Kelvin MacKenzie "is bidding to run a new national sports radio station that would compete with Talksport, the broadcaster he founded and sold to UTV Media a decade ago" for £100M, according to Robert Cookson of the FINANCIAL TIMES. MacKenzie, who is best known as a former editor of The Sun, said, “It’s been clear to me for some time that there’s room for another player in the sports radio market.” The new station, called Sports Radio, "is part of a consortium called Listen2Digital that is bidding for the second wave of national digital radio stations to be awarded by Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, later this year." Listen2Digital, whose backers include Orion Media and Babcock Int'l, is one of two consortiums bidding for the new “multiplex” -- a discrete chunk of the airwaves needed to broadcast radio. MacKenzie "is working on the bid" with Talksport co-Founder and former Managing Dir Jason Bryant. Bryant said, “Sports Radio will offer real choice for listeners. With BBC 5 Live unable to provide a full sports service because of its news commitments and Talksport being remarkably similar to the line-up we launched with 15 years ago, we believe there’s now a market for a new generation of listeners, talent and advertisers" (FT, 2/9). In London, John Plunkett wrote the station said that "it bid for a range of sports rights including Premier League football, Test match cricket, rugby, golf and horse racing." MacKenzie said he had also applied to be part of the rival bid for the multiplex, a consortium of UTV, Bauer Media and Arqiva, but said that "he had been rebuffed" (GUARDIAN, 2/9).
