They could split the two Mikes and give them both shows on each station.

I miss solo MG talking about current affairs in a serious way.

You can't of listened much over last few years or more likely you choose to agnore it as you probably share his views . I will give he probably is the best presenter , but that tells you more about TalkRadio than anything else . And why hasn't this anti-Murdoch leftie quit the station yet ?

I have not been listening to what the last few years? talkRADIO has not been around for even a year yet, and yes GG is currently the best presenter on talkRADIO at the moment.

GG has publically stated he will work for whoever, as long as they don't interfere with his show. That is fair enough i think.

After writing to LBC about what's happened to the David Mellor & Michael Crick show I have just received the following reply ......

"The Mellor & Crick show is taking a 5 week break during the summer."


Good news all round.

Ah thanks for the info.

Cheers Billy. Not for the first time the common sense and obvious answer was too simple for some.

Superb News

It's just a bit odd they've removed the show from their website that's all but what I have said about their reply is true. Just need Ken back and making it 3 hours again then it won't seem to be all adverts and news breaks,

James Whale alert!

Lovers of The Whale need to vote to save him from eviction on CBB. He came top of the unpopularity contest tonight among his fellow housemates, and is up against Grant Bovey for the heave. The Whale can't be the first to leave, especially against a love rat ex of Anthea Turner.

Vote Whale!

Not while I have breath in my body!!!.

I would sooner sit in a full bath of vinegar pulling my [steady] pulling my toe nails off with a pair of pliers than watch that load of embarrassing junk.

Just watched this clip of the Two Mikes trailing their show today:

https://twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/760444419749314560

Did not realise that when MG speaks his top lip doesn't move! He's like a ventriloquist! Weird.

Just tuned into Drive, Sam Delany sounding better. Talking about Rhianna and her videos and how her videos are not good for kids etc. He is surprisingly engaging compared to when the show first started. Looking forward to hearing the two Mikes do non sport stuff.

Very entertaining listen between 3-3.30pm the Two Mikes interviewing an American comedian. They can always add a bit extra and speak with knowledge, particularly MG who lived there for 10 years, so it was more of an interesting conversation.

Radio Rockall probblly has more listeners.

TalkRadio: 224,000 listeners

TalkSport: 3,300,000 listeners
TalkSport 2: 285,000 listeners
Virgin Radio: 409,000 listeners

(Last three for comparison, of course)

I was expecting a lot worse than 224,000. I would be satisfied with that for a first time RAJAR.

I was worried it would be five figures - I think 224,000 is a good start.

Interesting chart from Adam Bowie's blog about the overlap between the three Wireless Group/to-be-News Corp national stations:

http://www.adambowie.com/blog/wp-con...016/08/UTV.jpg

http://www.adambowie.com/blog/

Was I the only one expecting between 50k-100k absolute tops then?

That seems extremely healthy considering the limited coverage. It's almost 'wow' for me.

I didn't think 224,000 was bad, either. I'm not sure how much marketing there's been, apart from the roadside electronic billboards they had at launch - I certainly didn't see anything myself (compared with frequent sightings of Virgin posters on public transport in London).

Seems like a healthy figure to build on.

The billboards that inexplicable didn't actually tell you how you could listen.

Considering the appalling studios and marketing, I think it's brilliant.

To possibly rain on the parade: on Adam's blog he pointed at the possibility of misattribution for Virgin -- possibly getting ticks from people who think it's Absolute, perhaps?

Could the same be the case for TalkRadio? Or has it been too long ago to even matter?

Maybe I seem to remember talkSPORT was reported in RAJAR as "talkSPORT (Talk Radio)" for a few years afterwards.

The best that can be said for TalkRadio's listening figures is that they aren't bad considering the station has only been on air for a few months.

However, when one considers the dramatic growth of LBC and 5 Live, and the growth of news programming on Radio 4, those figures look dreadful. The growth of LBC and 5 Live was only possible because people were looking for speech radio, tuned into those stations, liked what they heard and continued listening.

Why hasn't the same happened in the case of TalkRadio? Does the format during current affairs shows make listeners feel excluded?

Do individual presenters take any of the blame, or do they think they would have done better if they had been presenting on the more successful stations?

LBC has 1.7 million listeners but 1.2 million of those are in London. 80,000 of the 224,000 talkRADIO listeners are in London. So outside London, we have 500,000 vs 140,000, which doesn't sound as impressive for LBC given the station has been around for 41 years longer and has been covering large parts of the country for most of the last 10 years on regional multiplexes and then covering over 90% on Digital One, combined with a rebrand. The current RAJAR covers the referendum period which you would have thought would give the dedicated current affairs stations an advantage. Also there has been the Euro 2016 football championship which would boost talkSPORT/2 and 5 Live.

talkRADIO is not a dedicated current affairs station so does not directly compete with LBC. talkRADIO discusses all sorts of things. You could argue there's also overlap with Radio 2 as that has a lot of chat, interviews etc. Indeed, the research section of the bid documentation says that the nearest station to talkRADIO would be Radio 2.

Really interesting RAJAR figures, has anyone got the figures for individual shows?