UK newspaper The Times launches news radio station
The British newspaper group that owns The Times and Sunday Times launched Monday a news and current affairs radio station, looking to position itself as a rival to the BBC.
Times Radio went go on digital radio, online and via good speaker in 0500 GMT and had Primary Minister Boris Johnson while its first big-brand guest.
Morning speech radio has traditionally been dominated by BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, which includes often establish the political agenda for the day.
The new station said it aims to appeal to listeners who may have been turned off by what it called the "febrile tone of political debate" on other radio networks.
Instead of "unnecessarily adversarial interviews" and presenter interruptions, it really wants to give attention to "informed expertise", The Times said in an article to announce the launch.
It as well aims to provide a "daily soundtrack" to persons still working from home through the coronavirus crisis, said Tim Levell, a past BBC executive in charge of the new station.
"Lockdown continues to be continuing, although of training course it's easing, and we desire to be a fresh voice... specifically (for) those at home," he added.
Some glitches were reported, however, with listeners tuning in via smart speaker directed to a radio station of the same brand in Malawi.
The African station is situated in the southern city of Blantyre, a lot more than 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres) from the British capital.
Times Radio is a good partnership between your Times, the Sunday Times weekly and its own owners' Reports UK's radio division, Wi-fi, which also owns the Talksport and Talkradio systems.
News UK is a good subsidiary of Media Corp, whose executive chairman is Rupert Murdoch. In addition, it owns Dow Jones and the Wall structure Street Journal.
The Sun, which is also owned by Media UK, launched its radio station, Sun Chat, in April 2009 nonetheless it closed 1 . 5 years later within cost-cutting measures.
UK radio stations, including the BBC and commercial speech networks such as LBC, have reported an increase in listeners during the coronavirus outbreak. -- AFP
