talkSPORT Wades Into Breakfast-Time Battle With £80k Cash Giveaway

talkSPORT is hoping to increase its breakfast listening share with its biggest cash giveaway. The Wireless Group station will be offering listeners the chance to win £80,000 – reportedly the equivalent of Beckham’s weekly wage – in an on-air promotion beginning next week.

Listeners will be asked to phone the station during The Sport Breakfast Show to answer a question relating to the Beckhams. The first caller to answer correctly will go through to the grand final on 27th February, when they will compete with 15 other contestants for the prize money.

talkSPORT marketing director Calum Macaulay said: “We’re the biggest commercial radio station in the UK and this will be our biggest-ever cash pay out. Giving away Beckham’s weekly wage is a great idea which will capture the imagination of our listeners and through our press and other marketing activity, attract new ones.”

The breakfast show is the most coveted timeslot for radio operators, and talkSPORT is hoping to take share from its rivals, in particular BBC station Radio Five Live. The competition will be promoted on-air and through press advertising.

The sport station performed badly in the most recent RAJAR results: weekly reach for the last quarter of 2003 was down 23% year on year, a loss of almost half a million listeners (see RAJAR Results: Q4 2003: Rugby Fails To Boost talkSPORT). The station’s outspoken owner Kelvin Mackenzie has railed against the current method of measuring radio audiences, and is backing electronic measurement of the medium through Gfk (see Speech Stations See Audiences Increase Under GfK Survey).

Wireless Group: 020 7269 7180

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