McWilliams wins 1m Liberty Radio relaunch

London’s Liberty Radio will relaunch as a Seventies music and chat station with the help of ad agency The McWilliams Partnership.

The account is understood to be worth 1m. Media will be bought by Rocket.

The station belongs to Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed, who bought it for 3m in May 1996. It was then called Viva!, and was positioned as a women’s station. It now plays a mix of Seventies and Eighties music, and includes some chat.

Liberty will adopt its new format in March with the campaign, which covers press and posters, starting at the same time. McWilliams Partnership chairman John McWil-liams says: “The advertising will talk about the new musical direction. But it will also focus on the gossipy, insider, city feel the conversation will adopt.”

Last month the station was granted an extra London medium wave frequency by the Radio Authority. Liberty now transmits on 963KHZ and 972KHZ.

In March last year Al Fayed complained to the Radio Authority that the station’s single signal was too weak to broadcast adequately across London. He threatened to close the station down unless he could boost its transmission.