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Radio City Talk (previously City Talk 105.9) was an Independent Local Radio station in
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, England. In May 2020, it was announced by Bauer that Radio City Talk would cease broadcasting, after concluding that the station was no longer financially viable to run. The station ceased broadcasting on 1 June 2020 at 00:06.


History

Radio City Talk had made a number of changes to its format during its history.


Initial format (January 2008 – June 2009)

The original team of presenters on the station included actors
Margi Clarke Margi Clarke (born 25 May 1954) is an English actress and radio and television presenter. She had a leading role in the film '' Letter to Brezhnev'' (1985), a low-budget film which had an international release. Later, Clarke played Jackie Dob ...
and Dean Sullivan, horse racing commentator and drive time presenter Paul Jacobs, football personalities
Ian St John John "Ian" St John (; 7 June 1938 – 1 March 2021) was a Scottish professional football player, coach and broadcaster. St John played as a forward for Liverpool throughout most of the 1960s. Signed by Bill Shankly in 1961, St John was a key me ...
and
John Aldridge John William Aldridge (born 18 September 1958) is a former football player and manager. He was a prolific, record-breaking striker best known for his time with English club Liverpool in the late 1980s. His tally of 330 Football League goals is ...
, broadcaster Kim Hughes who presented breakfast with Phil Easton, veteran talk show hosts
Pete Price Peter Lawrence Price (the Lizard) (born 04 February 1946) is a British radio presenter best known for his work in Liverpool. He hosted the Sunday night talk radio show ''Pete Price: Unzipped'', which was broadcast across Liverpool sister stat ...
and Roy Basnett, and newspaper journalists Larry Nield and Brian Reade.
Trisha Goddard Patricia Gloria Goddard (born 23 December 1957) is an English television presenter and actress. She is best known for her television talk show ''Trisha'' (1998–2010), which was broadcast on a mid-morning slot on ITV before later being moved ...
also hosted a Sunday evening show called ''Talk to Trisha'', broadcast down-the-line from the presenter's home in
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, wit ...
. Regular news, sport and business bulletins were broadcast, as well as lifestyle, celebrity and comedy features. In its first
RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...
released on the station's first anniversary, City Talk 105.9 had a weekly audience of 63,000 listeners and a total of 364,000 listening hours (averaging at 5.8 hours per listener). The business plan for the station anticipated the audience would be around 75,000 listeners, tuning in for 5 hours a week, producing 375000 listening hours each week. Furthermore, according to an analysis of
RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...
figures, the station only recorded a 4% listening share.


Second format (June 2009 – January 2010)

In March 2009,
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 acro ...
published a request from Bauer Radio to change the format of City Talk.Ofcom document on 2009 proposals (PDF)
/ref> The new format would retain all-speech programming at weekday breakfast & drivetime and weekend late breakfast. On weekdays, non-peak output during daytime hours would be mixed speech and soft pop-led music. Outside of weekday daytime, the new format would allow shared programming with Bauer's other Liverpool stations. The move was taken due to concerns within Bauer about the commercial viability of City Talk as a format. Research conducted by Bauer in support of the move suggested that those listeners who were actively choosing not to listen to the station as an all-talk service would reconsider the station were music included alongside the speech content. Ofcom granted permission for the format change on 12 May 2009,Ofcom grant of permission for 2009 changes
/ref> although the new licence still required the station to air late-night phone-ins and Saturday afternoon sports coverage, in addition to the daytime talk programming requested by Bauer. Bauer was also told that the simulcasting of Magic 1548 content onto the City Talk frequency would not be permitted, but that some programming elements could be shared with Radio City. On 21 June 2009, the station went live with their new talk-music format.


Third format (January 2010 – December 2015)

In January 2010, the station changed its format again, to operate a news-and-music mix. This saw extended news bulletins airing every 20 minutes (updated hourly, with more frequent updates during major breaking events), and soft adult contemporary music in between bulletins. This format aired for much of the day, except during the remaining presenter-led shows, such as the Pete Price phone in on Sunday – Thursday evenings and sports coverage, simulcast with Radio City. Later, the station reintroduced live all-speech breakfast and drive time programmes on weekdays, presented by Mick Coyle and Adam Catterall.


Fourth & Final format and frequency switch (December 2015 – May 2020)

In July 2015, Bauer submitted a formal request to OFCOM to swap City Talk's service with that of Radio City 2. The company proposed reformating Radio City Talk as a rock music station incorporating local news and sports coverage on Radio City 2's current AM frequency of 1548 AM. The request, which also removes requirements for all-speech shows at peak times and a late night phone-in, was approved three months later. The switchover to the new rock, sports and talk format and transmission on AM took place on Monday 7 December 2015. Radio City Talk relaunched with a full schedule of live shows on weekdays, presented by Steve Hothersall (''The Kick Off''), Mick Coyle (''Liverpool Live'') and Adam Caterall (''Full Time'') and the
Pete Price Peter Lawrence Price (the Lizard) (born 04 February 1946) is a British radio presenter best known for his work in Liverpool. He hosted the Sunday night talk radio show ''Pete Price: Unzipped'', which was broadcast across Liverpool sister stat ...
'Late Night City' Show being relayed from Radio City 2. Weekend programming consisted of specialist, sport and music output.


The earlier City Talk experiment

Radio City Talk was not the first time Radio City had operated a speech service for Liverpool. Radio City Talk previously existed on 1548 kHz – Radio City's MW frequency – between 1989 and 1991, initially as an opt-out between the hours of 0700 and 1900 on weekdays (sharing content with Radio City's FM service outside these times). This approach differed from that taken by many other stations, which had begun launching "oldies" format stations on their former AM frequencies. Despite a speech format being suited to
AM broadcasting AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transm ...
, it was not a success. It became ''Radio City Gold 1548'', which itself was later rebranded as part of the Magic AM network to ''Magic 1548''. In 2015, the Magic AM stations were rebranded back to their local identities as part of the new Bauer City 2 network, and Magic 1548, which became Radio City 2 before switching frequencies with Radio City Talk.


Coverage area

The station was targeted for listeners in North Wales, Cheshire and Liverpool however extensive broadcasts could be heard in Greater Manchester and Staffordshire.


Demise

On 7 May 2020,
Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press i ...
announced that Radio City Talk would cease broadcasting later in the month. Bauer had said that due to low listening figures, it was deemed not financially viable to keep the station running. On 29 May 2020, Radio City Talk presented its last weekday programming schedule. Its final broadcasting date was 31 May 2020. The last song to be played was
Hey Jude "Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' first release ...
by
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
and at 12:06a.m. on 1 June 2020, Radio City Talk went silent.


References


Further reading


Radio City is talk of town in airwaves win
(
Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...
, 10 November 2006)
CityTalk comes to Liverpool
(Radio City news)
Ofcom awards new FM commercial radio licence for Liverpool
(Ofcom press release)
Talk of the Town
(Liverpool Confidential)
Talk spills the beans about line-up for Liverpool launch
(How-Do)


External links

* * * {{Bauer Bauer City network Bauer Radio Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 2008 Radio stations disestablished in 2020 Radio stations in Liverpool 2008 establishments in England 2020 disestablishments in England