits from The Wireless Group's local radio stations come from six stations based in Stoke, Bradford and Swansea. Richard Menzies-Gow, Radio Analyst said: "What that tells you is that there are a lot of stations in there which are not profitable," he says. Most likely to be on the list of those non-profitable stations are Paisley's Q96 and Dundee's Wave 102.

Paul Boon, Managing Editor of The Radio Magazine, agrees there is room for improvement in these sorts of areas: "I would suspect the local stations have been used as cash cows, and they probably had the costs reined in too much. If there was a bit more investment in programming, they could do well again."

UTV's new exposure to talk radio is generally met with more scepticism. talkSPORT is not loved in the City because it transmits on an AM signal and has to compete with BBC Radio Five Live. "Radio 5 has the live rights to almost everything. That's not going to change," says Menzies-Gow.

He adds that talkSPORT's AM "problem" will eventually be solved because it is carried on the national digital multiplex. The trouble is that digital radio only accounts for 4% to 5% of total listening, and most analysts predict it will be at least five years before it reaches a mass audience. McCann counters that these issues are not important. The crackly AM signal might be a problem for a music station like Virgin Radio, but is less of a problem for a speech-based station, he argues.

As for BBC Radio Five Live, he says ITV Ulster has been competing against a better resourced regional BBC and regularly winning for decades. He says Ulster will buy non-exclusive rights for talkSPORT, but that the basic model will be "people interested in sport talking about the game they watched on the box last night and doing what it says on the tin, it's talking about sport."

talkSPORT's weekly reach is about a third of BBC Radio Five Live and, although TWG's accounts say the station's operating profit for 2004 grew 27% to £2.6m, analysts generally view it as loss-making because this excludes a share of the cost of central admin and the national ad sales operation. This feeds into TWG's total pre-tax losses of £9.7m in 2004, down from £11.1m the year before.

MacKenzie Fires Parting Shot at Critics Before Departure
Added: Saturday 14th May

talkSPORT Chief Executive Kelvin MacKenzie could not resist a fruity parting shot at his critics before his likely departing from the station following its takeover by Belfast-based Ulster TV.

The former Sun Editor has taken out adverts in industry magazines and tabloid newspapers, including the Daily Star, featuring two phone numbers where listeners can hear recorded messages. On the first, he celebrates talkSPORT's first ratings victory over Virgin Radio, and on the other he blows a raspberry to the "self satisfied twerps in the radio industry" who had talked down his chances of sucessfully launching a sports radio station as a replacement for the failing Talk Radio in 2000.

If you would like to hear Kelvin MacKenzie's messages, dial 0871 424 0001 for his "Thank You" message for talkSPORT's listeners. Alternatively, dial 0871 424 0002 for his other special message to "radio dimwits". Both calls are charged at a national rate and last for a few seconds each.

Following the release of the RAJAR audience figures on the same day as the General Election, Virgin Radio found itself the target of attacks from talkSPORT, which boasted that its audience of almost 2.5m compared to Virgin Radio's 2.4m was a "victory for speech over music radio" in the battle for the male audience. Acting Chief Executive Paul Jackson preferred to focus on a 1.4% share rise in its market share in London to 3.6%.

Meanwhile, former BBC Radio Five Live presenter Dominik Diamond will be filling-in for Mike Dickin between 10:00pm-1:00am on Friday 20th May on talkSPORT. Diamond currently writes a column for the Daily Star and was also presenter of Gamesmaster on Channel 4 in the 1990's.

Ulster TV Deal was "Painful" says MacKenzie
Added: Tuesday 10th May

Kelvin MacKenzie is set to walk away from The Wireless Group with over £7m after the company agreed to be taken over by Ulster TV for £98.2m, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The recommended offer means Kelvin MacKenzie, Chairman and Chief Executive of the group, will leave the business that he helped to buy for £15.5m nearly seven years ago. However, the former Sun editor's disappointment will be sweetened by a cheque worth £6.1m for his 6.4% stake in the business and a payoff of about £800,000 for terminating his two-year contract with the company.

