News UK / Wireless

One year ago, Wireless launched Times Radio. A brand new live speech station broadcast from studios within the same building as The Times & The Sunday Times. The station would take the brand values and credibility of the papers and broadcast nationwide to target a gap in the market that we had identified through bespoke consumer research.

An on air team was recruited both from within the Times stable and also from the world of broadcasting to include names such as John Pienaar and Aasmah Mir. We also put together a best in class production team behind the scenes. Launching on 29th June 2020 meant the whole team had to learn fast as news stories broke like no other year and the challenges of broadcasting in an ever changing lockdown landscape. The commercial model was designed to allow brands a standout presence within the content of the show without presenting an overly commercialised listening experience to the audience that we hoped to attract from the BBC stations. A year in and we have had some phenomenal results. 28 commercial partners, 250 cabinet minister interviews, 1200 paper subscriptions and more than 20 million online listening hours to date. The station has already established itself as an important part of the media landscape and has ambitious plans for the future.