Gillette To Sponsor talkSPORT’s Final Whistle

Kelvin MacKenzie’s talkSPORT radio station has teamed up with Gillette to sponsor the station’s Final Whistle football programmes on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The six figure deal will continue until the end of the football season on May 29, and was negotiated between talkSPORT sponsorship executive, Ashwin Saddul and Mark Leggett, radio account director at Mindshare.

Commenting on the deal, Saddul said: “The Final Whistle represents a great opportunity for Gillette to engage with talkSPORT’s male football audience. It furthers Gillette’s presence during the Saturday match day experience. The focus of the show on real results and the day’s top performance represent the true values that Gillette MSPower embody.”

Leggett added: “talkSPORT provides us with a credible platform in which to share listeners’ passion in hearing their team’s results and giving them the chance to have their say in the phone in.”

It was announced today that MacKenzie had held talks with Lord Alli about the possible, merger of Virgin Radio and talkSPORT’s advertising sales operation, if Lord Alli is successful in acquiring Virgin from Scottish Media Group (SMG).

Elsewhere, talkSPORT’s owners The Wireless Group have announced that talks with MacKenzie over a possible takeover of the company by senior management have ceased.

The negotiations are understood to have ended after the outspoken radio chief lost the backing of a private equity group. However, the company has authorised MacKenzie to continue discussions with other potential investors and has not ruled out privatisation of the company in the future (see Wireless Group Halts Takeover Talks With MacKenzie).

talkSPORT: 020 7959 7800 www.talksport.co.uk

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