Further word on Melbourne Talk Radio’s lineup is leaking out, with additional presenters and regular guests thought to include Chris Smith, Sam Newman, Martin King, Jason Akermanis, Luke Grant and financial commentator Ross Greenwood. More details will be announced around April 7.

Steve Price, Steve Vizard, and Andrew Bolt are already known to be in the lineup.

Reflecting the scuttlebutt and anti-Sydney sentiments being stirred up around the new station, Suzanne Carbone wrote in The Age

You would assume a radio station called Melbourne Talk Radio would have the Yarra running through its veins but a major ”Melbourne” component will hail from that unfamiliar part of town called Sydney.

Broadcasting on the revamped 3MP, program director Steve Price has assembled four Sydney-siders: himself, Ross Greenwood, Chris Smith and Luke Grant. The Melburnians are Sam Newman, Steve Vizard, Martin King, Jason Akermanis and Andy Bolt. More will be revealed about the line-up on April 7 during lunch at Crown Metropol’s Maze Grill.

For genteel Melburnians unacquainted with the shenanigans in Sin City, Smith is the 2GB afternoon host branded the “groper” after getting too friendly with females at a Christmas party (he apologised for his hand malfunctioning).

The new station has been dubbed Interstate Talk Radio but the name lacks a certain wow factor. Preparing for the ratings war, 3AW has adopted the slogan ”Melbourne’s Own” (not that it wants to rub it in).