[3] TLRC was formed in 1996 as a joint venture between its majority shareholder Radio Investments Limited and GWR Group plc, with founding Chief Executive Chris Carnegy also holding a small stake.

At its peak the merged private company owned or invested in 28 stations, spread between Stirling in Scotland and the Isle of Wight, and between Lowestoft and Plymouth.

However this was generally not deemed a success so, after the departure of Group Programme Director Gordon Davidson in June 2006 to Emap, most stations developed their own branding.

For a time, Sunday afternoons across the network were dedicated to a premium rate phone-in show hosted by Andy Muir, titled Money on your Mobile.

In 2005, TLRC made a large number of acquisitions including full control of east Lancashire station 2BR and Bath FM.

Also in 2008, TLRC made a licensing agreement with GMG Radio for three years to run the rebranded jazzfm.com service as Jazz FM on a number of DAB multiplexes, on digital satellite and on the Internet.