The Journal launches online radio channel

Apr 21 2009 by Chris Robinson, The Journal

READERS today have the chance to make regional newspaper history by airing their views live online.

This lunchtime The Journal will launch its online radio channel – and we want you to call in with your opinions on the main issues of the day.

The Journal is the first regional newspaper to pilot an online radio show of this kind. Hosted by our columnist David Banks, it’s the chance for you to give your instant feedback on the stories making the news.

Joining David today will be our head of multimedia Matt McKenzie. Also online will be sports writer Stuart Rayner to discuss Newcastle United’s chances of avoiding the drop.

We’ll also talk about tomorrow’s budget with one of our business experts.

The show will be broadcast for an hour from 12.30pm and can be listened to by logging on to www.journallive.co.uk/radio

David, former editor of the Daily Mirror, who lives in North Northumberland, said: “We want to enable Journal readers to talk to the people who write for them every day. We want to use the growing JournalLive website to interact with our readers.

“A lot of people already send in letters and emails to the letters’ page in the newspaper but Journal Radio lets us do instant feedback online.

“Online we can do something we’ve not been able to do before – have a live one-to-one conversation.”

David will chair the online radio debate from a studio in his home and invite readers to call in.

Mr McKenzie, said: “We’re constantly looking at ways to interact with our readers. For a while now we’ve been holding weekly webchats about football with our sports writers and they’ve been a great success and this is a logical extension of that.

“Banksy’s a newspaper man through and through, but he’s also got a wealth of broadcasting experience. He’s done plenty of radio and we’ll combine that with our in-house writers to offer something unique among regional papers.”

Join Banksy today at 12.30pm by heading to www.journallive.co.uk/radio to take part in our first broadcast.