Today is the deadline for applications for the new licence, which has a potential reach of around 1.4m adults. Media regulator Ofcom wants to pick a station that will broaden the choice supplied by the ten commercial services broadcasting in the area.
Emap said its CityTalk format would offer a mix of conversation, news, sports, current affairs, comedy and local issues. Programme ideas include 'Home from the House', in which a local MP answers listeners' questions, 'Rag Mag', produced by students at Liverpool's John Moores University, celebrity gossip from the editor of Emap's Heat magazine, Mark Frith, and a nightly two-hour sports show.
It would be Emap's third Liverpool station after Radio City and Magic 1548 AM.
Terry Smith, chairman and non-executive director of CityTalk, said: "This will be an entirely new type of station for Liverpool."
Many other bidders are also submitting speech formats. UTV, which owns local station Juice FM, is bidding with AllTalk FM, a similar format to the one with which it won the Edinburgh FM licence in 2004.
Guardian Media Group Radio has bid with RockTalk, which will feature speech during the day and music at night.
Absolute Radio's offering is Jack FM, a classic rock music station with a high proportion of speech at peak times, according to programme and operations director Clive Dickens. Absolute used to part-own Juice FM before selling out to its partner UTV.
Chrysalis has bucked the trend for speech by bidding with its adult rock format, The Arrow, which is being supported by legendary Beatles producer Sir George Martin.
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