£100million plumber Charlie Mullins has pulled the plug on his ‘feel good’ radio station that pledged to make listeners laugh every ten minutes, can reveal today.
Great British Radio was due to go national in December but has ceased broadcasting immediately after a meeting of shareholders yesterday – less than two years after its launch.
A senior industry insider told : ‘I think they just ran out of cash and Charlie wasn’t prepared to prop it up anymore without other people investing’.
It came as the Pimlico Plumbers founder, 71, who sold it for around £145million, told the Mail he will launch a Harrods-standard handyman firm charging £150 to £200 an hour, admitting: ‘I’m down to my last £100million’.
Mr Mullins was chairman of Great British Radio and ran it with CEO and breakfast show host Mike Osman, a veteran broadcaster and impressionist. It also had a roster including Cheryl Baker, Linda Lusardi and Harry Redknapp since it started in April 2022.
But it shut down at midnight last night and one broadcaster claims that some staff have not been paid after being put out of work just days before Christmas.
Charlie Mullins (left) was chairman of Great British Radio and ran it with CEO and breakfast show host Mike Osman (right). It has shut down after less than 2 years
Cheryl Baker and Linda Lusardi had both worked on the station
Great British Radio was a ‘feel good’ radio station that pledged to make listeners laugh every ten minutes. Stars included Cheryl Baker and Harry Redknapp
Regional broadcaster Jason King says that people who worked there have been left out of pocker
Regional broadcaster Jason King claims that some Great British Radio workers are going unpaid this Christmas.
He said in a tweet to Mr Mullins: ‘Very sad when a radio business fails, even worse when those who’ve supported the project find themselves out of pocket a few days before Christmas. Please do the right thing and pay the team. Imagine if you didn’t get paid for a plumbing job’.
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The Pimlico Plumbers founder had launched Great British Radio as a ‘no bad news’ station, with no news bulletins and only fun, music, interviews and comedy.
Listeners could tune in on DAB in London, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire as well as online.
Great British Radio was due to become a national station on December 4 but it never happened. And three weeks later it has shut down.
One listener said today: ‘That’s a shame as they played a good selection of tunes you didn’t often hear on the radio’.
Great British Radio appears to have failed to pull in listeners from stations such as BBC Radio 2 in the way Greatest Hits Radio has done so.
Mr Mullins has not commented. has contacted his spokesman. A spokesman for the station said: ‘Great British Radio Ltd has today ceased to trade and will no longer broadcast.
‘The difficult decision was made by CEO and Director Mike Osman following a meeting earlier today with the company shareholders and investors.’
The sad news came just 20 months after its launch.
Mr Mullins said at the time: ‘I’m proud to be supporting Great British Radio. It will be like a breath of fresh air and I believe the public is going to love it.’
CEO Mike Osman said: ‘Our recipe will include great laughs, great guests, and great music. There will be showbiz guests plus interviews with ordinary people who have made a positive difference in their community.
‘Our guests will have time to relax and get their point across. It’s all about making a great impression and lifting the spirits of the public’.
Mullins set up Pimlico Plumbers after leaving school at 15 with no qualifications to become an apprentice to Bill Ellis, ‘a plumber who had everything that I never had: nice car, clothes, jewellery.
He told me, ‘Become an apprentice plumber, and you’ll never run out of work, and you’ll earn loads of money.’ He was right.’
Mullins’ next splurge is a far cry from his upbringing, in London’s Elephant and Castle.
The son of a factory worker and a cleaner, he started his business in 1979, building it up into a £50m-a-year empire.
‘I’m down to my last £100m,’ Mullins told the Mail yesterday. He now has a £30m Spanish villa complex, a Rolls-Royce, and ‘at least 20 watches… although I never wind them up’.
‘You’re only here once. I’m quite happy to spend it – and I’ve given more than a million to charity this year. I won’t be the richest man in the graveyard.
‘But it’s clear the money isn’t going to last forever.’
Pipe dreams: Entrepreneur Charlie Mullins in his luxury apartment overlooking the Thames
Early days: A younger Mullins at Pimlico Plumbers. He set up the company after leaving school at 15 with no qualifications
That’s one reason why Mullins is going back to work, spending almost £20m on launching a plumbing, electrical and building services business, We Fix.
He’s bought premises, hired designers, and is acquiring 100 electric vans so that in September, on the day his three-year lock-out period with Neighborly ends, We Fix is in business.
‘We’re going to be a bit like Harrods,’ Mullins asserts. ‘We won’t be cheap: we will charge £150 to £200 an hour, but people will always pay for quality.
‘Customers will flock back to us. We’re going to build a £500m family business.’ Mullins claims celebrities from Pimlico days including Simon Cowell and Joan Collins will come back. His son, Scott, will run it.
However, he’s heading into controversial territory with recruitment. ‘I won’t be taking on anyone who wants to be known as a certain person or a certain gender. You’re either male or female.
‘If you’re not sure, you’re not coming on with us.
‘If [someone] comes in saying, ‘I’m Mary, I want to work in the call centre’ but they used to be Trevor the bricklayer, they’re not getting the job.’
Mullins has a history of employment law battles, and lost a landmark case over holiday pay. ‘If it’s against the law, then it’s against the law. We’ll put it in our terms and conditions.’