The Wireless Group hits out at Rajar in £66m claim battle

March 17, 2004

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The Wireless Group hits out at Rajar in £66m claim battle

LONDON - The Wireless Group said it can not wait for its day in front of a judge as it hit back at radio body Rajar, which said that Kelvin MacKenzie's £66m legal claim would be thrown out of court.

In the latest move in an increasingly bitter war of words between MacKenzie and Rajar, TWG said it wanted its day in court sooner rather than later.

"Unlike Rajar we can't wait for our day in court -- and we want it sooner rather than later. We believe we have an unassailable argument and we are happy to leave it to a judge to decide on its merits," TWG said.

TWG has dismissed Rajar's claim that its decision not to adopt electronic measurement was taken after exhaustive tests in the studio and in the field. TWG argues that the studio test proved both meters to be accurate and that the field tests were not set up to test either meter's accuracy in measuring radio audiences.

In addition TWG rejected Rajar's defence that the legal claim focused on one small area of testing. TWG said that it is the small area of testing that provided Rajar with its only "evidence" that the electronic testing meters were flawed.

TWG reacted angrily to Rajar's attempt to dismiss its legal fight as "ludicrous".

"What is ludicrous is that Paul Kennedy, Rajar's research director, admitted that Rajar staff had not kept records for all of their listening for the crucial tests on the accuracy of the audiometers. Instead they had tried to remember what they listened to over a week earlier and compare this to the audiometer results," TWG's statement said.

MacKenzie, who is chairman and chief executive of TWG, has long maintained that Rajar's diary system of measuring radio audiences is inaccurate and accounts for a loss of TalkSPORT revenues of approximately £1.5m a month.

Yesterday TWG issued a statement announcing that it was suing Rajar for £66m in lost revenue, to which Rajar has responded. TWG first threatened to sue Rajar in September of last year.

Rajar's managing director Sally de la Bedoyere said that TWG'S claims relating to financial losses "are for the purposes of a sensational press release and are not detailed in the proceedings".

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