BBC Radio Merseyside

BBC Radio Merseyside is the Local BBC Radio service for the Merseyside region, England. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 257,000 listeners and a 8.6% share as of December 2019.[1]

BBC Radio Merseyside
Logo used since September 2020
CityLiverpool
Broadcast areaMerseyside
The North West
North West Cheshire
North Wales
FrequencyFM: 95.8 MHz
DAB: 10C
RDS: BBC_MRSY
Freeview: 722
SloganThe Sound Of Liverpool & All The Music You Love
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatLocal news, sport, talk and music
NetworkLocal BBC Radio
Ownership
OwnerBBC
OperatorLocal BBC Radio
BBC North West
BBC Radio Lancashire
BBC Radio Manchester
History
First air date
22 November 1967
Former names
95.8FM BBC Radio Merseyside
BBC Merseyside
Former frequencies
AM 1485 KHz
Technical information
Licensing authority
OFCOM
Links
WebcastBBC Sounds
WebsiteBBC Radio Merseyside

History

BBC Radio Merseyside It was the third Local BBC Radio station to start broadcasting, launching on 22 November 1967, broadcasting from the sixth floor of council-owned offices in Commerce House, Liverpool. In late 1981 BBC Radio Merseyside moved to a new purpose built studios on Paradise Street, Liverpool. Broadcasts began from the new studios on 7 December 1981. On 15 July 2006, BBC 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 is on the first floor and the main office is on the second floor. It's the third building BBC Radio Merseyside has occupied since it was launched.

In October 2006, the studio building was nominated and made the Building Design shortlist for the inaugural Carbuncle Cup, which was ultimately awarded to Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth.[2]

Until the late 1980s the station was generally on air from breakfast until teatime, with any programming after 6 pm devoted to specialist music and magazines aimed at specialist interests and at ethnic minority communities. In early 1989, the four BBC stations in north west England launched an evening service called Network North West. It was broadcast each night from 7.30pm 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 7.05pm (7pm at the weekend) until midnight, extending to 12:30 am in the early 1990s, and to 1 am by the end of that decade.

Transmitters

BBC Radio Merseyside broadcasts from its studios in Hanover St, Liverpool on 95.8 MHz (Allerton Park) and DAB.

The Allerton Park transmitter also transmits Radio City on 96.7 MHz and Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool & The North West on 105.9 MHz. All three have the same coverage. DAB signals come from the Bauer Digital Bauer Liverpool 10C Multiplex from Billinge Hill (between St Helens and Wigan), Hope Mountain (between Buckley and Wrexham) and the Radio City Tower (on top of Radio City's studios).

In 2018 BBC Radio Merseyside launched on the BBC Sounds app. Local sports commentary however, is not broadcast on this service due to licensing agreements.

Medium-Wave Frequency Switch off

In March 2020, BBC Radio Merseyside's 1485 AM signal was switched off and its license was handed back to Ofcom. This was part of a new plan by Local BBC Radio to move to a new modern future for radio by removing the outdated AM broadcasting frequencies across all of its stations.

Programming

Most of BBC Radio Merseyside's programming is produced and broadcast from its Liverpool studios from 6am - 1am on weekdays, 6am - 10pm on weekends. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Merseyside simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live overnight. Specialist programming includes Liverpool's only English-Chinese speaking programming Orient Express with June Yee and Billy Hui (Monday's midnight-1am) and Upfront with Ngunan Adamu (Sunday's 8pm-10pm).

Since April 2020, Linda McDermott's weekday late show (10pm-1am) is simulcast on BBC Radio Manchester & BBC Radio Lancashire on Fridays.[3]

BBC Radio Merseyside studios on Hanover Street, Liverpool.

Notable past presenters

Controversy

During a breakfast show on 25 June 2007, presenter Simon O'Brien accidentally broadcast an unedited interview in which he said, "fuck the government, fuck the planners". O'Brien resigned from the station later in the day. He later went on to present a short-lived Saturday breakfast show on the now defunct talk radio station Radio City Talk in Liverpool. Radio City Talk later used the phrase that led to his resignation as part of their launch marketing for the station.

References
  1. "BBC Radio Merseyside - listening figures". media.info. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  2. bdonline.co.uk. "Bottom of the barrel - Carbuncles 2006". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  3. "BBC Radio Manchester- Lates On BBC Radio Manchester- Linda McDermott". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 November 2020.

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