UTV Radio
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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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] UK National station
- talkSPORT
- Talk Radio (coming in 2008 on DAB)
[edit] Local FM stations
- Imagine FM
- Peak FM
- The Pulse of West Yorkshire
- Signal 1
- 107.4 Tower FM
- Radio Wave 96.5
- 96.4 FM The Wave
- Wave 102
- 107.2 Wire FM
- 102.4 Wish FM
- 107.7 The Wolf
- 107.6 Juice FM
- Talk 107
[edit] Local AM stations
[edit] 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
[edit] 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.
[edit] UTV Radio Ireland
UTV Radio Ireland owns a number of Republic of Ireland independent local radio contractors - 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). On 19 December 2007 it announced it would acquire Dublin ILR FM104 from EMAP (via Communicorp) subject to BCI, Competition Authority, and UTV Media shareholders approval.
[edit] Local FM stations
[edit] Externallinks
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