Talk 107

Infobox Radio station


name =talk107
airdate =14 February 2006
frequency =107.0 MHz
share = 0.9%
share as of = September 2007
share source = [http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php]
area =Edinburgh, Fife and The Lothians
format =Speech
owner =UTV Radio

talk107 is 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 is the only station of its kind in Scotland. It is owned by UTV Radio and trades as a wholly owned division of talkSPORT - the national sports talk station.

tation History

The FM local commercial radio licence for the city of Edinburgh and the area surrounding the Firth of Forth 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 24th August 2007, talk107 became available to central Scotland on DAB digital radio.

Presenters

The original talk107 presenter line-up consisted of Alex Bell, Susan Morrison, Graham Stewart, Simon Pia, Heather Dee, Mike Graham, Gordon Dallas, Micky Gavin, Ramsay Jones,Mark Woods, Colin Paterson, 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 weekend shows for sister station talkSPORT were syndicated on talk107 from 3 June 2006. Following the release of the station's disastrous first set of RAJAR figures, Scottie McClue took over the Sunday-Thursday late night show from 20 August 2006. He replaced Micky Gavin, who took over the afternoon show, where he was later joined by ex-Radio Forth presenter Diane Lester as his co-host from October 2006.

Alex Bell left the Morning Show on Wednesday 25 October 2006 after station chiefs labelled him "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 was 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 stands in for Mike Graham.

Stephen Jardine left in February 2007 to concentate on his tv work. He 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 30th March 2008, Tommy Sheridan was dropped as a presenter and he follows ex-presenters, Mike Graham & Susan Morrison, in the station's transformation.

Line Up

From March 24th
*Scott Wilson and Liz Clark (Weekdays 6am-10am)
*Dominik Diamond and Marisa de Andrade (Weekdays 2pm-6pm)
*Gordon Dallas (Monday-Thursday 6.30pm-10pm, Sunday 1pm-4:30pm)
*Ramsay Jones (Saturday 5pm-7pm, Sunday 4pm-7pm)
*Ian Gilmour and Lynne McCrossan(Weekdays 10am-2pm)
*Mark Donaldson (Saturday 1pm-5:30pm)
*Extra Time (Saturday 5:30pm-7pm)
*Lynne McCrossan (Saturday 7pm-10pm)
*Alex Hastie (Sunday 7pm-10pm)
*George Galloway (Saturday 10pm-1am)
*The Best of Talk 107 with Live News (Everyday 1-6am)

The above times are subject to change while the station goes through a transformation.

News

talk107 has live local news 24 hours a day. It also has news programmes "talk107 Today" and "talk107 Tonight" at 6am and 6.45pm weekdays.

Head of News: Gwen Lawrie

Sports Editor: Mark Donaldson

The other newsreaders and reporters include: Joe Odber, Rachael Connors, Fiona Stewart, Jennifer Crichton.

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 100,000 listeners.

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 resulted in talk107 being 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 talk107's performance slipping, 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%.

External links

* [http://www.talk107.co.uk talk107 official site]
* [http://www.mediauk.com/radio/343027/talk107 Media UK profile]
* [http://wwww.radioauthority.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/car/ifmapps/ed/dunedin.pdf Original licence application document]