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News UK confirms Scott Taunton as CEO of its recently acquired radio business

By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 9 November 2016

News UK has confirmed that Scott Taunton will be CEO of radio business the Wireless Group now that it is a subsidiary of the Rupert Murdoch controlled media firm.

The UK division of Murdoch’s News Corp bought the radio company earlier this summer. The Wireless Group, which was previously the radio side of UTV Media, owns radio stations in both the UK and Ireland, with TalkSport and the recently revived Virgin Radio among its brands. Taunton has been a long time senior exec at the company, most recently as COO.

Commenting on his new role and the future of the radio company as a News UK business, Taunton said: “The opportunities for Wireless Group and News UK are boundless, and I’m honoured to take this position and press ahead with innovative and lucrative ideas. Our brands share engaged and loyal audiences, aligned cultures, and a commitment to developing the best UK and Irish journalistic and broadcasting talent. Together we can offer exciting cross-platform opportunities to advertisers and partners which we know they will want”.

His new boss is that Rebekah Brooks, who added: “Scott is a dynamic leader, whose promotion to the role of Chief Executive will be a huge asset to Wireless and News UK. He will join my executive team and work to ensure that our two businesses build on the strengths of a partnership that is already demonstrating great success in editorial and commercial collaboration”.

As previously reported, following News UK’s Wireless acquisition, former Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray quit his show on TalkSport, saying he couldn’t work for the company that owns The Sun, in part alluding to that newspaper’s infamous and wholly inaccurate coverage of the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989 which remains controversial to this day.