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Gavin on Rocksport


KillkieBoab

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Hope he gets paid, unlike those owed money by the previous iteration: 

 

A SPORTS radio station has collapsed leaving footie pundits and staff without jobs and owed thousands in unpaid wages - as a very similar new firm launched this week.

Rock Sport Radio Ltd, based in Glasgow, strung employees along for months that "money was coming" from new investors.

But the company, which combined rock music with sports coverage, went into liquidation in December after two years on the digital airwaves.

Ex-Ayr United striker Ally Graham was a pundit on the show since its kicked off.

The 53-year-old, who also enjoyed spells at Hamilton and Motherwell, stopped getting paid last year but continued going into work in the desperate hope his wages would come.

He told the Scottish Sun Online: "We kept being promised the same thing the next month and the next month, until before you knew it we had been there five months with no wage.

"But I kept going in because I was due money.

"I won't go into the figure but let's just say it's not just £50."

In a fresh blow for out of pocket staff including Ally, a new company - Rock Sport Broadcasting Ltd - went live on Thursday.

Former Rock Sport Radio Ltd director Bill Young joins the new firm as a presenter.

And the two stations even share the same slogan - "Love Music, Live Sport."

But Rock Sport Broadcasting chiefs insist it is a "new multimedia platform launched by a new company".

They added: "The new company bought the assets of the former Rocksport Radio after its liquidation.

"Whilst it has a similar name is not in any way related to the former Rocksport Radio.

"The directors and shareholders of the new company have never had any involvement in Rocksport Radio Ltd and Rocksport Radio Ltd was in liquidation before the new company was incorporated."

Speaking after the launch of the new company, Ally added: "If Bill Young had just said 'listen guys, I'm struggling to pay you' I would have been off.

"But instead of nipping it in the bud so we could leave, he kept us on. All he was interested in was keeping his show going.

"And that whole time we were phoning current managers and players to get them on the show. This went on for months.

"It's just disgraceful."

Jilted staff even hijacked the station's old Twitter account to tell social media users about their ordeal.

In the clip - which has been viewed 31,000 times - the devastated workers said they were fed "lie after lie" and "broken promise after broken promise".

Footie stars have since rallied around Ally and the former Rock Sport Radio team.

Posting on Twitter, Dundee United star Nicky Clark said: "Know people who have been affected by this.

"Disgusting way to treat people."

Former Hibs ace and BBC Pundit Tam McManus added: "Has big Ally and the other ex pundits been paid what they are owed yet?"

Ex-show producer Paul Reilly is owed more than £3,500 from the collapsed firm.

The 25-year-old, from Glasgow, said he is "still financially damaged" and even had to borrow money from his brother to pay rent one month.

 

After six months with the troubled company, he left in May last year for a new job in Leeds.

He said: "I was glad to get out.

"It's easier in hindsight to ask - why did I go along with it? But they made promise after promise - they weren’t being blunt and saying there was no money, because if they'd said that I’d have said fair enough.

"They kept saying I’d get it, and you didn’t want to risk not working. You were kind of blackmailed, thinking you had to keep working to get your money. It was very frustrating.

"Bill had some sort of dream that he was trying to follow through - his dream of a station with rock music and sport, and he was desperate to keep it alive.

"He's shown no guilt or remorse.

He added: "I'm definitely angry. When they employed me, they had three producers, which is a lot for a small station. I was the fourth.

"They obviously knew they weren't making a lot of money but kept on employing people to keep their dream alive.

"When I moved to Leeds I had no money to my name, it was a miserable couple of months.

"Meanwhile, RockSport were still going. It wasn't a healthy situation to be in. It was the first thing you’d think of waking up. It was miserable.”

A spokesman for Rocksport.tv said: "Rocksport.tv have hired presenters producers, DJs and new digital staff to deliver content - including Tom Russell, Dave Mac, Alex Horsburgh, and Bill Young, who had worked previously on the old Rock Sport Radio station.

"But these staff are employees of the new company and have no shareholding or directorships in the new company.

"It is always tragic when a business fails and is liquidated and we hope that everyone involved in the former Rocksport Radio Ltd goes on to a happier future.

"But any claims against the Rocksport Radio Ltd should be made to the liquidators of that company."

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5286354/rock-sport-radio-collapse-liquidation-staff-owed-wages/

RockSevco

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You’d like to think the experience of those presenters, would make sports journalists in Scotland, more empathetic to the experience of employees and creditors at other liquidated entities. Perhaps then they’d feel some remorse for pandering to suggestions that “it’s the same club” or that it retains the history of the previous incarnation.  

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