More Rumblings At Talk Radio

According to reports over the weekend, the new owner of Talk Radio, Kelvin MacKenzie’s consortium TalkCo, is in conflict with the original senior management of Talk, who left the group after MacKenzie took over (see Newsline), over redundancy pay-offs. TalkCo bought the radio group for £24.7 million (see Newsline)

According to Talk’s new controllers, the contracts of senior staff were altered in their favour before Talk changed hands, and the new bodies at Talk are refusing to honour their claims. Paul Robinson (former MD), Stan Park (former commercial director), John Simons (former head of programming) and Kirsty Young (see Newsline) all left the station following its takeover by TalkCo.

After his departure, Paul Robinson told Newsline: “I’d hoped to have an orderly handover of power, and was prepared to do so in any appropriate fashion, but regret that TalkCo proceeded to carry out the switch in an ugly and clumsy manner.”

TalkCo believes it had a right to learn about the contractual alterations before it bought the station, and is believed to be most vexed over the contract of Simons, which provides him with an alleged £65,000 ex-gratia payment.

Reports also suggest that TalkCo has uncovered evidence of financial slackness at the station.

TalkCo was unavailable for comment when contacted by Newsline this morning.

Talk Radio: 0171 467 8041