He said yesterday had been "painful", but not as bad as it might have been because Ulster TV were "good guys". Adding, he said: "I can hardly complain about capitalism can I? But I've learned a valuable lesson, which is that, if you want to control your own destiny, you need to own more than 7% of the company."

UTV's acquisition followed a failed management buyout attempt by MacKenzie. Frustrated by the City's lack of enthusiasm for the talk radio genre, he tried to secure private equity backing to take the group private, but talks failed, allowing UTV to pounce.

John McCann, Chief Executive of UTV, said he had not met The Wireless Group boss to discuss his future, but he did not expect him to stay: "I would have difficulty believing that any one individual is indispensable to a company. I am not indispensable. And as talented as Kelvin is, I don't believe that he is indispensable."

McCann brushed off concerns over talkSPORT's AM analogue licence, which broadcasts a less than pristine signal and the competitive threat from BBC Radio Five Live: "Although AM is a lower quality bandwidth than FM, it is only an issue for music-driven rather than speech stations", he said.

Meanwhile, talkSPORT won a Silver Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards last night in the Station Sound of the Year Category. Kiss 100 in London won the Gold Award with Kerrang! 105.2 taking the Bronze Award.

Kelvin MacKenzie Set To Leave The Wireless Group
Added: Monday 6th May

Kelvin MacKenzie's seven years at the helm of talkSPORT are set to come to an end once Ulster Television completes its £98m takeover of the station's owner, The Wireless Group.

The former Sun editor and Chairman and Chief Executive of The Wireless Group tried to lead a management buyout but struggled to find financial backers. MacKenzie has held no formal discussions with UTV but is understood to be planning to leave once the deal goes through.

He is believed to be eager to stay in the media sector, although not necessarily in radio, to pursue "entrepreneurial" ventures and at 58, he has no plans to retire. MacKenzie's disappointment at leaving the group he took over in 1998 will doubtless be eased by the £6m-plus in stock and options he will take with him, along with a severance payment of about £1m.

He will leave behind a business that has moved into profit, proving that commercial speech radio can be viable. And although he lost a court battle with RAJAR over its diary-based audience measurement system, he will take some credit for forcing the issue of electronic measurement, which is to be adopted in two years.

MacKenzie declined to comment today but a close source said he was happy with the new management taking over the company. Keith Sadler, the Finance Director who is also likely to depart after five years, described UTV as "good guys" but he doubted it would retain the current management team.

"We're both PLC's with PLC structures and within that combination you'd have thought the requirement for Kelvin and myself would be pretty limited. We'd be part of the cost savings you'd expect to extract out of a combination of public companies," Sadler said.

He said he and MacKenzie would have liked "to remain in situ" to work on launching a station in Edinburgh, where Wireless won a new licence in December, and on bids for licences in Manchester and the Solent. "From a personal point of view we would have liked to carry on developing the group along those lines. But I don't hold any grudges, when we've done acquisitions, the boot has been on the other foot."

The Belfast-based group's bid has the backing of key shareholders, including Rupert Murdoch's News International and John Malone's Liberty Media, and is seen as a "done deal" although it still requires full investor backing from both companies.

The UTV Chief Executive, John McCann, said he had yet to speak to Kelvin MacKenzie about his future but was assuming he may want to leave: "We haven't had that discussion and we're only at the stage of making an offer," he said. "We have yet to sit down and discuss it. But I suspect Kelvin would probably want to move on. I'd want to sit down and have a chat about it."

He also paid tribute to MacKenzie's record of turning talkSPORT into a profitable station and said UTV would use its experience of running local radio stations in the Republic of Ireland to build up the business.

John McCann said he saw scope for cost savings by combining some of its existing operations with the new business, such as selling advertising for its forthcoming Belfast station through Impact, TWG's sales house.

