First Radio Sales, the sales house jointly owned by the media companies UTV Media and UKRD, has restructured its regional operations with some job losses and responsibilities moving to London.
FRS, which manages the sales operations of the 116 radio stations owned by UTV and UKRD across the UK, has made Andy Jones and two other staff in its Manchester office redundant.
It is also understood that some of the planning and other administrative functions previously managed out of Manchester have been moved to London with the objective of creating a centralised ‘integrated national and regional team’ based in the capital.
Tony Mellor
The three remaining staff operating out of Manchester are Marie Brotherton, Ros Liburd and Lesley Jones with Jones attached to the Manchester office but primarily covering the Midlands.
Tony Mellor, managing director of FRS told Prolific North: “All of our customers are still seeing the same account managers they always have done so it’s really no change in what we’re doing.”
One of the problems facing FRS in the regions it is believed, is that although the large Northern agencies such as Carat, MediaCom and MEC are substantial buyers of FRS airspace, the deals have historically been brokered directly with FRS sales teams in London.
