Talk 107
Encyclopedia
talk107 was a radio station based in Edinburgh
, Scotland
, broadcasting a phone-in based talk format. It was the UK
's first local commercial talk licence to be awarded outside London
and was the only station of its kind in Scotland
. It was owned by UTV Radio
and traded as a wholly owned division of talkSPORT
- the national sports talk station.
The station ceased broadcasting at 10pm on 23 December 2008 - a day earlier than initially announced - with Kickabout being the final programme to be aired. The station's head of news, Gwen Lawrie, was both the first and last voice to be heard on the station.
was awarded to Dunedin FM on 16 December 2004 (Dunedin
is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name Dùn Èideann for Edinburgh, Scotland). Originally due to be launched as Dunedin FM, talk107 was launched on 14 February 2006 at 6am. The first programme was The Morning Show with Alex Bell & Susan Morrison. On 24 August 2007, talk107 became available to central Scotland on DAB
digital radio. The station was led by former Emap Programme Director Colin Paterson in charge of news and programme output and former Scot FM Sales Director Peter Gillespie as Managing Director.
, Graham Stewart
, Simon Pia, Heather Dee, Gordon Dallas, Micky Gavin, Barry Snedden, Ramsay Jones, Mark Woods, Colin Paterson (also Programme Director), Stephen Jardine and Alex Hastie.
Shortly after launch, in March 2006, Mark McKenzie, Mark Judge and Adrian Allen were added to the weekend schedule. Respect
MP George Galloway
's presented a weekend shows for thestation which was later syndicate on sister station talkSPORT
from 3 June 2006. Following the release of the station's first set of RAJAR figures, Micky Gavin took over the afternoon show, where he was later joined by ex-Radio Forth presenter Diane Lester as his co-host from October 2006. Scottie McClue
was brought in to do the Sunday-Thursday late night show from 20 August 2006.
Alex Bell left the Morning Show on Wednesday 25 October 2006 after station chiefs labelled him as too intelligent for the format and consequently he was replaced by the more suitable ex-Forth One and Forth 2 presenter Scott Wilson. In November, launch programme director Colin Paterson left the station to be replaced by Mike Graham and on 1 December 2006, a new weekend line-up was unveiled. On 3 December 2006 former Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan
began a new Sunday morning show. Sheridan often stood in for Mike Graham. Stephen Jardine
left in February 2007 to concentrate on his work at STV and was replaced by Sun columnist Martel Maxwell.
In January 2008, Simon Pia and Heather Dees' drivetime slot was given to Dominik Diamond
and Marisa de Andrade, who had both been presenting weekend breakfast since November 2007. On 30 March 2008, Tommy Sheridan was dropped as a presenter and he follows ex-presenters, Mike Graham & Susan Morrison, in the station's transformation. From September 2008 the station began airing a live Sunday afternoon sports programme with TV presenter Jeremy Kyle
, networked from TalkSport
in London.
talk107's first RAJAR
results, published on 3 August 2006, revealed the station had made poor progress towards that target. In the three months from April to June 2006, the station attracted an average of only 16,000 listeners per week (2%), each listening for an average of 2.2 hours per week, leading to a market share of 0.2%. This was the lowest debut of any UK radio station in RAJAR's history and talk107 became Scotland's smallest surveyed radio station.
The station's second RAJAR, published 26 October 2006, saw a modest increase in listeners to 23,000 (2%), with 3.8 average hours per listener and a doubling of market share to 0.4%. February 2007 saw another increase to 34,000 and 4.3 average hours. In May 2007, this rose to 43,000 and 5.7 average hours, taking market share above 1%. August 2007 saw talk107s performance begin to slip, with the number of weekly listeners decreasing to 26,000, a slight increase in listening hours to 5.8, and a decrease in market share to 0.8%.
, the owners of Talk 107 announced that the station was officially up for sale as they wanted to focus on talkSPORT
amongst other things. However, as no buyers were found, the decision was taken to close the station with the loss of 20 jobs.
The station originally intended to cease transmission at 10pm on 24 December 2008 but decided to close 24 hours earlier than planned. talk107s website was closed on the same evening.
