Radio City 2

Coordinates: 53°24′22″N 2°58′55″W / 53.4062°N 2.9819°W / 53.4062; -2.9819

Radio City 2
City Liverpool
Broadcast area Liverpool, North West and North Wales
Slogan The Greatest Hits for Liverpool
Frequency FM: 105.9
DAB: 11B
First air date 1991
Format Oldies
Audience share 2.7% (June 2014, RAJAR)
Owner Bauer Radio
Sister stations Radio City
Radio City 3
Radio City Talk
Website www.radiocity2.co.uk

Radio City 2 is a Independent Local Radio station, based in Liverpool and serving Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales on 105.9 FM. It is a sister station to Radio City and Radio City Talk, sharing studios atop Radio City Tower in Liverpool city centre.

Coverage

Although intended mostly for Merseyside, like its sister station, it serves Flintshire, northern Denbighshire, Greater Wrexham and eastern Greater Conwy in Wales; northern Cheshire, some parts of Greater Manchester and south-western Lancashire in England via signal overspill.[1] In the past, the station has been telephoned from the island of Anglesey.

History

Magic 1548 logo used from 1998 to 2015.

Originally it was known as "1548 City Talk", this service existed between 1989 and 1991 originally between 0700 and 1900 on weekdays. It was not a success, and a "Gold" format of music was introduced as the station initially became "Radio City Gold", and then "City Gold".

Radio City was purchased by EMAP in 1998, and City Gold was rebranded Magic 1548 as part of the network of Magic stations on AM. In December 2001, EMAP decided that it was more economical for the Magic network to share off-peak programmes and in line with the other Magic AM stations began networking between 10am-2pm, 7pm-10am, and then 2am-6am (because of Pete Price's phone-in, which switched stations in January 2006). This resulted in Magic 1548 having more local programming on weekdays. During these hours it was simply known as Magic, although there were local commercial breaks, and local news on the hour.

In January 2003, the station ceased networking with the London station, Magic 105.4, and a regional network was created with Piccadilly Magic 1152 in Manchester at the hub at the weekend and Magic 1152 in Newcastle during the week. During networked hours, local adverts are aired, as well as a local news summary on the hour.

From July 2006, more networking was introduced across the Northern Magic AM network which meant only 4 hours a day was to be presented from the local studios, between 06:00 and 10:00am. In April 2012 Magic 1548, inline with the majority of other Magic North stations, dropped local weekend breakfast shows.

Between March 2013 and December 2014, weekday breakfast was syndicated from Piccadilly Magic 1152 in Manchester. Local news and traffic bulletins were reintroduced in January 2015, when the station rebranded as Radio City 2, as part of the launch of the Bauer City 2 network.[2]

In July 2015, Bauer submitted a formal request to OFCOM to swap Radio City 2's format and frequencies with that of Radio City Talk. The company proposed to reintroduce local breakfast and drive time programming to the station and an enhanced local news service, alongside programming provided by the City 2 network.[3] The request was approved three months later and the switchover took place on Monday 7 December 2015.[4][5]

Programming


As of December 2015, Radio City 2 airs local programming at breakfast and drivetime on weekdays, Saturday breakfast and Sunday mornings. The Pete Price late night show is also broadcast on sister station Radio City Talk.[6]

The station continues to carry other programming from the Bauer City 2 network. Networked programming originates from stations including Key 2 in Manchester, Clyde 2 in Clydebank and Metro 2 Radio in Newcastle.

The station's local presenters are Simon Ross (weekday breakfast), Rick Houghton (weekday drivetime, Sunday mornings) and Claire Simmo (Saturday breakfast, weekday travel) & Pete Price (Sunday to Thursday Late Show).

News and Sport

Radio City 2 broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays, from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays and from 9am to 12pm on Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside sport and traffic bulletins.

National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried overnight with bespoke networked bulletins at weekends, produced from Key 2's newsroom in Manchester.

References

  1. ↑ FM transmitter map
  2. ↑ Magic AM starts networking at breakfast Radio Today, 15 February 2013
  3. ↑ Radio City wants to swap AM & FM services, RadioToday, 21 July 2015
  4. ↑ OFCOM statement on Radio City 2 and City Talk format change requests, 29 October 2015
  5. ↑ Date set for Radio City 2 and 3 frequency swap, RadioToday, 16 November 2015
  6. ↑ Simon Ross moves to Radio City 2 Breakfast, RadioToday, 30 November 2015
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