Talk Radio Fires Former Managing Director

Following the acquisition of Talk Radio by TalkCo – the group headed by Kelvin Mackenzie (see Newsline), TalkCo announced some management changes which will take effect immediately.

Paul Robinson (former managing director), John Simons (former head of programming) and Stan Park (former commercial director) have been fired from Talk Radio. All three left on Friday evening, and will not be returning. Paul Robinson headed a bid for the radio station (see Newsline) but failed, and TalkCo, backed by News International and MVI, agreed on a price with CLT-UFA of £24.7 million.

Kelvin Mackenzie, former editor of The Sun, is now the new chief executive and chairman of the station. Jonathan Goodwin is chief operating officer, and Mike Parry (former executive editor of the Press Association and The Daily Express) is programming director.

Commenting on the redundancies, Kelvin Mackenzie stated: “There are a number of challenges that face the new management of Talk Radio. Our immediate priority is to motivate the staff and sort out the programming. We have set out a programming group which will completely review scheduling and content in the coming weeks.”

The latest RAJAR figures showed an increase in the station’s weekly reach of 11.2% in the third quarter of the year (see Newsline).

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Talk Radio: 0171 636 1089