However, while this was an attractive side effect, it was not the "main rationale" for the deal, he said. UTV's interest in England has so far been confined to a 33% stake in Liverpool's number two station, Juice FM. It won the licence for the new Belfast station in March, while in the Republic of Ireland it owns four stations, including Dublin music station Q102. It is best known as the holder of the ITV franchise in Northern Ireland.

Ulster TV Bid £98.2m for talkSPORT Owners The Wireless Group
Added: Sunday 8th May

Ulster TV, the Belfast-based broadcaster, has made an approved bid of £98.2m for talkSPORT owner The Wireless Group, according to reports in the Sunday Times and Bloomberg Online.

The bid has been backed by The Wireless Group's Independent Directors and now requires the approval of UTV shareholders. Commenting, Patrick Cox, the Senior Independent Non Executive Director of TWG said:

"The Independent Directors of The Wireless Group are pleased to recommend this offer to the Wireless Group shareholders. The offer provides the best available cash value for those investors that are seeking to monetise their holdings and provides a share alternative for those investors that would elect to maintain their exposure to the growing UK radio market. We believe that the combination of Wireless and UTV will create a strong competitor in the UK media market."

The offer is 91p in cash for each TWG share, a 10.3% premium to the closing middle market price of 82.5p per TWG share on April 18, the last day of dealing before it was announced that UTV was in talks to buy the company. Shareholders can also opt to take 71.5p a share in cash and the balance in new UTV shares.

UTV has received undertakings from News International, owner of The Sunday Times, and LMC Radio to sell their 51.2% stakes in the company. The Wireless Group made a pre-tax loss of £9.7m on turnover of £39.7m in 2004 with UTV, in contrast posting pre-tax profits of £13.9m on revenues of £63.5m.

UTV's bid thwarts The Wireless Group Chairman and Chief Executive Kelvin McKenzie's hopes of launching a management buyout of the company he currently heads. UTV estimates that it can achieve savings of €1.5m in the first year of ownership. Funding for the deal is being provided by Bank of Ireland.

Commenting on the Offer, John McCann, Chief Executive of UTV said: "UTV looks forward to bringing The Wireless Group's radio assets into the UTV portfolio. We believe that this acquisition will offer exciting opportunities for the continued expansion of UTV's business by providing a cornerstone for a broader radio strategy in Great Britain."

The FA Cup Final: Arsenal v Manchester United on talkSPORT
Added: Sunday 8th May

talkSPORT will broadcast unofficial commentary of Arsenal v Manchester United in the FA Cup Final on Saturday 21st May with Chris Cooper and Alvin Martin.

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff will be hosting its last FA Cup Final, before the competition returns to Wembley in May 2006, on Saturday 21st May between Arsenal and Manchester United for a 3:00pm kick-off. Chris Cooper and Alvin Martin will be the commentary team with coverage from London in talkSPORT's studio using television monitors with artificially generated sound effects.

Adrian Durham, Ray Houghton and Gary Stevens will host Football First FA Cup Final Preview between 12:00pm-2:30pm from Cardiff and Andy Townsend & Mike Parry on The Sports Breakfast will also be in Cardiff between 8:00pm-12:00pm ahead of the Final at the Millennium Stadium.

Following the conclusion of Arsenal v Manchester United, Graham Beecroft and Alvin Martin will be on The Final Whistle with analysis and reaction to the FA Cup Final between 5:00pm-8:00pm on talkSPORT.

