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Talksport

Talksport
Broadcast area United Kingdom
Frequency MW: 1053, 1071, 1089, 1107 kHz
DAB:
11D (England/Wales/N. Ireland)
12A (Scotland)
Freeview: 723
Sky: 0108
Virgin Media: 927
First air date 14 February 1995 as Talk Radio UK
17 January 2000 as Talksport
Format Sports commentary
Sports discussion
Sports phone-in
Sports news
Audience share 2.2% (September 2014, RAJAR)
Owner UTV Radio
Website talksport.com

Talksport (styled as talkSPORT), owned by UTV Radio, is the world’s largest sports radio station and Global Audio Partner of the Premier League.

Broadcast from London to the United Kingdom, Talksport is the only national radio station broadcasting sport and sports coverage 24 hours a day, having previously dropped 39 hours of non-sports content on 2 April 2012.

Its content includes live coverage of the biggest sports events of the year, exclusive interviews with the leading names in sport and entertainment, phone-ins and discussion.

The station is an official broadcaster of the Premier League, FA Cup, England friendly internationals, Football League, League Cup and Aviva Premiership, as well as broadcasting major Champions League and Europa League games.

In the United Kingdom, Talksport is available on 1053 kHz, 1071 kHz, 1089 kHz, and 1107 kHz, DAB, Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview, on mobile, and online at talksport.com.

Outside of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Talksport broadcasts live commentary of every Premier League match all around the world in multiple languages including English, Spanish and Mandarin.

Contents

  • Talk Radio era 1
  • Creation of Talksport 2
  • UK Programming 3
  • Presenters 4
  • Live sports coverage 5
  • Programming highlights 6
  • Former presenters 7
  • Station management 8
  • Frequencies 9
  • Audience 10
  • Talksport 2 11
  • Talksport Live 12
  • Talksport South Africa 13
  • Other media 14
  • Books, DVDs, and games 15
  • Controversies 16
  • References 17
  • External links 18

Talk Radio era

The station was originally and officially launched as Talk Radio UK on 14 February 1994, with Sean Bolger and Samantha Meah presenting the original Talk Radio Breakfast Show. However the first live broadcast had been Caeser the Geezer's phone-in which aired the previous night. Other presenters on Talk Radio included Jeremy Beadle, Scott Chisholm, Moz Dee, Tommy Boyd, Anna Raeburn, Gary Newbon, Terry Christian, Ronnie Barbour, Jonny Gould, and Dale Winton. Also joining the line-up were Caesar the Geezer and Wild Al Kelly, dubbed as shock jocks.

A year later Talk Radio launched a new breakfast show presented by Paul Ross and Carol McGiffin. Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Simon Bates also joined the station along with James Whale, Ian Collins, and Mike Dickin.

Talk Radio made their first foray into the world of sports radio rights bidding, by purchasing the rights to broadcast the Football League from BBC Radio Five Live for the 1997/98 season. In addition, the station broadcast their first FIFA World Cup from France in 1998, with them bringing in the Sky Sports commentary team of Alan Parry and Andy Gray to commentate on the major matches. Tony Lockwood, Clive Allen, and Dave Roberts covered additional games in France. Talk Radio also acquired up the rights to broadcast Manchester United's matches in the Champions League for the 1998/99 season.

Creation of Talksport

On 12 November 1998 TalkCo Holdings, whose chairman and chief Executive was former Sun Editor Kelvin MacKenzie, purchased Talk Radio.[1] This led to a mass clearout of presenters including Nick Abbot, Anna Raeburn, Tommy Boyd and Peter Deeley, with them putting in place a more sports oriented programming schedule, including The Sportszone with Alan Parry, Gary Newbon, Tony Lockwood, Tom Watt, and former Century Radio sports editor Dave Roberts presenting the weekend edition of The Sports Breakfast.

In late 1999, TalkCo, rebranded as The Wireless Group, announced a relaunch of Talk Radio to become the UK's first national commercial sports radio station called Talksport. The relaunch occurred at midnight on 17 January 2000 and was accompanied by the station moving from Oxford Street to a new studio in Hatfields on the South Bank of the River Thames. Now mainly dedicated to football, the programming lineup was drastically altered, beginning with The Sports Breakfast show, a mid-morning motoring show called The Car Guys, with further sports programming in the afternoon and evening. Almost all the station's talk show presenters were axed at the time, including The Big Boys Breakfast with David Banks and Nick Ferrari, with only James Whale, Ian Collins, and Mike Dickin surviving. To complement their new format, Talksport purchased the rights to broadcast Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle in the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup, England football internationals, UEFA Cup, England's winter cricket Tours to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and India, British and Irish Lions tours to South Africa and New Zealand, and rights to the Super League, Rugby League World Cup, and World Title Boxing Fights.

