TeamTalk 252
Encyclopedia
TEAMtalk 252 was a short-lived UK national commercial sports radio station
, based in Leeds
in West Yorkshire
with long wave transmission coming from the Clarkstown radio transmitter in Trim, County Meath
in Ireland
, formerly used by Atlantic 252
.
Its content included a sports-based breakfast show, sports phone-ins, discussions and specialist programming.
The station was broadcast on 252 Longwave
kHz across the United Kingdom
and Republic of Ireland
and was also available to listeners on Sky
and online.
.
TEAMtalk 252 launched with the help of former England International Teddy Sheringham
and Footballers' Wives
star Zöe Lucker
, who played Tanya Turner, and although it had 19 studios and employed 100 full-time sports journalists, the newcomer made no attempt to muscle into the patch already covered by BBC Radio 5 Live
and Talksport
. Both stations had already spent millions on buying broadcast rights for live sports commentaries, but TEAMtalk 252 said it would concentrate on sports news, analysis, and opinion in addition to their Saturday night British Basketball League
coverage.
The station’s biggest names included former England International Phil Neal
, Jamie Broadbent who was part of Chris Evans' Virgin Radio
Breakfast Show and broadcasting personality James H. Reeve. John Meek, George Riley, Adam Pope, Neil Henderson, John Newcombe, Simon Barlow
, Tim Thornton
, Al Bentley and Terry McGeadie were all part of TEAMtalk 252's launch schedule.
Speaking about its launch, TEAMtalk Media Group sports director Ian Holding said: "Sports fans will come to know TEAMtalk 252 as the only station where they can tune in and guarantee to find sport. We have a great team in place and an enviable number of sports journalists who will enable us to deliver the broadest sports coverage possible."
The day began with the morning’s sports news, debate and reaction on The Full Sports Breakfast with Jon Mee and George Riley, before the baton was passed to Jamie Broadbent and Adam Pope on It's Your Shout, who took an in-depth look at the day’s sports stories and invited listeners to have their say, before James H. Reeve hosted an afternoon sports talk show with live horse racing and interviews. Neil Henderson and Jon Newcombe rounded-up the day’s sports news on Drive including all the latest stories from around the United Kingdom
with their team of reporters.
Sportsnight, hosted by Simon Barlow
and Tim Thornton
then guided listeners through the evening's sporting action, before handing over to the late night team on The Final Whistle with Al Bentley and Terry McGeadie, the station's nightly sports phone-in. Up For It with Gavin Hamilton, Nolan Kane and Mike Cunlife was broadcast throughout the night.
On Saturday and Sunday, TEAMtalk 252 had full coverage of the weekend’s sport with the latest news and scores on 252 Matchday, and also specialist programming including The Stable Breakfast, a show dedicated to horse racing, The Non League Show with Brendan Fatchett and The Business of Sport.
TEAMtalk 252 also broadcast coverage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup
in Japan
and South Korea
providing unofficial off-tube commentary of matches involving England
and the Republic of Ireland
, in addition to the knockout stages. This was despite the fact that BBC Radio 5 Live
held broadcast rights to the tournament, and Talksport
also provided their own unofficial off-tube coverage.
, Simon Barlow
, Seth Bennett, Terry McGeadie, and Tim Thornton
.
audience figures showed the station had 428,000 listeners a week in the first quarter of 2002. For the same period, rivals Talksport
increased its overall weekly audience to 2.47 million, while BBC Radio 5 Live
had 6.4 million listeners. Audience figures for TEAMtalk 252 were not helped by its poor signal in London
and the south east of England.
had a reported in the bank and allocated £8m to TEAMtalk 252 stating it needed to break even by 2004, but that it didn't have enough money to bid for exclusive sporting rights.
Losses spiralled to as much as £2.2m. As a result, TEAMtalk's group chairman Bill Wilson stepped down in April. Already by mid-May 2002, TEAMtalk 252's owners confirmed that it was in discussions with a number of parties who had expressed an interest in buying either part of or all off the TEAMtalk group. It had, a week previously, been approached by online betting business ukbetting plc with an offer of £10.2m for lock, stock and barrel — this was rejected by the TEAMtalk management. In April 2002, £9.5m was written off by TEAMtalk which admitted it had over-stretched itself financially. By the end of May 2002, TEAMtalk 252's future was thrown firmly into doubt when a deal was done between the parent company TEAMtalk and previous group bidder ukbetting to take over TEAMtalk for £13.7m.
ukbetting appeared to be mainly interested in TEAMtalk's other sporting services including internet site TEAMtalk.com; at that time ukbetting's portfolio of websites included sports sites sportinglife.com, sportal.com and bettingzone.co.uk, as well as betting sites totalbet.com and ukbetting.com. Subsequent takeovers have added Oddschecker.co.uk, Rivals.net, Football365, Golf365, Cricket365, Planet-Rugby and Planet-F1 among others to the stable.
