Bauer Media has made a series of senior appointments across its Place portfolio, including content controllers across the network and a Manchester-based head of news and sport for England.
It’s also brought in former Real & Smooth head of production, Chris Ward.
The content controller’s role is a new one, which means that all single station programme director and controller roles are to be renamed. Bauer said that this would “further strengthens [its] ability to develop outstanding content for audiences.”
At Hallam FM in South Yorkshire, James Lett has been promoted to the role. He’s been part of the content team at Hallam for 7 years, most recently as deputy programme director. He’ll report directly to John Dash, Yorkshire’s regional content director.
Radio City’s new content controller is Nathan Thomson. This is another promotion, with Thomson joining the Liverpool-based station in 2011. His boss will be North West regional content director Ande Macpherson.
In the North East, former producer, Mark Cliffe has been promoted to the content controller role at TFM. He’s been at the station since 2005, originally as breakfast show producer. He will report to Chris Pegg, the regional content director for the North East.
A content controller for Key 103 will be announced shortly, while Radio Aire’s Euan McMorrow; Viking’s John Harding and Rock FM’s Chris Rick will continue to manage their existing stations under the content controller job title.
Bauer has also announced the appointment of a new head of news and sport England. Jim Foulger was previously news editor at Hallam FM and will work out of Manchester alongside the Group’s news editor-in-chief, John Pickford.
Another new arrival in Manchester is Chris Ward, who’s been named head of production. Starting in mid-October, he’ll be responsible for delivering programmes across the entire Place Portfolio. He joins from Real & Smooth, where he had the same role.
“All of these promotions are terrific examples of Bauer developing our talent from within and I’m delighted to have all of them as part of our new content team. This talented team will help craft and create outstanding content to delight and excite audiences across the Bauer Place stations in the North of England and Scotland and further demonstrate Bauer Media’s commitment to growing deep relationships with its listeners across the UK,” said Owen Ryan, group content director for North of England and Scotland.
