Launch and early years After the introduction of the
Sound Broadcasting Act 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 5:58am 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''). 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).
Frequency split 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. 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. In 1991, the company was acquired 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 used until 2014. The station left its original Stanley Street base and on Tuesday 18 July 2000, the station 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 105.9FM. Due to poor listening figures, the station dropped most of its presenters and had a format change which meant, outside of peak listening hours such as breakfast and drivetime, the station broadcast a mix of classic hit music similar to the music played on sister station Magic 1548, although under the format change the station was not allowed to simulcast with Magic, only Radio City.
Sale to Bauer In 2007,
Emap announced the sale of its radio and publishing divisions to
Bauer Media Group. This 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.
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 Radio Liverpool & The North West in January 2019. In August 2019, following further
Ofcom deregulation to local commercial radio stations, the station's local drivetime show was dropped in favour of networked programming from
Hits Radio. On 31 May 2020, sister station
Radio City Talk ceased broadcasting as it was deemed financially unviable to continue to run due to low listening figures. In November 2023, it was announced Radio City's weekday breakfast show - the station's sole remaining local programme - would be merged with Lancashire's
Rock FM and simulcast across both stations. This began in January 2024. Radio City retained local news, traffic bulletins and advertising.
Hits Radio rebrand On 10 January 2024, station owners Bauer announced Radio City would be rebranded as
Hits Radio Liverpool from 17 April 2024, as part of a network-wide relaunch involving 17 local radio stations in England and Wales. The announcement signalled the end of the Radio City brand after nearly 50 years of broadcasting. The local breakfast show was unaffected by the rebrand.
Departure from St Johns Beacon On 28 October 2024, Bauer announced that after 24 years, it would vacate its St Johns Beacon premises, following a decision not to renew the lease. The final show to be broadcast from St Johns Beacon aired on 24 December 2024.
End of regional programming On 20 March 2025, Bauer announced it would end its regional Hits Radio breakfast show for the North West to be replaced by a new national breakfast show for England and Wales on 9 June 2025. Local news and traffic bulletins will continue. The station's final regional programme aired on 6 June 2025 with breakfast presenter
Joel Ross moving to a new national breakfast show on sister station Hits Radio 00s. ==Transmission==