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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.

MacKenzie Speaks at Seminar for BBC Radio
Added: Sunday 31st October

talkSPORT's Kelvin MacKenzie expressed his views at a Government Seminar as part of an Independent Panel for the BBC's Charter Review for Radio.

MacKenzie has long been vociferous in his attacks of the BBC in how the publicly funded organisation pays for rights to sporting events. He says that BBC Radio's 1, 2, 3 and Five Live should be privatised: "I would like to compete on the same commercial basis for sports rights as I would do against Capital and LBC London."

"I don't like the idea of being told by the Premier League that a tax-payer funded business, in the shape of the BBC, has just spent Ł39m over three years for the Premier League and with all the audience that comes with it. My rival bid, on what audience could come in and how I could make money out of it, was Ł2.5m."

Recently Tim Gardam, a former BBC and Channel 4 executive, was commissioned to investigate the BBC's radio services. MacKenzie claimed that it is "utterly laughable" and that the Ł39m that the BBC allegedly spent on securing rights to the Premiership was to destroy commercial competition: "It was about how they bought in consultants to decide how Ł39m was the right figure. I'll tell you how it was the right bloody figure. It was a figure I couldn't match by a thousand miles. It had bugger all to do with the actual value of that rights."

Network Controller for the BBC Jenny Abramsky hit back at MacKenzie by saying: "I'm not going to reveal what we paid but we did not pay Ł39m and we didn't pay anywhere near Ł39m. We paid significantly less."

MacKenzie wanted Bob Shennan, Controller of BBC Radio Five Live, to undertake a promise that he would no longer seek exclusive sports rights for radio under Professor Steven Barnett's description that the BBC should have a "democratic contribution to public life".

Shennan said: "We can only buy rights under the way that the rights holders choose to sell them. The FA's previous contract for the FA Cup was a non-exclusive contract because that's the way they chose to sell them. And you had the opportunity for the two previous seasons to join in but chose not to"

After Shennan went on to say that every single Premiership and FA Cup game can be heard on local BBC and commercial radio stations, MacKenzie said: "That argument doesn't hold any water. You will only be able to run out one game from the FA Cup in the Third Round on your analogue station. The local radio stations don't compare to the ten other games that could be on an analogue platform. You bought them deliberately to keep them off the market. You're hoarding rights which is illegal in 2-3 countries."

Cricket's rights and coverage also came up with the Telegraph's Gillian Reynolds praising talkSPORT's coverage of England's Test Matches. "talkSPORT had done a terrific job on the Pakistani series. You had shaken up the BBC's Test Match Special, which in my view still needs a severe shaking." MacKenzie said: "We'd have loved to have competed with the BBC for the Home Series. But the BBC pay Ł18m over three years and for a company of our size, it's completely out of the question."

US Presidential Election Coverage on talkSPORT
Added: Sunday 31st October

talkSPORT will broadcast live coverage of the US Presidential Election from 10pm on Tuesday 2nd November right through the night during Mike Mendoza's show.

From 10:00pm on Tuesday 2nd November, James Whale will anchor talkSPORT's coverage of the US Presidential Election as George W. Bush and John Kerry go head-to-head in the voting booths. Updates and reports from Sky News and Fox News will be provide throughout the course of the night.

Mike Mendoza and Charlie Wolf, at the American Embassy in London, will on-air from 1am with the latest news, analysis and updates from Sky News and Fox News. Alan Brazil and Graham Beecroft will be on-hand from 6:00am on The Sports Breakfast with all the results, analysis and reaction from the United States.

The full schedule for 2nd/3rd November on talkSPORT is as follows:

10:00pm The James Whale Show US Presidential Election Special 1:00am Mike Mendoza & Charlie Wolf US Presidential Election Special 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft 10:00pm-1:00pm Mike Dickin.

Also, Charlie Wolf will be filling-in for Mike Mendoza between 1:00am-6:00am from Monday 8th November until Friday 12th November. Wolf will then take up his regular slot on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th November between 1:00am-6:00am.

talkSPORT's Micky Quinn Speaks About Betting Crisis
Added: Friday 29th October

Micky Quinn says betting and soccer have always been an explosive cocktail - the only thing that has changed over the years is the amounts of money involved.

In an interview with The Sun newspaper, the talkSPORT pundit admitted that at the height of his gambling addiction he was blowing Ł2,000 in an afternoon. But today's more highly-paid players can throw away thousands more. Micky says: "I'm not surprised at what the Chelsea players have been up to. Gambling is rife in football. Young men have lots of money and lots of time on their hands. I used to finish training and go straight down the bookies. All in all I blew a quarter of a million pounds before I managed to curb it. Players these days have a lot more money to spare - so you can imagine what it was doing to me."

