BBC Radio Merseyside is the BBC's local radio station serving

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, North and West

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

and

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town is Skelmersdale. The district borders Fylde to the north, over the Ribble Estuary; South Ribbl ...

. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via

BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is an Over-the-top media service, over-the-top audio streaming media, streaming and download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, Streaming media, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide ...

, from studios on Hanover Street in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. According to

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 c ...

, the station has a weekly audience of 183,000 listeners and a 3.7% share as of May 2025.

History

BBC Radio Merseyside was the third BBC Local Radio station to start broadcasting, launching on 22 November 1967 and broadcasting from the sixth floor of council-owned offices in Commerce House,

. In late 1981, Radio Merseyside moved to a new purpose-built studios on

Paradise Street, Liverpool Paradise Street is a street in Liverpool, Merseyside, in the Liverpool One shopping area. It lies south of Whitechapel and north of Duke Street. The street contains many stores and restaurants including McDonald's, Uniqlo, Urban Outfitters, ...

. Broadcasts began from the new studios on 7 December 1981. On 15 July 2006, Radio Merseyside moved from its former home to a new purpose-built studio building on the corner of Hanover Street and College Lane in Liverpool. This building has two ground-floor studios next to a public performance space. An open learning centre was previously located on the first floor and the main office is on the second floor. In October 2006, the studio building was nominated and made the

Building Design Building design, also called architectural design, refers to the broadly based architectural, engineering and technical applications to the design of buildings. All building projects require the services of a building designer, typically a licen ...

shortlist for the inaugural Carbuncle Cup, which was ultimately awarded to Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth. Until the late 1980s the station was generally on air from breakfast until teatime, with any local programming after 6 pm being specialist music and magazines aimed at specialist interests and ethnic minority programming, such as ''Orient Express'' with June Yee. with

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

being carried during the evening and overnight. In early 1989, the four BBC stations in

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

launched an evening service called ''Network North West''. This replaced the Radio 2 simulcast with regional programming. The strand was broadcast each night from 7:30 pm until midnight. In May 1991, the four north-west stations joined the BBC Night Network, which had previously provided evening programming for the BBC's six North East and Yorkshire stations. At this point, local broadcasts ended at 7:05 pm (7 pm at weekends) until midnight, extending to 12:30 am in the early 1990s, and to 1 am by the end of that decade.

Technical

BBC Radio Merseyside broadcasts on 95.8 MHz (Allerton Park) and DAB from the Allerton Park site and DAB signals come from the Bauer Liverpool 10C Multiplex from

Billinge Hill Billinge Hill is in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in North West England. With a maximum elevation of , it is the highest point of Merseyside. It lies in Billinge, within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire, and it is one of t ...

(between St Helens and

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

), Hope Mountain (between Buckley and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

) and St Johns Beacon. In 2018, BBC Radio Merseyside launched on

. Local sports commentaries are not broadcast on this service, due to licensing agreements. The station also broadcasts on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

TV channel 714 in the

BBC North West BBC North West is the BBC English Regions, BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, as well as parts of North Yorkshire (western Craven District, Craven), Derbyshire (western High Peak, Derbyshire, High ...

region. In March 2020, BBC Radio Merseyside's 1485 AM license was handed back to Ofcom.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's

studios from 6 am to 6 pm on weekdays and for sports coverage. Until October 2023, the station's late show was simulcast with

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. Originally launched as BBC Radio Blackburn, in 1981 it expanded to cover the whole county and was renamed BBC Radio Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB ...

on Friday nights and originated from

BBC Radio Manchester BBC Radio Manchester is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

on Saturday and Sunday nights. It was replaced by an England-wide late show which is broadcast seven days a week. During the station's overnight downtime, BBC Radio Merseyside simulcasts overnight programming from

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

Presenters

Notable past presenters

* Billy Butler (now at Liverpool Live Radio) * Wayne Clarke *

Shelagh Fogarty Shelagh Fogarty (born 13 January 1966) is a British radio presenter, journalist and former television presenter. She presents the afternoon programme on LBC, having previously co-hosted the BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast show with Nicky Campbel ...

(now on LBC) * John Gillmore * Gerry Harrison * Eddie Hemmings * Roger Hill *

Brian Jacques James Brian Jacques (, as in "Jakes"; 15 June 1939 – 5 February 2011), known professionally as Brian Jacques, was an English author known for his ''Redwall'' series of children's fantasy novels and ''Castaways of the Flying Dutchman'' series. ...

* Debi Jones (now at Delux Radio) * Janice Long (went on to

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Wales, Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4. As of August 2022, the stat ...

and Greatest Hits Radio) * Billy Maher * Rob McCaffrey * Linda McDermott * Simon O'Brien * Rob Palmer * Alan Parry (now on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

) * Steve Parry * Pete Price * Paul Salt * Ray Stubbs (now at Talksport 2) *

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian religious minister, minister, political activist, and perennial candidate for president. He achieved fame as a socialism, socialist and pacifism, pacifis ...

References

External links

BBC Radio Merseyside
{{Liverpool and Merseyside radio Radio stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in England Radio stations in Merseyside

Mass media in Liverpool Radio stations in Liverpool