Staff were only informed of the decision to cease broadcasting 24 hours earlier at 5pm on the evening of 23 December. Mark and Marisa, the Drive Time presenters, made the announcement live on air at 5.20pm GMT and both the staff's personal emails and the stations website was closed shortly thereafter 10pm GMT. No announcement from UTV was made about the decision to close the station earlier than planned.
Wayne Madden, who now hosts his own Radio programme for Y Radio in Newcastle called Graveyard Shift, was stand in producer for Drive Time on the evening that the station closed.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, broadcasting a phone-in based talk format. It was the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's first local commercial talk licence to be awarded outside London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and was the only station of its kind in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It was owned by UTV Radio
UTV Radio
UTV Radio is a UK media company, and owner of several radio stations in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is a growing branch of UTV Media....
and traded as a wholly owned division of talkSPORT
TalkSPORT
Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....
- the national sports talk station.
The station ceased broadcasting at 10pm on 23 December 2008 - a day earlier than initially announced - with Kickabout being the final programme to be aired. The station's head of news, Gwen Lawrie, was both the first and last voice to be heard on the station.
Station history
The FM local commercial radio licence for the city of Edinburgh and the area surrounding the Firth of ForthFirth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
was awarded to Dunedin FM on 16 December 2004 (Dunedin
Dunedin (disambiguation)
Dunedin is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name Dùn Éideann for Edinburgh, Scotland.Dunedin may also refer to:-Places:* Dunedin, Western Australia* Dunedin, Ontario, Canada* Dunedin, New Zealand* Dunedin, Eastern Cape, South Africa...
is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name Dùn Èideann for Edinburgh, Scotland). Originally due to be launched as Dunedin FM, talk107 was launched on 14 February 2006 at 6am. The first programme was The Morning Show with Alex Bell & Susan Morrison. On 24 August 2007, talk107 became available to central Scotland on DAB
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....
digital radio. The station was led by former Emap Programme Director Colin Paterson in charge of news and programme output and former Scot FM Sales Director Peter Gillespie as Managing Director.
Presenters
The original talk107 presenter line-up consisted of Alex Bell, Susan Morrison, Mike GrahamMike Graham (Journalist)
Michael Graham is a British journalist. He is best known for his work as a presenter on national commercial speech radio station Talksport...
, Graham Stewart
Graham Stewart
Graham Stewart is a Scottish broadcaster who currently presents The Business on BBC Radio Scotland. He was previously a presenter on Edinburgh radio station Talk 107. Stewart is also a presenter of the shorter Reporting Scotland programmes.-References:...
, Simon Pia, Heather Dee, Gordon Dallas, Micky Gavin, Barry Snedden, Ramsay Jones, Mark Woods, Colin Paterson (also Programme Director), Stephen Jardine and Alex Hastie.
Shortly after launch, in March 2006, Mark McKenzie, Mark Judge and Adrian Allen were added to the weekend schedule. Respect
RESPECT The Unity Coalition
Respect is a socialist political party in England and Wales founded in 2004. Its name is a contrived acronym standing for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade Unionism.-Policies:...
MP George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
's presented a weekend shows for thestation which was later syndicate on sister station talkSPORT
TalkSPORT
Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....
from 3 June 2006. Following the release of the station's first set of RAJAR figures, Micky Gavin took over the afternoon show, where he was later joined by ex-Radio Forth presenter Diane Lester as his co-host from October 2006. Scottie McClue
Scottie McClue
Scottie McClue is the on-air pseudonym of media consultant, actor, writer and broadcaster Colin Lamont, whoin 1992 as Senior producer and presenter at Red Rose Gold in Preston, created the persona for the Scottie McClue Mega Phone-In, networked on various Independent Local Radio stations across the...
was brought in to do the Sunday-Thursday late night show from 20 August 2006.
