Shareholders in NewsTalk fail to take up 13% stake

None of the existing shareholders in talk radio station NewsTalk 106 have come forward to purchase the 13 per cent stake in the station put up for sale by FM 104.

FM 104, which is owned by Capital Radio Productions, put its stake on the market three weeks ago, but the deadline for existing shareholders to purchase the stake expired yesterday evening.

The managing director of Capital Radio Productions, Mr Dermot Hanrahan, who sits on the board of NewsTalk, is now free to sell the shares to outside investors.

He has been a consistent critic of the station's programming and general direction.

Mr Hanrahan said the shares were now on sale in the general market. He said he was "somewhat surprised" that existing shareholders did not appear to be interested.

"It is surprising that existing shareholders do not consider the shares to be worth what was originally put into them," he said.

People in the radio industry speculated over the past three weeks that Mr Denis O'Brien's company, Communicorp Group Ltd, would take up the shares, but this has not materialised.

Two close associates of Mr O'Brien, Ms Deborah Fagan and Mr Paddy Halpenny, both sit on the board of NewsTalk. Communicorp has taken up previous share offers when smaller local stations, WLR and East Coast, sold out.

At present, the shareholdings stand as follows: Mr O'Brien's Radio 2000 (38 per cent); Setanta Media (27 per cent); Hyper Trust (12 per cent); LMFM (9 per cent) and Capital Radio Productions (13 per cent).

While his company has not taken up Mr Hanrahan's shares, Mr O'Brien's team remains the most powerful director on the board because of its large shareholding, although Setanta is also a key shareholder. Setanta and Mr O'Brien are both investors in Servecast, a multimedia company.

The station has found it difficult to reach a sizeable audience in the Dublin region, with the last set of JNLR figures giving it a "listened yesterday" figure of 2 per cent. However, the station claims that research it funds itself has given the station a far higher listenership, possibly as high as 7 per cent.

The next big test for the station will be when JNLR figures are published in mid- to late August.

In the past few months, some changes have been made to its line-up and an expensive marketing campaign has taken place.

Journalist and broadcaster Mr Daire O'Brien no longer presents a morning show. He has been replaced by former Radio Kerry presenter Ms Orla Barry and Mr Declan Carty.