Dr Liam McCarthy

After a thirty-year career as a journalist in the BBC during which I was Managing Editor of BBC Radios Leicester Sheffield and Nottingham and Head of BBC Local Radio Training I came to study Contemporary History at the University of Leicester in 2010. I completed a Research Masters on the impact of US soldiers in Leicester in WW2 in 2016 and a Midlands Four Cities/AHRC PhD in 2020. My PhD ‘Connecting with New Asian Communities: BBC local radio 1967-1990’ is available on the University of Leicester research drive.

In 2023, my book titled ‘Finding a New British Asian Sound on BBC Radio: The South Asian diaspora in Britain and BBC Radio’ was published by Palgrave Macmillan.

My book titled ‘Finding a New British Asian Sound on BBC Radio: The South Asian diaspora in Britain and BBC Radio’ was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2023. It examines connections between the South Asian diaspora and the BBC and current debates around institutional racism at the BBC.

I am currently revisiting my research on the American race riots in Leicester in 1944 between African American and White American soldiers as a basis for further publications.

I am also undertaking historical and contemporary research on BBC local radio and its place on the fringes of the BBC.

McCarthy, L, (2018), 'BBC Radio Leicester in 1976: Kick Starting British Asian Radio', Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 25.2, pp. 269-283.

McCarthy, L., (2020), 'Bottom Up: Rebuilding the BBC', in Mair J., (Ed.), The BBC: a Winter of Discontent, Bite-Sized Books.

McCarthy, L., (2021), 'Levelling Up: Making the BBC Personally Relevant Again', in Mair J., (Ed.), The BBC at Nearly 100: Will it Survive?, Bite-Sized Books.

McCarthy, L., (May 2021) 'The Leicester Mercury: Race on the Front Page': Working Paper

McCarthy, L., (June 2021), 'The National Front and BNP in Leicester and Leicestershire': Working Paper

McCarthy, L., (2023), ‘Finding a New British Asian Sound on BBC Radio: The South Asian diaspora in Britain and BBC Radio’, Palgrave Macmillan.

• BBC local radio and its place within the BBC and the local media market.
• South Asian immigration to Leicester.
• The BBC and Asian broadcasting.
• The Americans in Leicester in the Second World War: Racism, Sex and Violence.