Following a period of sustained growth, one of the leading media businesses in the United Kingdom and Ireland has announced a shake-up of its News Broadcasting division. News UK has appointed TalkRadio Programme Director Dennie Morris to the role of Director of Audio. In other moves, Liam Fisher has been named Head of talkSPORT and Kathryn Anastasi as Deputy Head.
Wholly owned by News Corp, News UK owns a roster of multi-media brands including print titles like The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, as well as a host of broadcast brands including talkSPORT, TalkRadio and Virgin Radio UK to reach almost 40 million people each month.
Morris joined talkSPORT in 2005 and became Programme Director for TalkRadio in 2015. Since then TalkRadio has seen exponential RAJAR growth. This new role gives Morris responsibility for the multiplatform output of both talkSPORT and Virgin Radio UK.
Fisher moves from seven years as Head of National Speech Radio to become Head of talkSPORT, reporting directly to Morris, while Anastasi ─ currently Head of Live Sport ─ has been appointed as Deputy Head after a tenure of 15 years at the station.
talkSPORT is the world’s biggest sports radio station and is the global audio partner of the Premier League. It is an official broadcaster of the Premier League, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the FA Cup, England football internationals and the EFL.
“News Broadcasting is an innovation powerhouse in UK media and I’m delighted to step into the new role of Director of Audio,” said Morris. “talkSPORT and Virgin Radio already engage and delight millions, and I can’t wait to get to work with their talented teams as we drive forward their growth across all digital platforms.”
News Broadcasting EVP Scott Taunton added: “I’m delighted to appoint Dennie Morris to the new role of Director of Audio, as we turbo-charge our plans for both talkSPORT and Virgin Radio UK. Dennie has driven phenomenal growth for TalkRadio in the last few years and was responsible for the innovation around visualizing its content that has created the opportunity for our further investment in digital video, including the launch of TalkTV.
“Meanwhile, there are few people who better understand the DNA of talkSPORT than Liam Fisher and Kathryn Anastasi. talkSPORT is an enormous media brand, not just attracting millions of listeners on radio but millions more on online and on social media platforms like YouTube. Liam and Kathryn will lead the talented team at talkSPORT as the brand enters a new chapter in its phenomenal multi-platform growth story.”