The new line-up involved a number of presenters and commentators. They included Alan Brazil, Mark Nicholas, Chris Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott, Mike Parry, Peter Shilton, Brian Moore, Brough Scott, Tom Watt, Gary Newbon, Ian Darke, Tony Banks, and Alvin Martin.

UK Programming

Talksport's programming consists of sports talk, live coverage, discussion and phone-in debate 24 hours a day.

The weekday schedule begins with the morning's sports news, debate and reaction on The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast which is co-hosted by guest presenters including Dominic Cork, Ray Parlour and Brian Moore. Colin Murray follows with an in-depth look at the day's sport with interviews and discussion. Hawksbee & Jacobs present through the afternoon with sports gossip, interviews and chat, followed by Drive Time with Adrian Durham and Darren Gough round-up the day's sports news with debate.

Kick Off, hosted by Mark Saggers, then guides listeners through the evening's sporting action with live commentary and discussion. Andy Goldstein, Bobby Gould and Jason Cundy take further phone-calls and debate on The Sports Bar before handing over to the late night team, including Mike Graham and Russell Hargreaves with Extra Time, an overnight sports show with news, interviews and action from around the globe.

On Saturday and Sunday, Talksport has full coverage of the weekend's sport starting with The Weekend Sports Breakfast, followed by the chance to have your say on The Warm Up. Every weekend, you can follow the latest news and scores from around the grounds on Matchday Live and Sunday Exclusive, including live Premier League commentary, followed by a post-match phone-in hosted by Stan Collymore on Call Collymore and The Press Pass on Sundays, a quick-witted analysis of the week's sports stories combined with reaction to all the Premier League action hosted by Ray Stubbs.

Talksport also broadcasts specialist programming, including Football League show Up The League presented by Geoff Peters, long-running fishing-based phone-in, Fisherman's Blues, hosted by Nigel Botherway, Howzat!, a cricket show with Dominic Cork, Fight Club, a monthly boxing programme hosted by Gareth A. Davies, My Sporting Life with Danny Kelly, an in-depth interview with sporting legends, and Full Contact with Brian Moore, a regular rugby-based magazine show focusing on the Aviva Premiership, European Rugby Champions Cup, Six Nations and Super League.

Presenters

Talksport have a selection of regular presenters and commentators, which include: Adam Catterall, Jack Bannister, Jason Cundy, Jon Richardson, Jim Proudfoot, Mark Saggers, Matt Forde, Matt Smith, Max Rushden, Mike Bovill, Mike Graham, Nat Coombs, Nigel Adderley, Nigel Botherway, Nigel Pearson, Paul Hawksbee, Ray Stubbs, Richard Keys, Rupert Bell, Russell Hargreaves, Sam Delaney, Sam Matterface, and Stan Collymore.

Former professional sportsmen provide expert comment on a variety of the station's programmes, including: Alvin Martin, Andy Gray, Bobby Gould, Danny Higginbotham, Jeff Probyn, Matt Holland, Mike Tindall, Micky Quinn, Michael Gray, Neil Warnock, Perry Groves, Ray Houghton, Ray Parlour, Ray Wilkins, Stewart Robson and Stuart Pearce.

The station also has a team of staff and freelance journalists and reporters bringing listeners the latest news and sport through their bulletins and programmes, including Graham Beecroft.

Live sports coverage

Currently, Talksport focusses the majority of its live sports coverage on football, but also has exclusive and non-exclusive rights to other sports:

Since its launch, Talksport has (variously) held exclusive or non-exclusive radio rights to the Premier League, Football League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FA Cup, League Cup, England internationals, Euro 2004, Euro 2012, 2006 World Cup, 2010 World Cup, 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, domestic Twenty20 cricket, 2009 Twenty20 World Cup, England's winter cricket tours to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and India, Aviva Premiership, 2011 Rugby World Cup, 2013 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, British and Irish Lions tours to South Africa and New Zealand, Super League, Rugby League World Cup, The Open Championship, Ryder Cup, and World Title Boxing fights.

Programming highlights

Former presenters

Talksport's original line-up included Alan Brazil, Mark Nicholas, Chris Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott, Alan Parry, Peter Shilton, Brian Moore, Brough Scott, Tom Watt, Gary Newbon, Ian Darke, Tony Banks, James Whale, Ian Collins, Derek Hatton, and Mike Dickin.

