Radio City 2 and City Talk

About this document

Ofcom has received two Format change requests from Radio City (Sound of Merseyside) Ltd, which holds an AM and two FM commercial radio licences for Liverpool.

A station’s Format describes the type of programme service which it is required to provide, and forms part of the station’s licence.

Radio City (Sound of Merseyside) Ltd wishes to change the ‘Character of Service’ of its AM licence (currently Radio City 2) and one of its FM licences (currently City Talk).

Radio City 2’s published Format requires the service to broadcast “a classic soft pop music-led service”. The licensee wishes to change this to a service of “rock hits with news, local sport and information programming.”

City Talk’s published Format requires the service to broadcast “speech and soft pop-led music programming”. The licensee proposes to replace this with “a classic soft pop music-led service”.

Both requests also propose changes to the arrangements for programme sharing, locally-made hours and local news which relate to each station.

If the requests are agreed, the end result will be the revised Radio City 2 service broadcast on FM and the revised City Talk service (to be called Radio City Talk) broadcast on AM.

A request for a Format change can be approved only if it satisfies at least one of the five criteria set out in section 106(1A) of the Broadcasting Act 1990 (as amended). The criteria are set out in full in Section 2 of this document.

Because we consider that each request, if approved, would result in a substantial change to the character of the service, we are required to consult on the requests.

We are therefore seeking views on the requests, having particular regard to the relevant Format change criteria set out in the Broadcasting Act 1990.

Responses

Responder name	Type
Ellerby_Mr_J.pdf (PDF File, 9.2 KB)	Organisation
name_withheld1.pdf (PDF File, 15.7 KB)	Organisation
name_withheld2.pdf (PDF File, 15.8 KB)	Organisation
name_withheld3.pdf (PDF File, 13.6 KB)	Organisation
Soo_Mr_R.pdf (PDF File, 12.0 KB)	Organisation