Commercial radio giant Global shuffles management playlist
Global, the owner of LBC, Heart and a host of commercial radio stations, has reshuffled its management deck despite maintaining its spot as the number one commercial radio company
Both the finance and marketing chiefs of the UK’s largest commercial radio group have bid farewell to the company in recent weeks, according to Companies House filings.
Ben Porter, who previously worked as a lieutenant under Rupert Murdoch at Foxtel and Sky, is set to become the chief financial officer, filling the boots of Darren Singer.
Seasoned media executive Singer, who helped sell GMG Radio to Global for £70m in 2012, stepped down as chief financial officer in July.
Former Virgin Media exec Cilesta van Doorn has also departed from the company after an 18 month long stint as chief marketing officer.
James Hickman, who has been with Global since 2013, has earned a promotion to the board position of chief digital product officer.
Morning Wire approached Global for comment.
The company saw overall growth in its total weekly audience, reaching 26.3m listeners in the second quarter, largely driven by Heart, Capital, and Smooth stations.
Global owner Ashley Tabor-King said in a statement: “We’re enormously grateful to the millions of people who chose our radio brands every day, for entertainment, information and companionship.
“Commercial radio is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and it’s therefore fitting that commercial radio has its highest ever listening figures today, underlining the strength and resilience of the sector, and the medium.”
Recently, BBC’s talk stations, Radio 4’s Today programme and Times Radio listeners all witnessed a decline.
However, GB News Radio and News UK’s Talk Radio and Talk Sport racked up more audiences and last week Bauer Media Audio UK said its Hits Radio brand is the UK’s biggest commercial network with 11.4m weekly listeners, up 20.5 per cent year on year.