Radio City (Liverpool)

Radio City Tower, viewed from Vernon Street in 2019. Also home to Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool and formerly Radio City Talk.

Radio City logo used from 2004 to 2015.

After the introduction of the Sound Broadcasting Act in 1972 which allowed the legal operation of commercial radio in the UK, in 1974, Radio City (Sound of Merseyside) Ltd won the contract to broadcast the Independent Local Radio station for Liverpool and its surrounding areas, with studios originally based in Stanley Street in Liverpool City Centre.

194 Radio City began broadcasting at 5:58 am on 21 October 1974, with an announcement by its founding managing director Terry Smith (It's two minutes to six on Monday October 21st 1974. For the very first time, this is 194 Radio City broadcasting to Merseyside).[1] The first song to be played on the station was Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life". As reflected in the name, the station originally broadcast on 1548 kHz AM, then known as 194 metres medium wave, from a transmitter at Rainford. The station was also given an FM frequency of 96.7 MHz, but did not begin broadcasting on FM until a few months later, after the transmitter was vandalised. In the early days of Marcher Sound, the evening programmes of the station were simulcasted to the fledgling station, so for a period in the 1980s, Radio City had in theory, four frequencies (Marcher Sound aired on 95.4 MHz and 1260 kHz).

In 1989, the Conservative government enforced new regulation to enable better choice by ceasing the simulcasting of radio stations on both AM and FM. Radio City split its frequencies by continuing its top 40 format on FM under the recently introduced new name City FM. On AM, a new talk station was launched called City Talk 1548 AM.[2] This was unusual as most stations launched 'golden oldie' stations on their former AM frequencies. The City Talk experiment proved short-lived and Radio City Gold launched in its place in 1991, later known as City Gold. The AM service rebranded as Magic 1548 on Monday 17 March 1997.[3]

In 1998, the company was bought out by EMAP Radio, who renamed the main FM station back to a modern version of its original name, as Radio City 96.7, the name it still uses currently. Two years later, the station left its original Stanley Street base and on Tuesday 18 July 2000, Radio City began broadcasting from St. John's Beacon, which in the past was a revolving restaurant and viewing platform.

The City Talk format was revived when, on 9 November 2006, it was announced by Ofcom that Radio City had beaten competition from rival broadcasters to win a new FM licence for a talk station for the Liverpool area. The new City Talk launched on 28 January 2008 and broadcasts on 105.9 FM.[4] Due to poor listening figures, the station has since dropped most of its presenters and had a format change which means, outside of peak listening hours like breakfast and drivetime, the station now broadcasts a mix of classic hit music similar to the music played on sister station Magic 1548, although under the format change the station is not allowed to simulcast with Magic, only Radio City.[5]

In 2007 it was announced that Bauer Media Group was launching a UK based subsidiary of its Radio platform. Bauer took over all Emap owned radio stations and ultimately inherited St Johns Beacon. The takeover was completed in 2008 and Radio City then became part of the "Big City" Network, now the Hits Radio Network.

In September 2014, Bauer announced it would extend the Radio City brand by reviving the name on Magic 1548 as Radio City 2 and launching a new localised version of DAB station The Hits Radio, known as Radio City 3. The rebrand took place on 5 January 2015, with Radio City 3 due to launch on 19 January 2015.[6] Radio City Talk was not affected.

This decision was later repealed in September 2017, when the Bauer City 3 branding was withdrawn in favour of The Hits across all Bauer City DAB Multiplexes. Radio City 2, which had moved to FM (swapping allocations with Radio City Talk) in December 2015, became Greatest Hits Liverpool in January 2019.

On 31 May 2020, Radio City Talk ceased broadcasting due to it being deemed as no longer financially viable to run due to low listening figures. Its studio in the Radio City Tower will now be used for recording and news, as well as advertisement recordings.

The 96.7 FM signal comes from the Allerton Park transmitter in south-east Liverpool, which also transmits BBC Radio Merseyside on 95.8 FM. There is also a transmitter in the Mersey (Queensway) Tunnel. There are also DAB digital radio transmitters at St John's Beacon, Billinge Hill (in St Helens, which also carries Wish FM), and Hope Mountain (near Wrexham). The Billinge Hill site has the strongest digital signal. Radio City Talk broadcast on Radio City's original AM frequency from a transmitter at the former Bebington/Bromborough Power Station site until 31 May 2020.

All networked programming originates from Hits Radio's Manchester headquarters.[7][8]

Local programming consists of weekday breakfast from 6-10am, with Radio City Breakfast with Leanne and Scott, and Lee Butler At The Weekend (2-6pm Saturdays and 12-4pm Sundays), which are produced and broadcast from Radio City's Liverpool studios.[9] Radio City also broadcasts The Legends Phone-In with John Aldridge and Graeme Sharp every Monday and Thursday at 6:30pm during the football season. [10]

• Official website
• Your Liverpool View tower tours
• History of the station
• Details of book recounting the history of the station
• North West Radio - Radio City Memories
• David's Transmitter World
• MDS975's coverage map
• Allerton Park transmitter
• Billinge Hill transmitter
• Hope Mountain transmitter