Guest Booker, Mariella Frostrup Show, Times Radio (freelance)

Times Radio has shaken up the broadcasting firmament since launching in June 2020, and our recent nomination as UK Station of the Year in the Arias demonstrates the impact we have made.  As a live news radio station, we have built up a strong reputation for providing well-informed, thoughtful and intelligent news and discussion, covering the key stories of the day. We have combined the famous journalistic expertise of The Times and The Sunday Times with the radio experience of News Broadcasting to create a station that already has over 550,000 weekly listeners.  We have a world-class line-up of presenters talking to excellent guests, who value conversation over confrontation.

Your role: As a guest booker on the Mariella Frostrup programme you’ll be responsible for setting up celebrity guests for the show (Monday to Thursdays 1-3pm) and providing the best possible guest briefs. Working with the presenter, the programme’s lead producer and a small production team you’ll have the key role in booking big names to appear daily on the programme and help provide content for the Mariella Meets and Books to Live By podcasts.

Day to day you will: 

• Book big name and newsmaking guests for the Mariella Frostrup programme
• Write scripts and exceptional interview briefs
• Ensure we have guests in vision for our social media channels
• Record and edit audio, providing the station with news clips from pre-recorded interviews in order to maximise impact across the Times Radio schedule 
• Help turn around the best news lines for digital and external impact
• Work on special projects, as needed, including outside broadcasts

What we’re looking for from you: 

• You are an experienced producer/guest booker with a bulging contacts book and a proven track record in delivering big-name interviews
• You have a creative mind and the ability to bring fresh-thinking to interview briefs in order to help Times Radio content stand out in a crowded market place
• You have the ability to build relationships with newsmaking and culturally important guests
• You’re an excellent writer with an ability to write crisp, concise cues
• You are used to working closely with presenters and production teams
• You have a reliable understanding of relevant compliance and legal issues

We are News Broadcasting: Driving digital innovation, our people create award-winning national and local radio and podcasts which are must-listens for millions across the UK, Ireland and beyond. Life sounds good with Virgin Radio - home to Chris Evans at Breakfast and Graham Norton at the weekend. talkSPORT, the world’s biggest sports radio station, delivers the very best live sport and analysis and is truly powered by its millions of fans. Launched in June 2020 Times Radio brings together the peerless journalistic expertise of The Times and The Sunday Times with world-class broadcast talent including Matt Chorley, Mariella Frostrup, Jane Garvey and Fi Glover. In 2022 we launched TalkTV, a major new TV channel available to everyone across the UK, delivering a schedule of news, current affairs, entertainment and sport, with Piers Morgan in a primetime evening show.

Equal opportunities:

News UK is an equal opportunities employer and wholeheartedly supports the principle of equal opportunities for all its employees and for all applicants for employment. It opposes all forms of discrimination in the workplace.

We are a diverse team so want to maximise every individual’s potential to create a productive environment where everyone feels valued, and where talents are fully recognised and utilised.

We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing. Please let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.  

News UK is an official partner of the Journalism Diversity Fund, founder of the Journalism and Disability Forum, and proud member of the Valuable 500. At News UK, we will continue to promote an inclusive and diverse workplace, to help people with visible and non visible disabilities create careers in media and aim to make our content accessible to all.