Liberty Radio is a UK

radio broadcaster Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

and company based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England that, , is transmitted free to air from the Astra 2F Astra 2F Footprints
/ref> satellite at 28.2° East to most of Europe, and on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, but not on analog or DAB terrestrial radio.Liberty radio website: About us
The station is also available to subscribers to BSkyB on the Sky EPG at LCN 186. The company started as Viva 963, broadcasting on terrestrial radio, predominantly for women, and was later renamed. It lost its terrestrial broadcasting licence in 2002 after being acquired by the

Universal Church of the Kingdom of God The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG; ; , IURD) is an international Evangelical Neo-charismatic movement, Neo-charismatic Christian denomination with its headquarters at the Temple of Solomon (UCKG), Temple of Solomon in São Paulo, B ...

(UCKG); the broadcasting slot was taken over by Buzz Asia, with different content.

History

Viva 963

The station started on 3 July 1995 as Viva 963, a service of talk and pop aimed at women devised by

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

consultant

Lynne Franks Lynne Joanne Franks (born 16 April 1948) is a British communications strategist and writer. She founded Britain's top public relations firm in the early 1970s and worked with many British fashion brands. Later, she launched a women's radio s ...

. It broadcast on 963 kHz on medium wave from a transmitter at Lea Bridge Road,

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

. A second transmitter, broadcasting on 972 kHz, was later added at Glade Lane,

Southall Southall () is a large suburban town in West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

963 Liberty (Fayed)

In May 1996 the station was sold to

Mohammed Al Fayed Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed (; 27 January 192930 August 2023) was an Egyptian businessman whose residence and primary business interests were in the United Kingdom from the mid-1960s. His business interests included ownership of the Hôtel R ...

, owner of

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

and chairman of

Fulham Football Club Fulham Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of English football. They have played home games at Craven Cottage since 1896, other than a two-year period spe ...

, who renamed the station Liberty Radio. For a time it broadcast commentaries of Fulham FC's home and away

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

games.

Presenters

Presenters before UCKG ownership:Viva sex appeal, The Independent newspaper, 19 November 1996
/ref>Liberty Radio Web site, presenters, current and former.
As of July 2013 *

Toby Anstis Toby Anstis (born 14 December 1970) is an English radio and television presenter. He is a presenter on Heart and spin-off station Heart Dance. Early life Toby Lee Anstis was born in Northampton, England. He completed his primary education fro ...

Zoe Ball Zoe Louise Ball (born 23 November 1970) is a British broadcaster and presenter. She was the first female host of the Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows for the BBC, and in 2024 was confirmed as the second-highest paid BBC presenter after G ...

Simon Bates Simon Philip Bates (born 17 December 1946) is an English disc jockey and radio presenter. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, presenting the station's weekday mid-morning show for most of this period. He later became a regular prese ...

* Sean Bolger *

Bruno Brookes Trevor Neil "Bruno" Brookes (born 1959 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is an English former radio presenter who became prominent on British radio in the 1980s. He was CEO of in-store radio company Immedia from 2000 to 2020. Early life and ca ...

Nino Firetto Anthony Edward Paolo Firetto (born 30 June 1957 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire) is a British radio presenter, TV host and actor, currently based in San Francisco, United States. Biography Firetto became known as a DJ in the 1970s, then as a televi ...

Emma Forbes Emma Katy Forbes (born 14 May 1965 in Hammersmith, London) is an English radio and television presenter. Forbes got her start on presenting the cooking segment on '' Going Live!,'' and before going on to present or co-present numerous BBC and I ...

* David Hamilton * Mike Hollingsworth *

Caron Keating Caron Louisa Keating (5 October 1962 – 13 April 2004) was a British television presenter. Early life and education Keating was born on 5 October 1962 in Fulham, south-west London, to an English father with Irish roots and a Northern Irish moth ...

Carol McGiffin Carol Deirdre McGiffin (born 18 February 1960) is an English radio and television broadcaster, who appeared on the daytime talk show ''Loose Women'' from 2000 until her first departure in 2013 and again from 2018 until 2023. McGiffin appeared ...

* Sally Meen *

Anna Raeburn Anna Raeburn (born 3 April 1944) is a British broadcaster, author and journalist who is best known for her role as a radio agony aunt, giving advice on relationships and more general life problems. As a broadcaster, she has worked for Capital L ...

* Chris Reardon * Richard Skinner *

Penny Smith Penelope Jane Smith (born 21 September 1958) is an English author, television presenter, newsreader and radio presenter. She has presented for Sky News, GMTV, Classic FM, BBC Radio London, Talkradio and Magic Classical. Early life and edu ...

* Michele Stephens *

Anthea Turner Anthea Turner (born 25 May 1960) is an English television presenter. She was a host of ''Blue Peter'' from 1992 until 1994, and of ''GMTV'' from 1994 until 1996. Early life Turner was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and educated at the ...

Liberty Radio (UCKG)

In 2000, Al Fayed sold the station to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG);

The broadcasting slot

UCKG were not allowed to change the format to

religious programming Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...

, but did broadcast programmes linked to their UCKG Help Centres in the evenings. In February 2001

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

issued a "

Yellow Card Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative co ...

" to Liberty Radio over religious content and giving undue prominence to its owners, the UCKG, breaching two rules of the Advertising and Sponsorship Code. Changes were made as a result. At the time there were rules preventing stations owned by religious organisations from owning digital radio licences in the UK. Therefore, Liberty could not move onto DAB, and did not get an automatic license renewal. Their

broadcasting licence A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

was readvertised, and was awarded on 12 November 2002 to Club Asia, who took over 963 and 972 MW at midnight on 3 July 2003. Club Asia went into administration in August 2009 and was taken over by

Sunrise Radio Group Sunrise Radio Group Limited was a UK radio broadcaster (chairman Avtar Lit), and ran Sunrise Radio. The company also used to own London Media Company Limited. In January 2014, Sunrise Radio Limited, owners of Sunrise Radio 1, Sunrise Radio 3, Ti ...

, itself owned by Litt Corporation, who branded it " Buzz Asia",Buzz Asia website, with Listen Now link. Checked June 2010
/ref> later "Buzz Radio".Buzz Asia website
/ref>

Programming

Since the loss of the terrestrial broadcasting licence Liberty Radio has been broadcasting

Christian music Christian music is a genre of music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christianity, Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence and lament, and its f ...

, and a variety of talk shows on the Internet, Sky Digital and the

Eurobird Eurobird was a series of satellites owned and operated by Eutelsat. The Eurobird satellites provided broadcasting and telecommunication services primarily to the Western and Central European region from orbital positions of 9, 25.5 and 33 degrees E ...

satellite.

References

{{Reflist Internet radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1995