Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat the Pete Price phone-in

Back in the 1980s, as part of a bid to sweat the nation's assets, Thatcher warned independent local radio operators that, if they didn't stop "wasting" radio waves by broadcasting the same programmes on FM as on AM, she'd take back one of the frequencies and give them to somebody else. Most stations responded by creating a Top 40 format for their FM station, while shuffling the DJs old enough to remember the original promises of performance made to the IBA over to medium wave to helm an oldies channel.

Radio City decided to try something different. Liverpool bus shelters sprung posters featuring the faces of famous Scousers (most of whom had long since fled the city to live somewhere else) with the words "Have you heard? It's all talk", promoting the launch of an AM all-speech station, City Talk. It was the only all-speech commercial radio offering outside of London, and quite a brave move.

It was also, sadly, an unresearched move. The people of Liverpool who wanted round-the-clock mumbling, all-talk radio station already had one in Radio Merseyside, so no audience turned up. After a lot of spending, and surprisingly few hours on hair, City Talk disappeared, and was replaced with Radio City 1548AM. An oldies channel.

The debacle weakened Radio City somewhat, and eventually the station would be bought out by EMAP.

Why are we heading down this particular avenue of radio nostalgia? EMAP have just spent cash getting a new FM licence for Liverpool, to launch... an all-speech radio network called City Talk.

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