Track Radio bets on sport, music and BBC veterans to prove winning formula
Track Radio launches today, on a mission to reach a neglected audience with a blend of sport and music, and a strong presenter line-up, founder Iain Macintosh explains.
Sport and music have always been happy bedfellows – Mick Jagger and cricket, Elton John and football, Snoop Dogg and, well, just about anything – so it’s curious that they have always been kept segregated by radio stations.
Until now, that is. Today marks the launch of Track Radio, a new London-based digital station that promises to blend expert-led discussion of all major sports – not just football – with a sprinkling of upbeat melodic pop-rock from the 80s, 90s and noughties.
Founder Iain Macintosh, a confirmed audiophile, couldn’t understand why he could find “four different radio stations dedicated to music in the 1960s and one [Talksport] dedicated to sport”. Track Radio is his attempt to redress that balance.
“Obviously BBC 5 Live is fantastic. But as far as sport goes, it doesn’t really get going until 7pm,” he tells Morning Wire. “It knows its audience, and it’s brilliant at reaching them. But there are other audiences. There are other sports. So we’re really very confident that there is a gap here.”
Track Radio’s trump card is its heavyweight line-up of presenters, which includes seasoned broadcaster Mark Pougatch, fellow 5 Live alumni Vassos Alexander, Sonja McLaughlan and Sanny Rudravajhala, and multimedia reporter Charlotte Daly.
“Everyone we engage with, whatever they’re doing, has to be nice, fun and smart,” Macintosh adds. “Because it is my theory that if everyone you engage with is nice and fun and smart, then everything you make will be nice and fun and smart.”
Track Radio music ‘can’t be too cool’
Macintosh started out as a journalist but proved his audio chops by launching the Totally Football Show, helmed by cult presenter James Richardson, before selling it to The Athletic. Richardson won’t be joining Track Radio, however. “We can’t afford Jimbo,” he laughs.
Talksport only acquired live commentary rights relatively late, and Track Radio is taking baby steps at first too. “We’re certainly not going to hurl ourselves into negotiations for Premier League radio rights in the immediate future, but there are sports we’re looking at,” he says.
One of those is horse racing, with plans for a “race of the day” presented by veteran gee-gees commentator and recent BBC exile Cornelius Lysaght. Video is not a priority for now, despite its increasing prevalence – and potential for viral clips – across some radio stations.
The music is an intriguing proposition. What do sports lovers want to hear? Macintosh admits Track Radio “can’t be too cool”. When we speak the library has churned out Duran Duran’s Rio, but he insists it won’t be too blokey: “There is more Pink than Foo Fighters.”
Raising funding wasn’t easy, Macintosh admits, but he is minded to reinvest any revenue. “We have the potential to keep growing, whether that is organically, by absolutely nailing the commercial side and immediately plunging it into growth, or whether it is another conversation about further investment to take us to the next level.”
Track Radio will initially broadcast live from 7am to 7pm but Macintosh has plans to expand. “Stage two, as soon as the advertising revenue gets running, is to expand out across the clock,” he says. “So it won’t be very long before we’re across the weekends and into the evenings.”