IT will be like the lovechild of talkSPORT and Radio Scotland, says Peter Gillespie of his new radio station Talk 107.

The managing director is a likeable and convincing Aberdonian, but this converted printing unit at Edinburgh's South Gyle Industrial Estate seems an unlikely place for such romance.

It is probably the coldest day of the year, painters' rags still cover the entrance and, with only two weeks until kick-off, there's not even a logo outside to woo the Edinburgh public.

But they do say love blossoms in unlikely places, so perhaps the Valentine's Day launch will make all the difference. The trouble is, Gillespie is asked, how can anybody be seduced when nobody seems to have heard of Talk 107?

"What's the first thing you do when you hear about a new station? Switch it on. You start marketing a station just before it goes on air, " he says, promising a big marketing blitz from about February 10.

Others might not agree with this strategy, but owner UTV certainly seems to have given him the budget to make plenty of noise about what is only the second local commercial speech station to launch in the UK (after London's LBC).

Talk 107 will spend almost pounds-250,000 in the first few weeks on advertising, reaching everything from the insides of taxi cabs to prime-time television.

This is one of various things that is happening at the last minute. The studios have only just arrived, fortunately a week earlier than expected. This means a twoweek test-broadcast is going ahead and, five minutes into our conversation, loud cheers break out around the office as the station goes on air for the first time.

Meanwhile, there are still presenter contracts waiting to be signed. Big catches like STV's Stephen Jardine, former Scotsman diarist Simon Pia and former Scottish Mirror editor Mike Graham are all safely in place, but there is still nobody signed up for the weekend breakfast slot.

But details like these seem trifling next to the big question: if there is money in speech radio, why is nobody else doing it?

LBC has struggled under different owners since it launched in the 1970s; talkSPORT is still said to be unprofitable when you add contributions to group costs into the equation.

Meanwhile, Guardian Media Group withdrew a speech radio application for the recently awarded Manchester FM licence because it could not make the numbers work.