Staff and presenters go in City Talk shuffle

City Talk in Liverpool is to lose 4 daytime presenters in the New Year as it changes its schedule.

Duncan Barkes, Pete McDowall, Roy Basnett and Will Batchelor have been told their contracts will end in January next year. Their producers will also be affected, although it’s uncertain at the time of writing whether they’ll be found other jobs at the station.

“City Talk 105.9 is proposing to introduce additional news, sport and information programming to its existing format. This local content will be created by the Award-winning City news teams in Liverpool and will stay within the station's format guidelines," said a spokesperson.

“City Talk has spoken to several daytime presenters and producers affected by this proposal and will make no further comment until the new schedule is announced in due course.”

It’s yet another major change to the Bauer-owned station, which launched in January 2008, as the “voice of Liverpool.”

Back then it was just one of 4 all-talk stations in the country and the only one to be based in the regions.

16 months later bosses wrote to Ofcom to request a format change, which would allow it to play music. At the same time, management entered into a consultation process with a number of staff.

In June Ofcom approved its new schedule, because of the economic conditions and “reduced interest from advertisers.”

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