Park, who left Capital in March last year after 14 years with the company, will work in conjunction with Magic 105.4's programme director Trevor White across music and presentation. He left Capital at the beginning of 2001 to set up his own media consultancy business and has recently appeared on the BBC talent show 'Fame Academy'.
His move to Emap follows speculation at the weekend that Emap is considering a bid for Capital Radio and has asked its financial advisers to examine a possible deal. Emap, which also owns Kiss FM, has according to reports asked investment bank Lazards to look at the implications of a possible deal, which would include advising as to whether the deal would likely win regulatory approval.
Park joined Capital in 1987 and was behind the launch of Capital Gold in 1988. He presided over the expansion of Capital's businesses around the country and, as programme controller, hired staff including Chris Tarrant, Neil Fox, Pete Tong, Tim Westwood and Jakki Brambles.
According to Park: "It is a great pleasure to return to radio with Magic 105.4. I am a fan of the ethos of the station and look forward to reuniting with Trevor in the new year."
Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Park began his career in print journalism as a trainee on the Fife News in 1964 before moving to the offshore pirate station Radio Scotland. When this was closed, he went back to local newspapers, interspersing his writing with radio work, including stints at Radio 1.
He is a fellow of The Radio Academy and has gathered many awards throughout his career. These include Broadcaster of the Year at the first annual Sony Awards in 1983; the IMF British Music Roll of Honour in recognition of his outstanding contribution to British music in 1994 and, last year, he was voted most influential person in the music industry by record and radio industry executives.
He was a director of Wildstar Records, responsible for signing Craig David, Lutricia McNeal and Fierce among others and is executive chairman of The Richard Park Company.
Mark Story, managing director of Magic, said: "This is the first time Emap has used a radio consultant and it is testimony to Richard's calibre that we have asked him to work with us on Magic. I am very excited about working with him again, because Magic is extremely important to us and Richard will play a significant role in continuing the growth shown in the last set of Rajar figures. "
Magic 105.4 has 1.2m listeners a week, a 10% quarter-on-quarter rise according to the third-quarter figures from Rajar.
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