Play Radio UK was a British internet radio station based on the South Coast of England. Its output comprised two mainstream music radio streams, a talk radio stream, and several other genre-specific music streams. On July 4, 2009, Play Radio UK launched an FM service in Southampton and Winchester.
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Play Radio UK officially went into liquidation at 1000hrs on Friday 18 Sep 09[1], although the Southampton services are operated under a separate company and (as of 1 October 2009) are not affected. The company was part directed by David Reynolds, who was charged with £1.2million tax fraud in June 2008[2], and was part of Something.info.
Play Radio UK was founded by Lee Moulsdale,and Jamie Robertson, and after a short while moved into a converted barn in Ford, a small village near Arundel, West Sussex. The building also hosted Dave Reynolds' other companies, including Satellite Direct and Something.info. The station officially launched in October 2006 with a mainstream music radio format. Later, further genre-specific music streams were added.[3]
On June 8, 2009 Play Radio announced it had successfully won the rights to the Southampton and Winchester FM licences on 107.2FM and 107.8FM. This service was launched on July 4 and carries a mixture of live local programming and live "networking" with their online stations.[4]
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Tommy Boyd joined the station in 2007 with Play Radio's first talk-based show, a Sunday night phone-in programme [5]. The station expanded its talk output in 2008, with the arrival of former talkSPORT presenters James Whale [6] and Mike Mendoza [7].
At Easter 2008, Richard Hearsey began 'Hearsey's Half Hour' ... 30 minutes of entertainment crammed into 2 hours. Basically he hosted a chat and music show with special celebrity guests including Tim Vine, Chris Tarrant, Shaun Williamson, Alex Lowe, Bobby Davro, Steve Nallon etc.
In March 2009, the station's talk output was moved from Play Two UK, to a new dedicated stream, Play Talk UK. Play Talk UK was the creation of Tommy Boyd, assisted by Fiona Dutton. Matt Hollick provided the technical support. The intention was to create a 24/7 schedule of unregulated talk radio. In the process of expanding the hours of broadcast, new presenters were added to the Play Talk UK schedule.[8]
In July 2009, Play Talk ceased broadcasting after its successful pilot test phase, due to lack of financial support. At the same time, the other online stations all became music only services.
In January 2009, British National Party deputy leader Simon Darby was given a regular guest slot on Play Radio's The Tommy Boyd Show.[9]
After a handful of guest appearances on Tommy Boyd's show, Play Radio gave Darby his own hour-long weekly programme. The first episode of The Simon Darby Show aired on 23 March 2009.[10]
Play Radio claimed that their Play Talk UK station was "leading the UK in unrestricted, unregulated free speech radio."[11]
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