Duncan George To Leave GCap
Duncan George, commercial director at GCap Media, is to leave the company on 8 June 2007.
Following the merger of Capital Radio plc and GWR plc in 2005 (see Capital And GWR Name Merged Group), George became commercial director for GCap Media plc (see Duncan George Appointed Commercial Boss At GCap) and played a pivotal role in integrating the sales operations, systems and commercial infrastructure of the two companies.
He was responsible for driving national revenue and developing the group’s digital revenue proposition with the creation of a dedicated GCap Interactive division.
George was responsible for a number of initiatives including the GCap brand rooms and the original concept for the recently launched digital station, theJazz (see GCap Jazzed Up With New Digital Radio Station).
He left Capital Radio as sales director in 1997 to head up GWR’s sales operation where his first task was to set up their national sales business, Opus. In his capacity as commercial director at GCap Media, he also sat on a number of industry boards including RAJAR.
Ralph Bernard, chief executive of GCap Media plc, said: “Duncan has been an outstanding asset to the company. He was instrumental in successfully merging the GWR and Capital Radio sales teams, which was managed whilst maintaining our high standards of service to clients.
“He has built a team that can adapt to the changing dynamics of the advertising world and deliver the multi-platform solutions advertisers increasingly demand.”
George added: “I have really enjoyed my time at GCap. We have worked hard to create a national sales team that excels in their field and focuses on exceeding customer expectations.
“The time feels right to move on and explore new opportunities and I can leave safe in the knowledge that GCap is now in great shape”.
Former SMG radio chief executive, Fru Hazlitt, became the new managing director of GCap London at the start of this month (see Hazlitt Takes MD Role At GCap).
The latest RAJARs showed 95.8 Capital Radio, which recently rebranded from “Capital Radio” backed by a huge marketing campaign (see Capital Radio Gets Name Change And Ad Campaign), to have pushed its weekly reach up almost 11% from Q4 2006, despite a year on year dip of 5.64%.
GCap Media’s flagship now reports a weekly reach of just over 1.6 million and a share of listening of 4.6%, down marginally year on year and period on period.
Listeners are sticking with the station for slightly less time, however, at 6.1 hours on average compared to 6.9 last quarter and for Q1 2006 (see Magic FM Boasts Biggest Weekly Reach In London).
Meanwhile, the company’s flagship indie station, Xfm, recently confirmed a dramatic programming shake up (see Xfm Confirms Daytime Format Change), which aims to hand control to listeners.
GCap Media’s full-year figures are due tomorrow, with full coverage provided on MediaTel’s INSIGHT.