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October 21, 2019updated 30 Sep 2022 8:28am

LBC to launch new ‘pure news’ radio station with no opinion

By Charlotte Tobitt

Global Radio is launching a new 24-hour LBC spin-off station to create a dedicated space for “pure news” – without opinion or debate.

LBC News will launch next Monday at 6am with the strapline “where the news never stops”.

Global said the new station will broadcast the latest national and international news in continually rolling 20-minute round-ups.

In a statement, Global founder and executive president Ashley Tabor-King said: “As the first commercial radio station in the UK, LBC has a 46-year history of providing the latest news, so it is exciting to launch LBC News, a new, dedicated station for the brand that can stay with major stories and events live longer and dedicate itself to pure news.

“With Global’s 24-hour rolling news radio channel, there will be no opinion or debate, just the news – on the radio, online and on our app – live, as it happens.”

The new station will broadcast Prime Minister’s Questions live and in full at 12pm every Wednesday and stay with press conferences and “other events of major importance” for extended live coverage when relevant.

It will be run by Global’s team of more than 140 broadcast and multimedia journalists based in 13 UK newsrooms with other reporters based around the world.

Presenters will include Jim Diamond, who hosts the breakfast show on LBC London News, Lisa Aziz, who currently presents the news on Eddie Mair’s afternoon LBC show, and Ian Payne, who is sports correspondent for ITV News and hosts a Saturday show on LBC.

They will be joined by Martin Stanford (pictured, second right), who worked for Sky News from 1991 to 2016 and will be anchoring the 10am to 1pm slot. (Others pictured left to right).

Earlier this year Global enlarged its news teams across the UK but cut the number of hours of locally-made programming at its regional stations as part of a restructure designed to help it compete with BBC radio.

Listeners will be able to tune in on DAB digital radio, at lbcnews.co.uk, or on Global’s player.

Picture: Global 

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