Sports media group Teamtalk is to relaunch dance radio station
Atlantic 252 as an on-air and online sports service.
It has agreed to buy an 80 per cent stake in Atlantic 252's parent
company Radio Tara for £2 million. Irish public broadcaster RTE
will keep the remaining 20 per cent.
The station will be rebranded as Teamtalk 252. It will be launched as a
predominantly sports-based service next year, and it will continue to
broadcast on its longwave frequency.
Teamtalk's communications director Sheona Southern confirmed that there
will be an online offering which is likely to be similar to the web
radio service run by the company for Ladbrokes' sites.
She added that the company will invest in a production team as well as
integrating existing Teamtalk staff and content.
The new station will compete with rival sports services Radio Five Live
and talkSPORT.
"It will go head-to-head, particularly with talkSPORT on the commercial
side," said Southern. "We'll be looking to eat away at its market share.
Atlantic 252 is pulling in a younger audience, so we will look to keep
that, but perhaps focusing more on an upmarket audience to
talkSPORT."
Teamtalk's purchase follows its acquisitions earlier this year of German
independent sports radio programmer MMC Sport-Redaktion and in-store
broadcaster Hampson Radio.
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