Linda McDermott, Billy Butler and Roger Lyon told the ECHO about their exits from Liverpool Live and claim they are still owed money
Radio presenter Linda McDermott spoke to the ECHO about her experiences at Liverpool Live(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
A group of veteran Liverpool broadcasters claim they are cumulatively owed thousands of pounds from Liverpool Live radio station. Billy Butler, Linda McDermott, Roger Lyon and Frankie Connor have all exited the local station over recent months.
The station was set up in 2020 as a competitor to BBC Radio Merseyside and recruited a number of DJs who had recently departed the broadcaster. Mr Butler, who has been on the airwaves since 1971, told the ECHO he was first approached by Liverpool Live managing director Rod Keay in 2020 and was enticed by the opportunity to build a local media operation from the ground up.
The 84-year-old said: “I had left [BBC Radio] Merseyside for about a year when Rod approached me about this new station called Liverpool Live. We had a long chat about it and he told me who else was going to be on the station, so I thought what a bloody good idea. Radio Merseyside have got it all to themselves. There’s no competition.
“This one had the plans and the presenters to be able to do that.” Mr Butler hosted weekend shows on the station for five years and said the majority of that time went smoothly, as he built up a listenership and received payment for his work. However, he claimed things started to change over the course of 2025.
He added: “There seemed to be no pushing the station and we weren’t doing anything to make sure that the people of Liverpool knew anything about us anymore. It made you lose faith. All of a sudden, our money stopped coming.
“That was sudden as well because I’d been paid quite regularly for five years. Suddenly, there was no money available for wages and to help the station at all. I put up with it for so long because I owed the station a bit of loyalty.”
Mr Butler’s disillusionment with what he claims was happening at the station led to his exit from Liverpool Live last November to join In Demand, which is owned by his son Lee Butler. However, Mr Butler claims he is still owed around £1,000 after not being paid for five months – and admitted he is gutted with the way things have transpired.
He said: “It is sad because we came at the right time, we adopted the right attitude. We were doing very well audience wise. And then the impetus just went from the management. There’s no bitterness, it’s regret.”
Billy Butler left Liverpool Live at the end of last year(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Linda McDermott joined the station in late October 2024 and said her experience was similar to Mr Butler’s. The DJs claim they had verbally agreed to an informal invoice process that they would be paid on a show by show basis.
Ms McDermott, renowned for hosting Under the Duvet Club for BBC Radio Merseyside for 16 years, told the ECHO she agreed to the “unconventional setup” because she believed in the station’s vision and appreciated the economic realities surrounding local radio. She told the ECHO: “Things started to go awry when we stopped being paid in about the late spring of 2025.
“We bided our time out of loyalty and belief in the product of what we were doing. Thinking it would all come right, but there was no communication whatsoever as to why and what was wrong.
“We were always paid on an ad-hoc basis anyway, but we accepted the situation because we were building something. I was only paid three times in my time there. It didn’t cover what I was owed.”
Linda McDermott left Liverpool Live at the end of 2025(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Ms McDermott quit Liverpool Live at the end of 2025 and feels as though her loyalty has been exploited. She said: “I was effectively owed seven months wages when I decided to step back at the end of last year.” She added: “You can only go so far without feeling exploited that your own kindness and generosity of spirit was being abused.
“Things were extremely friendly from the outset so it’s disappointing when you’re repaid like that with what amounts to a lack of respect. We were lending our names and hard earned reputations to the business to build it and that’s what we got in return. A disrespectful silence and no explanation whatsoever. Used and abused really.”
Linda claims she is still owed thousands of pounds from her broadcasts on the station and said she previously received assurances that she would receive payment. However, she has lost confidence this will happen and is equally frustrated with the lack of correspondence as she is with having not been paid.
She said: “Silence does nobody any favours at all. You have to gain people’s trust and understanding. That seemed to be a one way street. We didn’t know where we stood and we felt utterly exploited for our names and reputations.”
Ms McDermott joined the station at a difficult time in her life after the death of her husband, Johnny Kennedy, in 2024 and said she was still in “the depths of grief”. She added: “Being back on radio was the furthest thing I could think to cope with.”
However, she knew Mr Butler, Frankie Connor and Roger Lyon from their time together at BBC Radio Merseyside and wanted to reconnect with her colleagues, and listeners, after leaving the airwaves in 2023. The broadcaster is devastated with how things have turned out since, as she added: “I keep meeting loads of listeners out and about at events. People come over to me with no idea of what’s gone on but heartbroken that they can’t all get together for the show the way we’ve always done.
“After leaving BBC Radio Merseyside, it was a lifeline. I was able to go back [on air], so it’s a heartbreaking situation really.” Mr Connor and Mr Lyon were the last of the former BBC Radio Merseyside presenters to depart Liverpool Live in April.
Mr Lyon joined the station in 2024 and said the final straw came when Mr Connor was unable to access the Liverpool Live studio, on Norfolk Street in the Baltic Triangle, due to a broken lock. The broadcaster, who presented on BBC Radio Merseyside for 36 years, was due to host a show the next day and got in touch with Mr Keay to be told the problem wouldn’t be resolved by the time his show was due to air.
Liverpool Live broadcast from Queens Dock Business Centre on Norfolk Street
He said: “That turned out to be our final weekend. We haven’t done a programme since.” Mr Lyon claimed the studio in the city centre is no longer in use, which led him to quit Liverpool Live as he had no interest in broadcasting from home.
He told the ECHO: “Frankie and I said, ‘That’s not what we signed up to do.’ We haven’t got the facilities at home to do it, nor have we got the inclination. So I said we’re not carrying on. What we would like is for you to pay us what you owe us and then we’ll say thank you very much.
“Since then I’ve heard nothing from him. Clearly we haven’t had any money from him. Even though I sent him a reminder.” While Mr Lyon claims he is still owed £1450, he said he is more disappointed that the station has not fulfilled the potential of what it set out to achieve.
Roger Lyon with Linda McDermott(Image: Roger Lyon)
The 71-year-old said: “We worked out the other day that the four of us [Mr Butler, Ms McDermott, Mr Connor and Mr Lyon] have got 140-150 years broadcasting experience at the Beeb.
“If [Mr Keay] had promoted it properly and targeted the station as a replacement for Radio Merseyside, he would have done well with it. I honestly believe that.” He added: “The downside for me was that it was such a massive missed opportunity. That was the tragedy for me.”
Liverpool Live has been approached for comment.