Micky's gambling was so out of control that his football clubs often had to step in and pay his mortgage because he'd blown his entire wages in the bookies. He says: "Often I'd lost all my cash and the club would have to step in and pay my mortgage at the end of the month. This would happen at most of the clubs I played for. If I got a signing-on fee when I moved on they would just take this as what I owed them."

Micky ended up splurging so much cash on bets while at Newcastle United, he couldn't afford to buy essentials for his long-term girlfriend Sheila and their twin daughters. Sheila told him: "We need a new washing machine and the kids need new shoes but you decide to spend your wages down the betting shop. Your career is not going to go on for ever and you should be putting cash away for the future."

When Micky joined Coventry in 1992, Sheila left him, taking the kids with her. Amazingly, club bosses did nothing to help their stars - even when it was obvious they were hooked on betting.

BBC Says talkSPORT Walks Away From Sports Rights
Added: Friday 29th October

The BBC's Charter Review has revealed that talkSPORT has, in the past, paid vast sums for sporting rights then discarded them at 'bewildering speed'.

In a document submitted by the BBC to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as part of the corporations Charter Review, it reveals that talkSPORT radically altered the dynamics of the marketplace for sporting rights and created national competition for the first time.

The BBC Charter Review for BBC Radio Five Live commented that talkSPORT seemed to have, in the past, purchased sporting rights in a erratic manner: "the talkSPORT strategy had varied over time and has led them coming in and out of sports at a bewildering speed"

It states that on a number of occasions talkSPORT entered the market, bid high to secure the rights to a particular sport and then exited: "A good example of this was the last England tour to Australia. In 1998/99, Five Live secured the rights for around Ł16,000. For the 2002/03 tour, talkSPORT paid close to Ł500,000 for the rights (even though the cricket was played between midnight and 8:00am UK time). They then decided they didn't want the rights and sold them onto us for far less than they paid."

The Review also says that on a number of occasions BBC Radio Five Live had agreed to relax previously held exclusivity in order to allow talkSPORT access so that the rights-holders secure additional coverage for their sport, which is beneficial to everyone. The Review says that talkSPORT purchased rights to the Super League and the last Rugby League World Cup and on both occasions talkSPORT ended up walking away with the station not broadcasting any commentaries from the World Cup whatsoever.

In the Champions League, talkSPORT held the exclusive rights to Manchester United home games for several seasons. However, the station eventually walked away from this deal as well.

MacKenzie to Judge ITV's Political Pop Idol-Style Show
Added: Monday 25th October

Kelvin MacKenzie has been signed up as the “new Simon Cowell” for a TV show in which contestants compete to stand as an MP.

MacKenzie, who is chief executive of talkSPORT’s owners The Wireless Group and former editor of The Sun, will join former ITV political editor John Sargeant on the judging panel alongside a third, yet-to-be named judge, that will help choose potential candidates for its "political Pop Idol" show, Vote for Me.

The series is due to air in a primetime slot on ITV1 in the run-up to the general election, which is expect to be held in May 2005. A shortlist of 10 entrants from regional auditions held around the United Kingdon in London, Birmingham and Manchester will be judged on their political ideas. A winner will be chosen who will then be able to stand in the general election.

The show will be presented by ITV reporter Jonathan Maitland who said: "This is the most exciting project I have ever worked on, making a programme about politics that's credible but also entertaining is the biggest challenge any broadcaster faces. If we can get just one of the millions of disaffected young voters out there interested in the political process, it will be worthwhile."

MacKenzie, who is known for his solid right-wing views, starred in his own Channel 4 documentary last year, 'Kelvin saves the Tories'. He used the programme as a vessel to launch some of his more extreme beliefs such as bringing back the death penalty for child killers and "pulling up the drawbridge on asylum seekers" and sending them to France instead.

Live Carling Cup Football on talkSPORT
Added: Saturday 24th October

talkSPORT have live coverage from the Carling Cup Third Round with commentary of Milwall v Chelsea on Tuesday 26th October and Chelsea v West Ham United on Wednesday 27th October.

Jim Proudfoot and Ray Houghton will be at the New Den on Tuesday 26th October as Premiership Liverpool travel to the capital to take on Dennis Wise's Championship Millwall side in a 7:45pm kick-off. There will also be reports and updates from the rest of the night's action in the Carling Cup Third Round.