Alex Bell left the Morning Show on Wednesday 25 October 2006 after station chiefs labelled him as too intelligent for the format and consequently he was replaced by the more suitable ex-Forth One and Forth 2 presenter Scott Wilson. In November, launch programme director Colin Paterson left the station to be replaced by Mike Graham and on 1 December 2006, a new weekend line-up was unveiled. On 3 December 2006 former Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity....
began a new Sunday morning show. Sheridan often stood in for Mike Graham. Stephen Jardine
Stephen Jardine
Stephen Jardine is a Scottish journalist and presenter. He has worked for Scottish Television, GMTV and Radio Tay. He now runs Scotland's first dedicated food and drink communications consultancy, Taste Communications.-Early years:...
left in February 2007 to concentrate on his work at STV and was replaced by Sun columnist Martel Maxwell.
In January 2008, Simon Pia and Heather Dees' drivetime slot was given to Dominik Diamond
Dominik Diamond
Paul Dominik Diamond is a Scottish television and radio presenter and newspaper columnist. He is best known as the original presenter of Channel 4's video gaming programme GamesMaster, as host of The Dominik Diamond Breakfast Show on Xfm Scotland and as a columnist for the Daily Star...
and Marisa de Andrade, who had both been presenting weekend breakfast since November 2007. On 30 March 2008, Tommy Sheridan was dropped as a presenter and he follows ex-presenters, Mike Graham & Susan Morrison, in the station's transformation. From September 2008 the station began airing a live Sunday afternoon sports programme with TV presenter Jeremy Kyle
Jeremy Kyle
Jeremy Kyle is an English radio and television presenter, best known for his British daytime television chat show on ITV, The Jeremy Kyle Show. Kyle is also the host of an American talk show of the same name that premiered on 19 September 2011.-Radio career:From 1986 to 1995, Kyle worked as a...
, networked from TalkSport
TalkSPORT
Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....
in London.
News
Talk 107 aired live, locally produced news bulletins 24 hours a day, including two flagship news programmes talk107 Today at 6am and talk107 Tonight at 6:45pm.Audience Figures
In its original licence application of September 2004, The Wireless Group plc published initial audience projections for talk107. By the end of its first year on-air, the forecast was for an average weekly reach of 140,000 listeners (12.5% of a potential 1.1 m), each listening for an average of 8 hours per week. However, in the weeks leading up to launch in February 2006, public predictions by station management saw estimates lowered to around 100,000 listeners.talk107's first RAJAR
RAJAR
RAJAR was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the RadioCentre...
results, published on 3 August 2006, revealed the station had made poor progress towards that target. In the three months from April to June 2006, the station attracted an average of only 16,000 listeners per week (2%), each listening for an average of 2.2 hours per week, leading to a market share of 0.2%. This was the lowest debut of any UK radio station in RAJAR's history and talk107 became Scotland's smallest surveyed radio station.
The station's second RAJAR, published 26 October 2006, saw a modest increase in listeners to 23,000 (2%), with 3.8 average hours per listener and a doubling of market share to 0.4%. February 2007 saw another increase to 34,000 and 4.3 average hours. In May 2007, this rose to 43,000 and 5.7 average hours, taking market share above 1%. August 2007 saw talk107s performance begin to slip, with the number of weekly listeners decreasing to 26,000, a slight increase in listening hours to 5.8, and a decrease in market share to 0.8%.
Sale and closure
On 29 October 2008, UTV RadioUTV Radio
UTV Radio is a UK media company, and owner of several radio stations in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is a growing branch of UTV Media....
, the owners of Talk 107 announced that the station was officially up for sale as they wanted to focus on talkSPORT
TalkSPORT
Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....
amongst other things. However, as no buyers were found, the decision was taken to close the station with the loss of 20 jobs.
The station originally intended to cease transmission at 10pm on 24 December 2008 but decided to close 24 hours earlier than planned. talk107s website was closed on the same evening.
Staff were only informed of the decision to cease broadcasting 24 hours earlier at 5pm on the evening of 23 December. Mark and Marisa, the Drive Time presenters, made the announcement live on air at 5.20pm GMT and both the staff's personal emails and the stations website was closed shortly thereafter 10pm GMT. No announcement from UTV was made about the decision to close the station earlier than planned.
Wayne Madden, who now hosts his own Radio programme for Y Radio in Newcastle called Graveyard Shift, was stand in producer for Drive Time on the evening that the station closed.