After the demise of Pirate radio in the 60's, then in the early 70's the winter of
discontent and the three day week, the United Kingdom needed a feelgood factor.
There had been the introduction of 4 national BBC radio stations (1,2,3,4.),
but that was not enough. There needed to be a local element to Radio, which the
BBC had provided with BBC local Radio. The government of the day formed a regulatory
authority to procure what would be Commercial Radio and that came in the
guise of the Independent Broadcasting Authority which would oversee and regulate the introduction of Independant Local Radio. |
Radio City (Sound of Merseyside Ltd) as it was then, started broadcasting at 6am
on the 21st October 1974 (Medium Wave only) and the FM service was initiated on
8th February 1975 (VHF). The medium wave transmitter is based in Rainford (1.2kW)
and the VHF transmitter is based in Allerton Park (5kW). The first record to
be played was Stevie Wonder's 'You are the Sunshine of my life'. The on-air team
included:- Arthur Murphy, Dave Lincoln, Rob Jones, Roger Blyth, Bill Bingham
and Norman Thomas.
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Updated September 2004 |