CityTalk, which is operated by Emap's Radio City operation, will provide 24 hours of news, sport, features and documentaries, as well as phone-ins and studio discussions for the North West city for the next 12 years.
The licence, the second one to be granted to Emap following the agreement for Kerrang! radio in the Midlands in 2005, will service around 1.5m of Liverpool's adult population, with the exact figure to be determined once a transmitter location has been chosen.
Terry Smith, chairman of Radio City, said: "We knew we were being radical in our application and applaud Ofcom for recognising our vision.
"We are now ready to create some more great radio for the area. Work on the project starts tomorrow when we shall start looking for people who want to be part of something absolutely new."
The proposed frequency, 105.9Mhz, is subject to international agreement, but CityTalk is expected to begin broadcasting at "the earliest opportunity", according to Ofcom.
The licence is an extremely lucrative win for Radio City and Emap, which will be able to draw upon a range of journalists from the publisher's magazine portfolio, including Q, Grazia, Heat and Empire.
Full schedule details have yet to be decided, but a range of features are already planned, including: 'Lost Liverpool', a look at the city's past; 'Our Kid', a parenting programme; and 'Battle of the Sexes', a regular phone-in quiz.
The station said that sport would also play a vital role in its programming, with a nightly two-hour sports show planned covering national and regional sports news.
Among the more high-profile bids for the Liverpool licence was one from former GCap Media chief executive David Mansfield, who was linked with a bid for the licence through a partnership with Absolute Radio International and Irish media group Communicorp.
Ofcom will release further details determining the key factors of the Liverpool licence shortly.
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