At midnight going into Monday 17th January 2000, during The James Whale Show, Talk Radio became talkSPORT, the UK’s first national commercial radio station dedicated to sport.
With the launch of the new station saw the introduction of the UK’s first sports breakfast show. The Sports Breakfast initially used a rotation of presenters alongside Adrian Durham and included the likes of Gary Newbon, Brough Scott, Geoffrey Boycott and Ian Darke before settling with Alan Brazil. It was also announced that talkSPORT would broadcast a high-profile mid-morning sports talk show, a football-based drive time show hosted by Tom Watt and an evening football show presented by Alan Brazil.
In spite of its rebrand, a few of Talk Radio’s non-sports based presenters were retained, which included Derek Hatton, James Whale, Ian Collins, Paul Ross, Tommy Boyd and Mike Dickin to present the station's late-night programming.
talkSPORT was backed by a £2m advertising drive and a clutch of exclusive broadcast rights deals including: England’s home internationals, FA Cup, Manchester United’s home matches in the Champions League, British Lions Tours in 2001 and 2005, England’s cricket tours and major international boxing.
More controversially, however, was when talkSPORT won the right to broadcast England’s Tour to South Africa, leaving the BBC Radio 4's Test Match Special team of Jonathan Agnew and friends out in the cold.
Speaking about talkSPORT’s launch, Chief Executive Kelvin MacKenzie said: “The British public loves sport. Our research proves that we are already winning a new, younger more attractive audience. talkSPORT will not just appeal to fans but players, managers and everyone involved in the business of sport."
The new station also had the backing of England coach Kevin Keegan by saying: "talkSPORT is the radio station we have all been waiting for." |