The full schedule for Tuesday 26th October is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil and Graham Beecroft 10:00am Mike Dickin 1:00pm Chris Cooper and Micky Quinn 4:00pm The Game with Patrick Kinghorn and Tony Cascarino 7:00pm Carling Cup Live: Milwall v Liverpool 10:00pm-1:00am The James Whale Show.

On Wednesday 27th October, Jim Proudfoot and Gary Stevens will be at Stamford Bridge for as Chelsea welcome former Premiership side West Ham in the Carling Cup Third Round. Kick-off will get underway from 7:45pm with full coverage of the rest of the action from the Carling Cup.

The full schedule for Wednesday 27th October is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil and Graham Beecroft 10:00am Mike Dickin 1:00pm Chris Cooper and Micky Quinn 4:00pm The Game with Patrick Kinghorn and Tony Cascarino 7:00pm Carling Cup Live: Chelsea v West Ham United 10:00pm-1:00am The James Whale Show.

talkSPORT, in addition to the Third Round commentary, will have full coverage of the rest of the Carling Cup with commentary from each round right up until the Final at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff in February.

Live Champions League Football on talkSPORT
Added: Wednesday 20th October

talkSPORT will air a triple-bill of live Champions League commentary over two days on Tuesday 2nd November and Wednesday 3rd November.

On Tuesday 2nd November, Chris Cooper and Alvin Martin will be in the Russian capital of Moscow as Chelsea travel to Eastern Europe to take on CSKA Moscow. The match gets underway at the earlier time of 5:00pm. Later at 7:45pm, Nigel Pearson and Micky Quinn will be at Highbury for Arsenal v Panathinaikos in the second of the night’s commentary games.

The full schedule for Tuesday 2nd November is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft 10:00am Mike Dickin 1:00pm Hawksbee & Jacobs 4:00pm Champions League Live with Patrick Kinghorn: CSKA Moscow v Chelsea with Chris Cooper & Alvin Martin and Arsenal v Panathinaikos with Nigel Pearson & Micky Quinn 10:00pm-1:00am The James Whale Show.

On Wednesday 3rd November, talkSPORT’s commentary team of Chris Cooper and Alvin Martin will travel to the north of Spain to La Coruńa as Liverpool take on Deportivo La Coruńa at the Riazor for a 7:45pm kick-off. Eamon Watson will be at Old Trafford, as Manchester United face Sparta Prague from the Czech Republic, to provide live reports and updates.

The full schedule for Wednesday 3rd November is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft 10:00am Mike Dickin 1:00pm Hawksbee & Jacobs 4:00pm The Game with Patrick Kinghorn & Tony Cascarino 7:00pm Champions League Live: Deportivo La Coruńa v Liverpool 10:00pm-1:00am The James Whale Show.

Independent Report Holds Out Hope for talkSPORT In Rights War
Added: Tuesday 19th October

An independent government report has given hope to talkSPORT after it stated that an independent regulator should be appointed to ensure the BBC is not paying over the market rate for sports rights.

The report, which gave a resounding seal of approval to the BBC’s digital radio stations, said that the corporation had gone “well beyond” what was expected of it when it launched five new stations last year. But Tim Gardam, a former BBC and Channel 4 executive who was commissioned to investigate the BBC's Ł30m move into digital radio, has made recommendations to the BBC over how it bids for sporting rights and that it does not pay more than the market rate. This is good news for commercial radio rivals such as Kelvin MacKenzie’s talkSPORT, which is a commercial rival to BBC Radio Five Live.

MacKenzie recently complained to OFCOM regarding the way BBC Radio Five Live has “wasted millions of pounds” in acquiring a number of sports rights packages, namely the rights to the Premiership and the FA Cup. Reacting to the independent report by Gardam, MacKenzie said: "We very much welcome Tim Gardam's report. Under Tim's suggestion, a regulator would be appointed to stop the BBC using taxpayers' money to deliberately overpay for sports rights, so denying companies like talkSPORT from being able to compete.

For instance, the BBC paid the Premier League Ł39 million for broadcast rights which we valued at Ł2.5 million on the commercial market. The BBC deliberately overpaid so that they could keep an audience that otherwise they would lose. Tim's report marks the beginning of the end of the BBC's overarching dominance in sports rights and we urge Tessa Jowell to accept this recommendation without delay.

The BBC should also welcome not having to waste money by paying over the odds. I can already see the dole queue beginning to lengthen for out-of-work BBC executives who have made a career out of overpaying."

talkSPORT's Dom McGuiness Parts Company with Station
Added: Monday 18th October

talkSPORT’s Chief Football Correspondent Dom McGuinness left the station after not being offered a contract, according to a source close to the station.

