CityTalk prepares for launch
Cue scenes of presenters, including Dean Sullivan, aka Brookside’s Jimmy Corkhill, and the doyen of football punditry Ian St. John, hobnobbing over croissants.
The gathering was part of the final preperations, including last dry-runs, before the station goes live. When it does, CityTalk will become only the country’s third regional, commercial talk radio station, joining London’s LBC and Edinburgh’s Talk107.
CityTalk’s station director, Richard Maddock, explained how – as well as looking at other talk radio models around the world – those behind the station have taken on board the advice and insight of their London and Edinburgh counterparts.
“Despite being owned by a different company, LBC were really helpful. They invited us down to see how they did things and given LBC’s years of experience it gave us a really good insight,\" said Maddock.
“The difference is though that LBC is heavily news-focused and our forum is going to be much broader, so it’s hard to directly compare,\" he added.
The Drum proffers to Maddock that CityTalk and Talk 107 - which has struggled to make a dent on RAJAR figures since its launch in February last year - seem strikingly similar.
“The people behind Talk 107 came down to meet us and they gave us some great advice about things to look out for and avoid, but again, I think we’re different because Talk 107 is a lot more phone-in heavy than we will be.
“That said, we’re not going to look at any listener figures for a year. Emap have given us long-term backing to make a success of this, so we’re looking at a five-year plan now.
“We know we have to establish ourselves and make the people of Liverpool aware of what we’re trying to do but we’ve got time on our side.” Maddock said.
To make the Liverpool public aware of CityTalk, the in-house marketing team, along with city agency Ampersand, will unleash the station’s marketing campaign on Monday in-line with the launch.
The campaign features each presenter making a statement which, according to Maddock, reflects their on air style. Pete Price’s ‘Racism is alive and well in Liverpool’ is among the most outlandish.
“It’s deliberate. The reaction among those who’ve seen the ads has been a mixture of shock and amazement,” said Maddock, as he explained the rationale behind the campaign.
“But we wanted the campaign to be exciting and represent the fact that we’re different, and showcase the personalities we’ve got on the station, rather than just having a campaign that says \'we\'re here, we\'ve launched\'. We didn\'t want bland advertising,” Maddock added.
CityTalk\'s marketing also sees the station declare itself \"the voice of Liverpool\". Drive time host Paul Jacobs, formerly of TalkSport - the station\'s only national equivalent - already believes the format could be ripe for rolling out across the country.
“This kind of format is perfect here because Liverpudlians are opinionated and love to express themselves. But, it\'s so accessible that if it does take off in Liverpool, you can be sure it won’t be long before we see it rolled-out elsewhere,” said Jacobs.
First though City Talk has to conquer Liverpool. The station launches at 6am on Monday with Phil Easton and Kim Hughes’s breakfast show.