About LBC

October 1973: LBC launches as the UK's first commercial radio station, days ahead of Capital Radio.

February 1975: A shaky start for the station. Union trouble takes LBC off air five times in three months.

June 1978: LBC is relaunched and unions once more go on strike - management plays music.

1982: Audiences climb and station finally wins over its critics.

1986: Rapid growth attracts New Zealander David Haynes, who, along with LBC chairman Sir Christopher Chataway, takes the station public through a merger with Crown TV Productions. Combative presenters such as Brian Hayes - now on Radio 5 Live - and Clive Bull become well-known names in London.

1989: New legislation enables radio stations to broadcast different services on AM and FM for the first time. LBC unsuccessfully relaunched as LBC Crown FM and London Talkback on AM.

1990: Rising costs, falling revenue and slipping audiences prompt drastic measures: stringent budget cuts and redundancies. Both services are "slimmed down".

Spring 1990: Troubleshooter Charlie Cox parachuted in from Australia and relaunches LBC Crown FM as LBC Newstalk hiring a string of A list presenters including Angela Rippon, Michael Parkinson, Frank Bough and Andrew Neil. But it was the rabid anti-establishment Austrialian Mike Carlton who presented the breakfast show and Richard Littlejohn who caught the headlines. Littlejohn was accused by radio authority of inciting violence over one show while Carlton's attack on the royalty brought much opprobrium.

1992: Cox turns operation to profit two years after taking on the station which was running annual losses of £4m.

January 1993: Just as the station returns to profitablity, receivers called in to parent company Crown. Consortium led by Dame Shirley Porter's son picks up the now profitable LBC. She becomes chairman and Cox quits.

September 1993: LBC loses licence to London News Radio - a consortium put together by Bruce Fireman backed by Guinness Mahon, which is due to take over in October 1994

October 1993: LBC abandons plans to take radio authority to judicial review over failed licence renewal. Mike Carlton and Richard Littlejohn particularly vitriolic about radio authority but board member hits back, branding Carlton a "pompous, overbearing, overpaid imported Aussie".

March 1993: LBC goes into receivership but carries on broadcasting with listeners unaware: "We didn't think we needed to bother them," an executive observes.

April 1994: LNR buys LBC - five months before it was due to take over its two London frequencies.

May 1994: Reuters buys LNR

October 1994: LNR relaunches with the LBC name intact but completely new format and presenters But listenership plummets and output is criticised by radio authority chairman Lord Chalfont.

August 1995: Rumours Reuters eager to pull out.

November 1996: Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed tries to buy the station but fails.

February 1996: GWR, ITN and the Daily Mail & General Trust buy the majority of Reuters' stake in the company.

1 July 1996: LNR relaunches London News Talk as LBC 1152 & London News as ITN News Direct. ITN takes editorial control with golden oldies such as Anne Diamond hired. But seen as a retirement home for ITN after primetime newsreader Julia Somerville shunted off ITV and given her own radio show.

2000: Ownership of LNR restructured following asset swap between Daily Mail & General Trust and GWR, owner of Classic FM. GWR takes control but listenership still flatlines.

2001: ITN rapped by watchdogs for recycling news from its TV channels on News Direct.

September 2002: ITN, Reuters, GWR and DMGT sell out to Chrysalis for £11m.

October 2002: Mark Flanagan, a former journalist and Chrysalis operations director, appointed managing director of LBC.

November 4 2002: Rising BBC star Caroline Feraday signed up, the first of many new presenters to come.

November 8 2002: Simon Bates axed from the LBC breakfast show, the first high profile victim of Chrysalis Radio's revamp of its newly acquired London station.

November 28 2002: : Sun columnist Jane Moore signed up alongside BBC Breakfast presenter John Nicholson to host LBC's new breakfast show when the station relaunches on January 6.

December 4 2002: Angela Rippon signed up as arts correspondent on breakfast show, marking her return to the station after 10 years. Also in the new line-up are news anchors Katie Derham (ITV), Penny Smith (GMTV), Frank Partridge (ex-Sky), Krishnan Guru-Murthy, and former Mirror showbusiness columnist Matthew Wright.

September 1 2006: LBC launches on around the country in DAB Digital Radio, which could rise listening figures.