TEAMtalk 252 closed suddenly on 31 July 2002. Staff were informed at a meeting held that morning that the station would close between 12:00 and 14:00 that day. The station ended broadcasting at 13:42 as presenter James H. Reeve said, "My dad always said don't start something you can't finish, and he'd be proud of me now".
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
, based in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
with long wave transmission coming from the Clarkstown radio transmitter in Trim, County Meath
Trim, County Meath
Trim is the traditional county town of County Meath in Ireland, although the county town is now Navan. The town was recorded in the 2006 census to have a population of 6,870....
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, formerly used by Atlantic 252
Atlantic 252
Atlantic 252 was a long wave radio station broadcasting to Ireland and the United Kingdom on 252 kHz from its 1988 purpose built transmission site Clarkstown radio transmitter, which provided service to Atlantic 252 from 1989 until 2002. The station's studios were located just 12 km away in...
.
Its content included a sports-based breakfast show, sports phone-ins, discussions and specialist programming.
The station was broadcast on 252 Longwave
Longwave
In radio, longwave refers to parts of radio spectrum with relatively long wavelengths. The term is a historic one dating from the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered to consist of long, medium and short wavelengths...
kHz across the United Kingdom
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...
and Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
and was also available to listeners on Sky
Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)
Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...
and online.
Launch
The station was launched on 11 March 2002 as the UK's first national commercial radio station 100% dedicated to sport, providing entertaining and informative coverage of all UK football, rugby, racing, cricket and all major sporting events. TEAMtalk 252 also provided a number of specialist programmes dedicated to racing, cricket, motor racing, non-league football, business, rugby league, US sports and live coverage of the British Basketball LeagueBritish Basketball League
The British Basketball League, often abbreviated to the BBL, is the premier men's professional basketball league in the United Kingdom. The BBL runs two knockout competitions alongside the league championship; the BBL Cup and the BBL Trophy....
.
TEAMtalk 252 launched with the help of former England International Teddy Sheringham
Teddy Sheringham
Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham MBE is a retired English footballer, and the father of footballer Charlie Sheringham. Sheringham played as a striker, and had a successful career at the club level, winning almost every domestic honour available with his clubs, most notably the Treble with Manchester...
and Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives is a British television drama surrounding the fictional Premier League Association football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives. It was broadcast on the ITV network from 8 January 2002 to 14 April 2006...
star Zöe Lucker
Zöe Lucker
Zöe Elizabeth Lucker is an English actress best known for playing the roles of Tanya Turner on ITV's Footballers' Wives and Vanessa Gold in EastEnders.-Career:...
, who played Tanya Turner, and although it had 19 studios and employed 100 full-time sports journalists, the newcomer made no attempt to muscle into the patch already covered by BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
and 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....
. Both stations had already spent millions on buying broadcast rights for live sports commentaries, but TEAMtalk 252 said it would concentrate on sports news, analysis, and opinion in addition to their Saturday night British Basketball League
British Basketball League
The British Basketball League, often abbreviated to the BBL, is the premier men's professional basketball league in the United Kingdom. The BBL runs two knockout competitions alongside the league championship; the BBL Cup and the BBL Trophy....
coverage.
The station’s biggest names included former England International Phil Neal
Phil Neal
Philip George "Phil" Neal is a former footballer who was, at one time, the most successful player in English football history. He played for Liverpool 650 times over an eleven year period and is the only player to have appeared in the first five of their European Cup finals, winning four of them...
, Jamie Broadbent who was part of Chris Evans' Virgin Radio
Virgin Radio
Absolute Radio is one of the UK's three Independent National Radio stations. The station rebranded to its current name at 7.45am on 29 September 2008.The station is based in London and plays popular rock music...
Breakfast Show and broadcasting personality James H. Reeve. John Meek, George Riley, Adam Pope, Neil Henderson, John Newcombe, Simon Barlow
Simon Barlow
Simon Barlow is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, and has been played by Alex Bain since 2008. The character was played by twins Jake and Oscar Hartley on his birth in 2003.-Character development:...
, Tim Thornton
Tim Thornton
Tim Thornton is an English drummer and novelist.Thornton was born in Darlington, had a boarding-school education, and gained a degree in drama. He is currently playing drums for the indie rock act Fink. His debut novel The Alternative Hero has been described by The Guardian as "the indiest book...
, Al Bentley and Terry McGeadie were all part of TEAMtalk 252's launch schedule.
Speaking about its launch, TEAMtalk Media Group sports director Ian Holding said: "Sports fans will come to know TEAMtalk 252 as the only station where they can tune in and guarantee to find sport. We have a great team in place and an enviable number of sports journalists who will enable us to deliver the broadest sports coverage possible."
Programming
TEAMtalk 252's programming consisted of sports talk, sports phone-ins, discussions and specialist programming 24 hours a day.The day began with the morning’s sports news, debate and reaction on The Full Sports Breakfast with Jon Mee and George Riley, before the baton was passed to Jamie Broadbent and Adam Pope on It's Your Shout, who took an in-depth look at the day’s sports stories and invited listeners to have their say, before James H. Reeve hosted an afternoon sports talk show with live horse racing and interviews. Neil Henderson and Jon Newcombe rounded-up the day’s sports news on Drive including all the latest stories from around the United Kingdom
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...
with their team of reporters.
