SEAN BOLGER

The online radio revolution gathers yet more pace this week with news that The Sun is to launch its own talk radio channel in April. Sun Talk is part of a £1m investment in video & radio services at News International’s best-selling daily tabloid and headlining the schedule will be former Talk Sport presenter, Sun columnist and general tub-thumper of the parish, Jon Gaunt.  Now, while some will be quick to dismiss the venture as either a marketing ploy or perhaps an attempt at breathing new life into Gaunt’s colourful radio career, I think this could mark the start of a bold new synergy between print and radio that may end up posing a significant challenge to traditional broadcast outlets.

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More sad news this morning - this time about bon vivant and raconteur Dai Llewellyn, who died yesterday at the age of 62. Dai was a regular contributor to the Talk Radio UK Breakfast Show back in the mid-90’s and in those heady days of supposed shock-jockery, I always looked forward to him appearing in the studio to stir up another hornets’ nest on whatever topical issue had happened to catch his eye.

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Having more than a passing interest in talk radio myself, it’s particularly sad to see a commercial speech station go to the wall but on Christmas Eve, Edinburgh’s Talk107 will shut up shop and hand its licence back to Ofcom after less than 3 years on air. Now without wanting to pick over the bones and second guess as to precisely what went wrong, I think it’s safe to assume that in the end the sums just didn’t add up. And in commercial radio ultimately, only money talks.

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