Other past presenters include: George Galloway and many others.

Station management

Scott Taunton was previously the Business Development Director at UTV, responsible for radio and new media. A native of Australia, he has been working in the UK for a decade and took over from Kelvin MacKenzie as Chief Executive of Talksport in July 2005. Liam Fisher is Programme Director, having taken over from Moz Dee in 2013. Neil Sedley is chief engineer and Peter Gee is head of creative.

Frequencies

In a number of areas, particularly in areas where the signal from the main 1089 and 1053 kHz transmitters overlap with each other, Talksport operates a number of filler transmitters on different frequencies:

  • 1071 kHz - Nottingham, Newcastle
  • 1107 kHz - Merseyside, West Sussex, South Kent, Torbay, The Wash, Hampshire

The 1089 and 1053 kHz frequencies were originally used by BBC Radio 1 between November 1978 and June 1994.

It is also transmitted across the UK on digitally via DAB digital radio, Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat. Talksport is also streamed online; however, due to rights restrictions on live coverage, some live sport commentaries are not available online.

Since August 2011, several shows on Talksport have been available on Sirius XM satellite radio in the US and Canada.

Audience

According to the RAJAR audience figures for Q2/2014, Talksport's audience is 3.4 million adults in the UK,[12] which is highest achieved since the station launched as Talk Radio in 1995.

Talksport 2

A new station is to launch in 2016 as part of a Sound Digital's successful bid for second national commercial DAB multiplex.[13]

It is claimed Talksport 2 will provide "coverage of a broad range of live sporting action from the UK and around the world along with complementary sports talk programming." These will include cricket, rugby, horse racing and athletics.[14]

The winning bid also proposed the return of Talk Radio, plus new station Talk Business as well as Virgin Radio.[15]

Former Talksport chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie had proposed a rival sports station as part of Listen2Digital’s opposing bid for the second national commercial DAB multiplex.[16]

Talksport Live

Talksport is the global audio partner of the Premier League, which enables them to broadcast commentary of every Premier League match outside the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland in several languages including English, Spanish and Mandarin.[17]

Talksport Live also broadcasts selected fixtures in the FA Cup, League Cup and Bundesliga.[18]

Talksport South Africa

In April 2014, Talksport announced plans to launch South Africa’s first 24-hour sports radio station.[19]

The medium wave licence will broadcast to a potential audience of eight million people covering Gauteng province and taking in the commercial and administrative hubs of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

It is claimed Talksport 540AM will be modeled on its sister station in the UK to "deliver first class sports journalism, high quality debate and live match commentary to the South African audience."[19]

Other media

  • Soccer Bet was a short-lived 68-page weekly magazine which Talksport had hoped would appeal to football fans that enjoyed betting on games. It was designed in a smaller A5 format to make it easy for fans to carry and the launch was backed by a £500,000 promotional campaign. Soccer Bet lasted just two months before it was axed in October 2003 due to poor sales.[20]
  • Talksport TV launched in October 2004 platform broadcasting for six hours a day on the Sky Digital television platform aiming to catch listeners who've come home from work.[21] The service amounted to little more than the televisualisation of TalkSport's broadcasters and pundits presenting the station's Drive Time and Kick Off programmes. The channel closed in 2005 following the takeover of Talksport by UTV Radio.[22]
  • Talk Radio was set to return to the airwaves as a station on DAB digital radio in 2008 after Ofcom awarded a second DAB digital radio national commercial multiplex to the 4 Digital Group consortium led by Channel 4.[23] However, the station never launched after Channel 4 announced that it was abandoning its plans for digital radio stations[24]
  • Talksport Magazine launched in May 2008 as a weekly online-only digital publication to extend the station's brand beyond the radio.[25] The magazine was integrated into the newly relaunched Talksport website in 2010[26]
  • Sport was acquired by Talksport in 2010 and is the UK's second largest men's magazine. Sport is targeted at the affluent male and hand distributed in locations across the country including London mainline and tube stations. It is also available at many hotels, gyms and airports[27]