Sportsnight, hosted by Simon Barlow
Simon Barlow
Simon Barlow is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, and has been played by Alex Bain since 2008. The character was played by twins Jake and Oscar Hartley on his birth in 2003.-Character development:...
and Tim Thornton
Tim Thornton
Tim Thornton is an English drummer and novelist.Thornton was born in Darlington, had a boarding-school education, and gained a degree in drama. He is currently playing drums for the indie rock act Fink. His debut novel The Alternative Hero has been described by The Guardian as "the indiest book...
then guided listeners through the evening's sporting action, before handing over to the late night team on The Final Whistle with Al Bentley and Terry McGeadie, the station's nightly sports phone-in. Up For It with Gavin Hamilton, Nolan Kane and Mike Cunlife was broadcast throughout the night.
On Saturday and Sunday, TEAMtalk 252 had full coverage of the weekend’s sport with the latest news and scores on 252 Matchday, and also specialist programming including The Stable Breakfast, a show dedicated to horse racing, The Non League Show with Brendan Fatchett and The Business of Sport.
TEAMtalk 252 also broadcast coverage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
providing unofficial off-tube commentary of matches involving England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, in addition to the knockout stages. This was despite the fact that BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
held broadcast rights to the tournament, and 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....
also provided their own unofficial off-tube coverage.
Presenters
TEAMtalk 252 had a roster of regular presenters, which included: Adam Pope, Al Bentley, Brendan Fatchett, Dick Millard, Gavin Hamilton, George Riley, James H. Reeve, Jamie Broadbent, Jason Thornton, Jon Meek, Jon Newcombe, Mike Cunliffe, Neil Henderson, Nick "Bomber" Harris, Nolan Kane, Phil NealPhil Neal
Philip George "Phil" Neal is a former footballer who was, at one time, the most successful player in English football history. He played for Liverpool 650 times over an eleven year period and is the only player to have appeared in the first five of their European Cup finals, winning four of them...
, Simon Barlow
Simon Barlow
Simon Barlow is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, and has been played by Alex Bain since 2008. The character was played by twins Jake and Oscar Hartley on his birth in 2003.-Character development:...
, Seth Bennett, Terry McGeadie, and Tim Thornton
Tim Thornton
Tim Thornton is an English drummer and novelist.Thornton was born in Darlington, had a boarding-school education, and gained a degree in drama. He is currently playing drums for the indie rock act Fink. His debut novel The Alternative Hero has been described by The Guardian as "the indiest book...
.
Audience
TEAMtalk 252's first and only set of RAJARRAJAR
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...
audience figures showed the station had 428,000 listeners a week in the first quarter of 2002. For the same period, rivals 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....
increased its overall weekly audience to 2.47 million, while BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
had 6.4 million listeners. Audience figures for TEAMtalk 252 were not helped by its poor signal in 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 the south east of England.
Demise
TEAMtalkTEAMtalk
TEAMtalk.com is a football website based in Leeds and since 2002 has been part of 365 Media Group, now a subsidiary of BSkyB.The site grew out of the premium rate football phonelines phenomenon of the 1980s and early 1990s, developing into a website with on a tabloid media style of reporting.The...
had a reported in the bank and allocated £8m to TEAMtalk 252 stating it needed to break even by 2004, but that it didn't have enough money to bid for exclusive sporting rights.
Losses spiralled to as much as £2.2m. As a result, TEAMtalk's group chairman Bill Wilson stepped down in April. Already by mid-May 2002, TEAMtalk 252's owners confirmed that it was in discussions with a number of parties who had expressed an interest in buying either part of or all off the TEAMtalk group. It had, a week previously, been approached by online betting business ukbetting plc with an offer of £10.2m for lock, stock and barrel — this was rejected by the TEAMtalk management. In April 2002, £9.5m was written off by TEAMtalk which admitted it had over-stretched itself financially. By the end of May 2002, TEAMtalk 252's future was thrown firmly into doubt when a deal was done between the parent company TEAMtalk and previous group bidder ukbetting to take over TEAMtalk for £13.7m.
ukbetting appeared to be mainly interested in TEAMtalk's other sporting services including internet site TEAMtalk.com; at that time ukbetting's portfolio of websites included sports sites sportinglife.com, sportal.com and bettingzone.co.uk, as well as betting sites totalbet.com and ukbetting.com. Subsequent takeovers have added Oddschecker.co.uk, Rivals.net, Football365, Golf365, Cricket365, Planet-Rugby and Planet-F1 among others to the stable.
TEAMtalk 252 closed suddenly on 31 July 2002. Staff were informed at a meeting held that morning that the station would close between 12:00 and 14:00 that day. The station ended broadcasting at 13:42 as presenter James H. Reeve said, "My dad always said don't start something you can't finish, and he'd be proud of me now".