The full schedule for Saturday 22nd May on talkSPORT is as follows:

1:00am Charlie Wolf 6:00am Fisherman's Blues with Keith Arthur 8:00am The Sports Breakfast with Andy Townsend & Mike Parry from Cardiff 12:00pm Football First FA Cup Final Preview with Adrian Durham, Ray Houghton & Gary Stevens 2:30pm Football First FA Cup Special: Arsenal v Manchester United 5:00pm The Final Whistle with Graham Beecroft & Alvin Martin 8:00pm The Unexplained with Howard Hughes 11:00pm-2:00am Mike Mendoza.

talkSPORT Beats Virgin Radio for the First Time Under RAJAR
Added: Thursday 5th May

talkSPORT has overtaken Virgin Radio for the first time ever in its history with its highest weekly reach ever, according to the latest RAJAR results for Q1 2005 announced today.

talkSPORT has a record weekly reach of 2.5m adults, compared against Virgin Radio's total of 2.4m, which scores an historic victory of speech radio over music radio. talkSPORT, which becomes the second biggest national commercial radio station in the UK under RAJAR, also posted a record market share of 1.9% compared to Virgin Radio's 1.5% market share.

As well as posting a 16% increase in audience reach over the same quarter last year, the latest RAJAR figures post huge increases on the previous quarter for talkSPORT:

o Record Weekly Reach of 2.5m: Up 500,000
o Listeners Hours of 19.7m: Up 2.5m
o Market Share of 1.9%: Up from 1.6%

talkSPORT's audience profile remains highly attractive to advertisers, with 76% of its audience being male and 53.8% ABC1, according to RAJAR.

Kelvin MacKenzie, Chairman and Chief Executive of The Wireless Group which owns talkSPORT, says: "This is a fantastic chapter in the success story of talkSPORT. There has been a lot of talk in the music radio industry recently about speech formats not working in commercial terms , but we are proving them wrong."

"Not only have we turned talkSPORT around from a loss-making station into a formidable commercial force in the radio arena, but this latest result proves that speech is proving to be a more compelling listen.

"This is just the beginning for commercial speech being able to take its rightful place in the forefront of popular broadcasting in the UK. I know the secret of making speech work and I will make sure it's a success story that's going to be repeated the length and breadth of this country."

GFK Media, which conducts a national media survey using electronic measurement of radio audiences, has also announced its latest results. GFK reports that for the same Q1 period, talkSPORT has 5.9m adult listeners, which is 3.4m more than RAJAR claim.

It is the eighth successive quarter that GFK has produced figures showing talkSPORT to be the number one national commercial radio station. Latest GFK figures for Q1 show talkSPORT to have 900,000 more listeners than Classic FM and 2.2 million more than Virgin Radio.

Here are the GfK and RAJAR adult weekly reach results compared: talkSPORT: GFK 5.9m RAJAR 2.5m. Classic FM: GFK 5.9m RAJAR 6.0m. Virgin Radio AM & FM: GFK 3.7m RAJAR 2.4m.

The Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT Audience Up 32% to 1,036m
Added: Thursday 5th May

The Sports Breakast on with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft on talkSPORT has a weekly audience of 1,036m listeners according to the latest RAJAR results for Q1 2005 announced today.

talkSPORT's Sports Breakfast, hosted by former Manchester United, Ipswich and Tottenham legend Alan Brazil and sports broadcaster Graham Beecroft, has a weekly audience of 1,036m listeners which is up 32% from the previous quarter at 786,000 listeners. The audience is up around 11% from the same period in 2004, which was hosted by Alan Brazil and Mike Parry.

Elsewhere at Breakfast, Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2 has the largest audience with 8.1m listeners across the UK. Today on BBC Radio 4 has 6.2m listeners, Chris Moyles on BBC Radio 1 also has 6.2m listeners and BBC Radio Five Live has 2.4m listeners at Breakfast with Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty.

Pete & Geoff on Virgin Radio has a national audience of 1.2m, Classic FM has 2.98m listeners with their BBC rivals BBC Radio 3 having the lowest national radio breakfast audience of 836,000.

The London breakfast radio marketplace is one of the most hotly contested places on the planet with over 12 local radio stations competing for an audience before the nationals enter the fray. Capital FM and Johnny Vaughn led the way with 1.2m listeners followed by Heart FM with 972,000 listeners and Magic 105.4 with 831,000 listeners. BBC London received 202,000 listeners on the Danny Baker Breakfast Show, LBC 97.3 received 291,000 and Capital Gold had 255,000 listeners.