McGuinness joined talkSPORT when the station launched in 2000 as a sports reporter but was promoted to the position of Chief Football Correspondent in 2001 following the departures of Tony Lockwood in 2000 and Jon Driscoll in 2002. Both left talkSPORT and later joined BBC Radio Five Live and Sky Sports News.

Following his promotion, McGuinness was talkSPORT's main reporter following England's question to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea and Euro 2004 in Portugal. He was also part of talkSPORT's coverage of several FA Cup Final matches, Champions League and the Premiership.

McGuiness was also the reporter for talkSPORT's commentary team for the 2001 British Lions Tour of Australia in 2001 alongside John Taylor, Gavin Hastings and Dick Best. He was a reporter at each of the Tour matches as well as the three Tests against Australia.

Mike Boviil, also a reporter at talkSPORT, covered England's recent World Cup Qualifying matches against Wales and Azerbaijan, the role which McGuinness usually takes up. However, a source close to talkSPORT has told this website that McGuinness has after he the station "failed to offer him a full-time contract".

Meanwhile, Adrian Durham will be in for Graham Beecroft on The Final Whistle alongside Alan Mullery and Gabriele Marcotti on Sunday 24th October between 4:00pm-8:00pm. Also, Ray Houghton will be in for Rhodri Williams alongside Andy Brookes on The Golf Show between 8:00pm-10:00pm

Chris Cooper and Micky Quinn on talkSPORT
Added: Friday 15th October

Chris Cooper and Micky Quinn will be filling-in for Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs on talkSPORT between Monday 25th October and Friday 29th October from 1:00pm-4:00pm.

Cooper makes a welcome return to the talkSPORT presenters fold after he was removed as presenter of Football First and Sunday Scoreboard during last season on the radio station. He has since returned as commentator for Champions League matches. Micky Quinn co-hosts the Weekend Sports Breakfast alongside Andy Townsend and will with McCaffrey whilst Hawksbee and Jacobs are absent.

Meanwhile, Mike Parry will be alongside Graham Beecroft on The Final Whistle on Saturday 16th October between 5:00pm-8:00pm. Parry has been away from talkSPORT as co-presenter of The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil because he is suffering with a heart condition and is awaiting a transplant.

Tony Cascarino will return as co-host of The Game with Patrick Kinghorn on Monday 18th October between 4:00pm-7:00pm. Cascarino has been away for the past week playing Poker whilst cruising around the Mediterranean. Nigel Botherway will be filling-in for Keith Arthur on Saturday 16th October on Fisherman’s Blues between 6:00pm-8:00am. Keith Arthur will return on Sunday 17th October.

The full schedule on for Monday 25th October on talkSPORT is as follows:

1:00am Mike Mendoza 6:00am The Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil & Graham Beecroft 10:00am Mike Dickin 1:00pm Chris Cooper & Micky Quinn 4:00pm The Game with Patrick Kinghorn & Tony Cascarino 7:00pm Evening Kick-Off with Adrian Durham & Gabriele Marcotti 10:00pm-1:00am James Whale.

talkSPORT Drop Commentary of England's Tour of Zimbabwe
Added: Wednesday 13th October

talkSPORT will no longer be broadcasting live commentary of England’s Tour of Zimbabwe due to the fact that the Test Matches were dropped from the Tour itinerary.

The national sports radio station purchased the exclusive broadcast rights to England’s Tour of Zimbabwe nearly two years ago on the understanding that it would be a tour of four Test Matches and five ODI's. Since talkSPORT acquired the rights, the Test Matches that were due to the played were removed from the Tour itinerary because of political pressure in both the UK and Zimbabwe. Having paid a sum of money for the rights, they has now dropped them because the money paid was for a four Test and five ODI series.

There may be a chance talkSPORT will still run with commentary of the tour but it is unlikely due to contractual reasons stated. There is no live coverage on television from regular broadcaster Sky Sports and it is believed that the BBC are not allowed in Zimbabwe meaning they cannot provide commentary of the Tour.

However, talkSPORT will still be broadcasting live and exclusive commentary of England’s Tour of South Africa during December, January and February. The series consists of Five Test Matches and Seven One Day International Matches. Live coverage gets underway on 17th December for the First Test from Port Elizabeth from a team which includes Chris Cowdrey, Jack Bannister, Andrew McKenna and Robin Jackman.

From November, viewers of this website will be able to access a special section of the website dedicated to talkSPORT’s coverage of England’s Tour of South Africa with details of coverage and commentator information, tour details and the chance to discuss and debate the coverage and progress of England.