Books, DVDs, and games

  • Talksport Road Trip is a DVD including exclusive footage of the English team and a host of celebrity interviews at the 2006 World Cup released in 2006[28]
  • Talksport Legends & Anthems is a three-CD package, released in 2009, featuring 40 tracks by artists such as The Who, The Cure, The Killers, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, and Elton John on two of the discs as well as a bonus CD with out-takes and highlights of Talksport[29]
  • Ten Years of Talksport is a book describing the station's history. Originally released in 2009, an updated version of the book including two new chapters was released in 2011
  • The Talksport Book of World Cup Banter - Released in 2010, this is a book of football facts about the FIFA World Cup[30]
  • The TalkSport Book of Cricket's Best Ever Sledges features contributions from Talksport presenters Darren Gough and Ronnie Irani among others, recounting 'sledging' (mind-games within cricket). Released in 2010[31]

Controversies

  • June 2000: Talksport caused a stir with the BBC after it was revealed Talksport had been broadcasting their live commentaries of matches at Euro 2000 from television monitors rather than from each of the stadia due to the lack of available broadcast rights.[32] Talksport's commentary team included Alan Parry, Jim Proudfoot, Mark Tompkins, Alvin Martin and Frank Stapleton.
  • April 2002: Tommy Boyd and his production team were sacked from Talksport after a call from someone who wanted to shoot the Royal Family views went through on air. Boyd went on record that he did not share the views of the caller[33]
  • June 2002: Talksport broadcast unofficial coverage of the 2002 World Cup taking place in Japan and South Korea. The station flags up their inability to broadcast live from the stadia, with them taking out full page advertisements in national newspapers containing the tag line "It's unauthorised. It's unofficial. And it's brilliant." Jim Proudfoot and Alvin Martin are Talksport's main commentary team from their studios in London[34]
  • February 2003: Talksport received over 200 complaints for giving a platform to the controversial Muslim extremist cleric Abu Hamza. Hamza and his aides are invited into the station to contribute to a religious debate on The James Whale Show, alongside other Christian, Jewish, and Muslim delegates. On the night of the live broadcast, 24 February, a mass of protesters gather outside the station's London studios. Despite this, both presenter James Whale and head of programming Bill Ridley defend the station for having invited Hamza onto the programme.[3]
  • March 2004: Alan Brazil is sacked by Talksport after his failure to show up to present The Sports Breakfast on Friday 19 March after spending three days at the Cheltenham Festival. Less than three weeks later, Brazil is reinstated to his role.[35]
  • May 2006: Alan Brazil is reportedly given three months notice by Talksport after bust-up with the station's management.[36] Less than two months later, Brazil and Talksport management held talks and the former Scotland international footballer signed a new long-term contract with the station.[37]
  • June 2006: The Sports Breakfast presenter Alan Brazil got in trouble with Ofcom for referring to the Japanese as "the nips" during the World Cup in Germany[38]
  • August 2007: Mike Mendoza and Garry Bushell made derogatory comments about gay people, and the station was subsequently censured by regulator Ofcom.[39] Bushell left soon after, when his six-month contract expired
  • May 2008: James Whale was dismissed by Talksport after twice urging listeners to vote for Boris Johnson in the 2008 London Mayoral Election[40] The station was subsequently fined £20,000 by Ofcom in December 2008
  • November 2008: Controversial presenter Jon Gaunt was fired for repeatedly calling a local councillor a "Nazi".[41] Gaunt has since sought legal action for unfair dismissal, but any potential case has yet to go to court.[42] His campaign was backed by Liberty activist Shami Chakrabarti, who had previously been one of Gaunt's pet hates
  • November 2008: Rod Lucas was dropped by Talksport and claimed they "no plans to use him in the immediate future" after the membership list of the BNP which was leaked on a Google blog named him as one of its members.[43] The station clarified that this wasn't a sacking as Lucas was only a temporary member of staff. The presenter himself claimed that his membership of the party was part of a covert research project[44]
  • December 2010: Drive Time presenter Adrian Durham caused controversy after stating during his show, that the footballer Andrey Arshavin "shouldn't be welcomed back to England" after helping Russia win the rights to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[45]
  • February 2011: Talksport hired former Sky Sports pundit and commentators Andy Gray and Richard Keys a fortnight after the pair were sacked from Sky Sports for being at the centre of a sexism controversy.[46]