Choice FM had 155,000 listeners, Jazz FM had an audience of 312,000, LBC News 1152 had 129,000, Kiss 100 had 635,000, Christian O'Connell at XFM had 258,000 and Pete & Geoff on Virgin Radio had 597,000 listeners in the London region during the same period.

Champions League Final Live: Liverpool v AC Milan on talkSPORT
Added: Thursday 5th May

talkSPORT will broadcast extensive coverage of Liverpool v AC Milan in the Champions League Final on Wednesday 25th May from Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.

From 6:00pm on talkSPORT, Adrian Durham hosts Champions League Live from Istanbul for the Final of the 2004-2005 Champions League between AC Milan and Liverpool kicking-off at 7:45pm. Commentary of the Final will be courtesy of Chris Cooper, Alvin Martin and touchline reporter Nigel Pearson with the very best coverage live and direct from the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Turkey.

Patrick Kinghorn and Jason Cundy will be on The Game between 4:00pm-6:00pm on talkSPORT with full pre-match build up including interviews with the big names in the Liverpool camp, both past and present, giving extra insight into Liverpool's search for a Champions League Final triumph.

Adrian Durham and Alvin Martin will be providing analysis and reaction following the conclusion of the Final with the chance to have your say after the Final Whistle from 10:00pm on talkSPORT. Further post-match coverage will take place on The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil and Graham Beecroft on Thursday 26th May between 6:00am-10:00am on talkSPORT.

On Tuesday 24th May between 7:00pm-10:00pm on talkSPORT, Adrian Durham, Gabriele Marcotti and Ray Houghton will be hosting a special Champions League Evening Kick-Off show live from Istanbul with a full preview of the Liverpool v AC Milan in the Champions League Final.

Champions League Live on talkSPORT is sponsored by Betting Company Blue Square. Ed Pownall from BlueSQ.com will be providing betting news, updates and analysis throughout the course of the day in the lead up to the Champions League Final: Liverpool v AC Milan.

The full schedule for Wednesday 25th May on talkSPORT is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft 10:00am Ian Collins & Mike Parry 1:00pm Sportswatch with Andrew McKenna 1:10pm Hawksbee & Jacobs 4:00pm The Game with Patrick Kinghorn & Jason Cundy 6:00pm Champions League Live: Liverpool v AC Milan 10:00pm-1:00am The Final Whistle with Adrian Durham & Ray Houghton.

Final Day Premiership Schedule on talkSPORT
Added: Monday 2nd May

talkSPORT have released their schedule for Sunday 15th May, the final day of the Premiership season, and includes Football First with Adrian Durham, Alvin Martin & Rodney Marsh.

Andy Townsend and Mike Parry will host the Weekend Sports Breakfast between 8:00am-12:00pm with a review of the Zurich Premiership Final, plus news from the British Masters. Andy and Mike will also preview the final day of the Premiership season as the European and Relegation issues are to be decided.

From 2:00pm, Adrian Durham, Alvin Martin and Rodney Marsh will be on Football First for updates and reports from every single match in the Premiership including Bolton v Everton, Charlton v Crystal Palace, Southampton v Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion v Portsmouth.

Adrian Durham, Alvin Martin and Rodney Marsh will be on The Final Whistle between 5:00pm-8:00pm with reports, analysis and discussion from the final day of the Premiership season, including news from the winners and losers in the fight for European places and the battle against relegation.

The full schedule for Sunday 15th May on talkSPORT is as follows:

2:00am Charlie Wolf 6:00am Fisherman's Blues with Keith Arthur 8:00am The Sports Breakfast with Andy Townsend & Mike Parry 12:00pm Ian Collins 2:00pm Football First with Adrian Durham, Alvin Martin & Rodney Marsh 5:00pm The Final Whistle Adrian Durham, Alvin Martin & Rodney Marsh 8:00pm The Golf Show with Ray Houghton & Andy Brookes 10:00pm-1:00am Mike Dickin.