Magic 1548

Magic 1548

City of license	Liverpool
Broadcast area	Liverpool, North West and North Wales
Slogan	Best of the 60s, 70s and more
Frequency	1548 kHz, DAB, Online
First air date	21 October 1974 (as Radio City); 1998 (in current format)
Format	Oldies
Audience share	2% (March 2011, [1])
Owner	Bauer Radio
Sister stations	Radio City 96.7, City Talk 105.9
Website	magic1548.com

Magic 1548 is a local commercial radio station in the Liverpool area of England, on the frequency of 1548 AM. Magic is a sister station to Radio City and City Talk 105.9, with which it shares 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

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. The station then became "Radio City Gold", then "City Gold" before being purchased by EMAP in 1998.

Programming

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 was abolished in January 2006). This resulted in Magic 1548 having the least networked content on the station 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 Magic 1152 in Manchester at the hub at the weekend and the Newcastle station of the same name 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 means only 4 hours a day will be presented from the local studios, this show will be between 06:00 and 10:00am, leaving the previous drivetime networked and shortened by an hour. Keiron Fox is the Breakfast presenter during the week and Simon Davies at weekends. However, Magic 1548 often opts out for football broadcasts at the weekend.

Imaging

The station presently uses very few sung station IDs, mostly they can be heard after the news each hour, these are produced by Steve England. The rest of the time idents are in the form of Voice-overs which use the voice of Simon Ross, one of Radio City's presenters.

1. ^ FM transmitter map

External links

• Magic1548 - Liverpool
• Magic Radio
• The Bromborough Transmitter Mast (1548 Khz)