Liberty Radio is a UK

radio broadcaster Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...

and company based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England that, , is transmitted free to air from the Astra 2F Astra 2F Footprints
/ref> satellite at 28.2° East to most of Europe, and on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, but not on analog or DAB terrestrial radio. .
Liberty radio website: About us
The station is also available to subscribers to BSkyB on the Sky EPG at LCN 186. The company started as Viva 963, broadcasting on terrestrial radio, predominantly for women, and was later renamed. It lost its terrestrial broadcasting licence in 2002 after being acquired by the

Universal Church of the Kingdom of God The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG; pt, Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, IURD) is an evangelical charismatic Christian denomination with its headquarters at the Temple of Solomon in São Paulo, Brazil. The church was founded in ...

(UCKG); the broadcasting slot was taken over by Buzz Asia, with different content.

History

Viva 963

The station started on 3 July 1995 as Viva 963, a service of talk and pop aimed at women devised by

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

consultant

Lynne Franks Lynne Joanne Franks (born 16 April 1948) founded a public relations consultancy in the early 1970s and is a communications strategist, writer and spokeswoman on women's issues, sustainability and consumer lifestyles. Early life Franks was ...

. It broadcast on 963 kHz on medium wave from a transmitter at Lea Bridge Road,

Leyton Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...

. A second transmitter, broadcasting on 972 kHz, was later added at Glade Lane,

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

963 Liberty (Fayed)

In May 1996 the station was sold to

Mohammed Al Fayed Mohamed Al-Fayed (; arz, محمد الفايد ; born 27 January 1929) is an Egyptian-born businessman whose residence and chief business interests have been in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s. His business interests include ownership of ...

, owner of

Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...

and chairman of

Fulham Football Club Fulham Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, London, which compete in the . They have played home games at Craven Cottage since 1896, other than a two-year period spent at Loftus Road whilst Craven Cottage un ...

, who renamed the station Liberty Radio. For a time it broadcast commentaries of Fulham FC's home and away

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

games.

Presenters

Presenters before UCKG ownership:Viva sex appeal, The Independent newspaper, 19 November 1996
/ref>Liberty Radio Web site, presenters, current and former.
As of July 2013 *

Toby Anstis Toby Anstis (born 14 December 1970) is an English radio and television presenter. He is a presenter on Heart and spin-off station Heart Dance. Early life Originally from Northampton, Anstis was educated at Desborough School, an all-boys scho ...

Zoë Ball Zoe Louise Ball (born 23 November 1970) is a British radio and television presenter. She was the first female host of both ''Radio 1 Breakfast'' and '' The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' for the BBC, and presented the 1990s children's show ''Live & ...

Simon Bates Simon Philip Bates (born 17 December 1946) is an English disc jockey and radio presenter. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, presenting the station's weekday mid-morning show for most of this period. He later became a regular pres ...

* Sean Bolger *

Bruno Brookes Trevor Neil "Bruno" Brookes (born 1959 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is an English former radio presenter who became prominent on British radio in the 1980s. He was CEO of in-store radio company Immedia from 2000–2020. Early life and care ...

Nino Firetto Anthony Edward Paolo Firetto (born 30 June 1957 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire) is a British radio presenter, TV host and actor, currently based in San Francisco, United States. Biography Firetto became known as a DJ in the 1970s, then as a televi ...

Emma Forbes Emma Katy Forbes (née Clarke; born 14 May 1965 in Hammersmith, London) is an English radio and television presenter. Biography Forbes's parents are Nanette Newman and Bryan Forbes (né John Theobald Clarke). She attended Hurst Lodge School. ...

* David Hamilton * Mike Hollingsworth *

Caron Keating Caron Louisa Keating (5 October 1962 – 13 April 2004) was a Northern Irish television presenter. Early life and education Keating was born on 5 October 1962 in Fulham, west London, to an English father with southern Irish roots and a Northern ...

Carol McGiffin Carol Deirdre McGiffin (born 18 February 1960) is an English radio and television broadcaster, who has appeared on the daytime talk show ''Loose Women'' since the early 2000s. She appeared on the twelfth series of '' Celebrity Big Brother''. ...

Sally Meen Sally Jennifer Meen (born 13 June 1965) is an English television presenter. Meen has a degree in Catering and Institutional Management, and latterly qualifications in Art and Design. Her TV career started out as a dancer on Benny Hill, then a ...

Anna Raeburn Anna Raeburn (born 3 April 1944) is a British broadcaster, author and journalist who is best known for her role as an "agony aunt", giving advice on relationships and more general life problems. As a broadcaster, she has worked for Capital Radi ...

* Chris Reardon * Richard Skinner *

Penny Smith Penelope Jane Smith (born 21 September 1958) is an English author, television presenter, newsreader and radio presenter. She has presented for Sky News, GMTV, Classic FM, BBC Radio London, TalkRadio and is a regular contributor to TalkTV la ...

* Michele Stephens *

Anthea Turner Anthea Turner (born 25 May 1960) is an English former television presenter. She was a host of ''Blue Peter'' from 1992 until 1994, and of ''GMTV'' from 1994 until 1996. Early life Turner was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and educated ...

Liberty Radio (UCKG)

In 2000 Al Fayed sold the station to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG);

The broadcasting slot

UCKG were not allowed to change the format to religious programming, but did broadcast programmes linked to their UCKG Help Centres in the evenings. In February 2001

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

issued a "

Yellow Card Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...

" to Liberty Radio over religious content and giving undue prominence to its owners, the UCKG, breaching two rules of the Advertising and Sponsorship Code. Changes were made as a result. At the time there were rules preventing stations owned by religious organisations from owning digital radio licences in the UK. Therefore, Liberty could not move onto DAB, and did not get an automatic license renewal. Their

broadcasting licence A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary f ...

was readvertised, and was awarded on 12 November 2002 to Club Asia, who took over 963 and 972 MW at midnight on 3 July 2003. Club Asia went into administration in August 2009 and was taken over by

Sunrise Radio Group Sunrise Radio Group Limited was a UK radio broadcaster (chairman Avtar Lit), and ran Sunrise Radio. The company also used to own London Media Company Limited. In January 2014, Sunrise Radio Limited, owners of Sunrise Radio 1, Sunrise Radio 3, Tim ...

, itself owned by Litt Corporation, who branded it " Buzz Asia",Buzz Asia website, with Listen Now link. Checked June 2010
/ref> later "Buzz Radio".Buzz Asia website
/ref>

Programming

Since the loss of the terrestrial broadcasting licence Liberty Radio has been broadcasting

Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely around ...

, and a variety of talk shows on the Internet, Sky Digital and the

Eurobird Eurobird was a series of satellites owned and operated by Eutelsat. The Eurobird satellites provided broadcasting and telecommunication services primarily to the Western and Central European region from orbital positions of 9, 25.5 and 33 degrees ...

satellite.

References

{{Reflist Internet radio stations in the United Kingdom