References

  1. ^ "About". talkSPORT. Retrieved 18 January 2007. 
  2. ^ MEDIA BRIEFS: Premiership games live on Talksport PR Week, 4 May 2001
  3. ^ a b talkSPORT Station History - 2003 talkSPORT1089.co.uk
  4. ^ "Sky Sports' Kelly Dalglish joins Talksport". Press Gazette. 11 August 2006. Retrieved 18 November 2008. 
  5. ^ Russell Brand returning to radio BBC News, 15 April 2009
  6. ^ BBC radio loses third of live Premier League matches guardian.co.uk, 18 February 2010
  7. ^ TalkSport snares 2011 Rugby World Cup radio rights guardian.co.uk, 3 June 2010
  8. ^ talkSPORT unveil Rugby World Cup plan Radio Today, 8 August 2011
  9. ^ http://press.talksport.co.uk/post/28056259796/talksport-signs-agreement-with-football-association-to
  10. ^ http://www.premiershiprugby.com/news/19753.php
  11. ^ Plunkett, John (5 November 2012). "TalkSport snaps up radio rights to Lions' Australia tour". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 February 2013. 
  12. ^ http://talksport.com/press/talksport-smashes-audience-record-140731104832
  13. ^ http://radiotoday.co.uk/2015/03/sound-digital-wins-national-dab-multiplex/
  14. ^ http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/digital/nationalradio/SoundDigital.pdf
  15. ^ http://radiotoday.co.uk/2015/02/digital-two-applications-published-by-ofcom/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
  16. ^ http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/09/talksport-founder-kelvin-mackenzie-rival-sports-radio
  17. ^ http://talksport.com/license-talksports-content
  18. ^ http://talksport.com/about
  19. ^ a b http://talksport.com/press/utv-awarded-south-african-broadcasting-licence-14040285832
  20. ^ Own goal for Soccer Bet Press Gazette, 17 October 2003
  21. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (15 September 2004). "MacKenzie takes TalkSport to TV". Media Guardian (Guardian News and Media). 
  22. ^ talkSPORT Hand Back Television Licence to OFCOM talksport1089.com, 11 August 2006
  23. ^ Dowell, Ben (6 July 2007). "Channel 4 wins radio multiplex bid". Media Guardian (Guardian News and Media). 
  24. ^ Plunkett, John (14 October 2008). "4 Digital radio partners in crisis talks". guardian.co.uk (Guardian News and Media). 
  25. ^ Radio Today Archived 3 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ talkSPORT.co.uk - For men who like to talk sport talkSPORT, 26 July 2010
  27. ^ Sport Magazine Archived 29 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  28. ^ talkSPORT Road Trip (DVD) Amazon.co.uk
  29. ^ talkSPORT - Legends & Anthems (CD) Amazon.co.uk
  30. ^ The Talksport Book of World Cup Banter: All the Ammo You Need to Settle Any Argument Amazon.co.uk
  31. ^ Why Are You So Fat?: The TalkSPORT Book of Cricket's Best Ever Sledges Amazon.co.uk
  32. ^ Deans, Jason (5 December 2000). "TalkSport hails victory in sports row". MediaGuardian (Guardian News and Media). 
  33. ^ Hodgson, Jessica (12 April 2002). "DJ fired after royal death threat". MediaGuardian (Guardian News and Media). Retrieved 16 August 2008. 
  34. ^ talkSPORT Station History - 2002 talksport1089.com
  35. ^ Deans, Jason (6 April 2004). "Brazil reinstated by TalkSport". MediaGuardian (Guardian News and Media). 
  36. ^ Plunkett, John (18 May 2006). "Brazil out of the World Cup". MediaGuardian (Guardian News and Media). 
  37. ^ Dowell, Ben (5 July 2006). "Brazil back in World Cup". MediaGuardian (Guardian News and Media). 
  38. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (7 August 2006). "TalkSport rapped for 'derogatory' comment". MediaGuardian (Guardian News and Media). Retrieved 16 August 2008. 
  39. ^ "Talksport rapped over gay jibes". BBC News. 20 August 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2008. 
  40. ^ "Radio host James Whale is sacked". BBC News. 6 May 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2008. 
  41. ^ Martin, Nicole (18 November 2008). "Gaunt Suspended For "Nazi" Slur". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 November 2008. 
  42. ^ Jon Gaunt still pursuing legal action against TalkSport guardian.co.uk, 20 January 2009
  43. ^ "Rod Lucas dropped by Talksport". The Telegraph. 19 November 2008. Retrieved 19 November 2008. 
  44. ^ DJ named on BNP member list joined to research story guardian.co.uk, 19 November 2008
  45. ^ talkSPORT Presenter: "Arshavin shouldn't be welcomed back into England" Gooner Talk, 2 December 2010
  46. ^ "Andy Gray and Richard Keys move to Talksport". BBC News. 8 February 2011. 

External links

  • Official website
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