George Galloway a casualty as TalkSport drops all 39 hours of non-sport content
Politician George Galloway is one of the casualties of TalkSport’s decision to drop all its 39 hours weekly output of non-sport content.
Galloway, who writes a weekly column for the Daily Record, fronts a three-hour weekly current affairs show for the radio station on Friday evenings.
Former MP Galloway is expected to stand at the Bradford by-election for a Westminster seat on March 29 under the Respect Party banner.
TalkSport's weeknight overnight show presenter, Mike Graham, on air between 1am and 6am, will remain, but from now the show – billed as "some good old-fashioned late-night debate" – will focus entirely on sport.
Graham is a former editor of the Scottish Daily Mirror and former programme director and presenter on Edinburgh radio station Talk 107, which closed down in 2008.
The Guardian reports that the UTV-owned station wants to position itself as the only full-time sport station in the UK - “putting further clear water between its rival, BBC Radio 5 Live.”
It quotes TalkSport programme director, Moz Dee, as saying it was an "exciting yet natural next step" for the station which rebranded as TalkSport from Talk Radio 12 years ago.
"We want to change expectations of overnight radio, focusing on up-to-the-minute sport news and information from around the globe," said Dee.
"It gives us a great opportunity to work with an international network of sports reporters covering everything from American sports to British teams and athletes competing on the other side of the world, and makes us the only UK station focused on sport all of the time.”
TalkSport, which won national station of the year at last year's Sony Radio Academy Awards, has an average weekly audience of 3.2 million listeners.