talkRADIO announce launch date and presenters
By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 8 February 2016, 5.43am est
talkRADIO, the new digital radio station from UTV, is launching on March 21st, it's announced today.
It's signed up a number of presenters, including Iain Lee, George Galloway and Julia Hartley-Brewer. Breakfast will be done by Paul Ross.
talkSPORT2, talkRADIO and Virgin Radio also unveiled their Twitter accounts this morning. Find them in our directory.
The original Talk Radio UK was rebranded talkSPORT by the company that's now bringing back Talk Radio. It's also bringing back Virgin Radio, which was rebranded by someone else. Nurse? More headache pills?
Press release
Set to shake-up the speech radio category with some bold characters and content, the weekday line-up will feature Paul Ross, Sam Delaney, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Iain Lee and George Galloway, who will be on-air to tackle the topics everyone’s talking about with intelligence, wit and humour. From celebrity culture to the big issues in politics, the station will be strongly personality-led and will feature magazine-style shows from a wide range of topics.
The Breakfast Show (weekdays, 6am – 10am) will be hosted by broadcaster and journalist Paul Ross. His presenting credits include The Big Breakfast, The Paul Ross Show and Most Haunted, with regular contributions to numerous popular shows, from This Morning to The Alan Titchmarsh Show. His incredible brain has seen him win celebrity versions of shows such as Mastermind and The Weakest Link and, when it comes to radio, he’s a veteran, having hosted shows on GLR, LBC and Virgin Radio.
Intelligent and politically astute, Julia Hartley-Brewer is primed for mid-morning (weekdays, 10am – 1pm). A regular on Question Time and Have I Got News For You, Julia has also hosted LBC’s afternoon show and regularly appears on BBC Radio 4. Her journalistic credits span the national media, with a former role as Political Editor for the Sunday Express, and regular columns currently in both The Daily Telegraph and The Independent.
Fast-talking author and broadcaster Sam Delaney has been entertaining talkSPORT listeners as a guest presenter on the station, making him a shoo-in for the sought after talkRADIO Drivetime slot (weekdays, 4-7pm). A former Editor of both Heat magazine and Comedy Central UK, Delaney writes for a wealth of national newspapers and magazines and regularly appears on television across the spectrum.
The launch of talkRADIO sees Iain Lee make a triumphant return to late night radio, presenting from 10pm-1am. Well accustomed to bringing some fun and risqué content to the airwaves, Iain is a broadcaster with a wealth of radio experience, having hosted on XFM, LBC, Absolute and BBC Radio 4. His previous TV credits also include The 11 O’Clock Show on Channel 4 and RI:SE.
Friday nights will never be the same again as George Galloway returns to the mic (Fridays, 7-10pm), bringing with him his trademark flair. Politician, broadcaster and writer, George – who will be restricted from broadcasting for the first six weeks of talkRADIO due to his London mayoral election campaign – is an excellent orator and will be tackling the big topics of politics every week with The Mother of all Talk Shows.
Paul Ross, presenter of talkRADIO’s Breakfast Show, said: “talkRADIO is going to bring something new and fresh to the world of digital radio, and I can’t wait to get into the studio and start talking to our listeners every morning.”
Liam Fisher, National Radio Controller for UTV Media, said: “talkRADIO will give listeners something completely different from morning until night with presenters and content guaranteed to get you talking. Our work is still not done, with more fantastic presenters to be announced later this month.”