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 subsidiary of UTV Media plc.

UTV Radio UK

The Wireless Group had its British origins in the company Talk Radio, named after the national AM station around which it was formed, which was later purchased by TalkCo, a consortium whose members included MVI, News International, Radio Investments and LMC Radio headed by chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of The Sun newspaper. It bought the Wireless Group in 1998 for £15.5m.

The company became the fifth largest UK radio group when it purchased The Radio Partnership in 1999, gaining control of its nine local commercial stations. In 2000 the station Talk Radio was relaunched as talkSPORT.

In May 2005, it was announced that the Northern Ireland media company UTV plc (now "UTV Media plc") had made an agreed offer to buy the company, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. In June 2005 the takeover proceeded, with McKenzie being replaced by UTV executive Scott Taunton. On 12 September 2005 it was announced that the company is to be rebranded as UTV Radio. This brand was to bring together UTV's new acquisitions along with its existing stations in Ireland. The acquisition of Juice FM in Liverpool was announced on the same date.

Trentham Gardens Controversy

UTV Radio subsidiary station Signal 1 radio was responsible for the disastrous '25th Anniversary' concert on 13/09/08 at Trentham Gardens that was so badly organised that the audience was kept waiting in a holding area for 4 hours after the gates were supposed to open with no facilities or information. The sound system failed to work properly and the head line band The Human League had their set cut by two thirds causing lead singer Phil Oakey to apologise to the audience for, in his words “the shambles".

Subsequent disinformation provided by Signal FM staff on the ground to prevent crowd disorder, falsely accused support act Ali Campbell of causing the delays by his alleged prima-donna behaviour. This then caused a hate campaign to be directed against Campbell by Human League and Go West fans who incorrectly blamed him for their bands being treated badly. Campbell had in fact been totally innocent and as the hate campaign began to get out of control his management jointly with the Human League and Go West issued a press release denouncing Signal 1 Radio for the concert organisation and exonerating Campbell. Angry concert goers have demanded refunds in their hundreds. UTV have refused to do so and are being pursued through the UK civil courts. They are also are being investigated by trading standards for breeching the UK’s Goods and Services Act. [Stafford Sentinel Newspaper 16/09/08 [http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Angry-concert-goers-demand-refunds/article-333169-detail/article.html] ]

UK National station

* talkSPORT
* Talk Radio (coming in 2008 on DAB)

Local FM stations

* Imagine FM
* Peak FM
* The Pulse of West Yorkshire
* Signal 1
* 107.4 Tower FM
* Radio Wave 96.5
* 96.4FM The Wave
* 107.2 Wire FM
* 102.4 Wish FM
* 107.7FM The Wolf
* 107.6 Juice FM
* Talk 107

Local AM stations

* Pulse Classic Gold
* Signal 2
* Swansea Sound
* Valleys Radio

DAB multiplexes

UTV operates three multiplexes jointly with EMAP Radio.
* UTV-EMAP Stoke-on-Trent
* UTV-EMAP Swansea
* UTV-EMAP West Yorkshire
* UTV is part of the Channel 4-backed 4Digital Group, which just won a 2nd National DAB Network to start Broadcasting in 2008

U105 Belfast

In May 2004, UTV announced that it had entered the competition for a new ILR franchise for Belfast, Northern Ireland. In March 2005 the Office of Communications announced that it had awarded the franchise to UTV. U105 - which began broadcasting on 14 November 2005 - is UTV's first radio station in Northern Ireland. It is available on FM Radio in Belfast and on the Freeview platform in Northern Ireland. It is based in Havlock House, sharing premises with UTV Television. The station is primarily aimed at the over-45 age group, and have speech based programming as well as "gold" music. Among the programmes, Gerry Kelly presents a Sunday morning radio programme on U105, "Kelly's Sunday Supplement".

UTV Radio Ireland

UTV Radio Ireland owns a number of Republic of Ireland independent local radio contractors - FM104 in Dublin, Live 95FM in Limerick, Q102 in Dublin, LMFM in Louth/Meath, and 96FM County Sound in Cork, which incorporates a separate radio entity, 103fm - itself subdivided across County Cork.

UTV sells airtime for its ILR stations through its subsidiary Broadcast Media Sales. This competes with the major ILR network sales house, Independent Radio Sales, and also sells airtime for Galway Bay FM and Beat 102-103, the first Independent Regional Radio station in Ireland, covering the south east. (Ironically UTV does not itself sell airtime on UTV Television, it is handled by ITV Sales).

Local FM stations

* FM104
* Dublin's Q102
* Cork's 96FM
* 103FM County Sound
* Limerick's Live 95FM
* LMFM

References

External links

* [http://www.thewirelessgroup.net UTV Radio]
* [http://www.utvdab.com UTV DAB]
* [http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,3604,1480174,00.html UTV buys the Wireless Group in May 2005]