Bauer City 2

Greatest Hits Network
Broadcast area Scotland and northern England
Slogan The Greatest Hits for...
Frequency MW: 828 – 1584 kHz
FM: 96.5 - 105.9 MHz
DAB
First air date 5 January 2015
Format Oldies and specialist music
Language(s) English
Owner Bauer Radio
Sister stations Hits Radio Network
Website planetradio.co.uk/

Greatest Hits Network is a network of 15 local radio stations in Scotland and northern England, owned and operated by Bauer Radio.

The stations, which carry separate localised branding, air a mainly networked schedule of classic hits music, alongside local news and travel, specialist music programming and a weekly current affairs phone-in on Sunday mornings. The network launched on Monday 5 January 2015.[1]

Overview

The stations which form the Greatest Hits network are predominantly AM sister stations of the corresponding Hits Radio network station. Many were originally set up as a 'Gold' counterpart (e.g. Radio City Gold in Liverpool) when stations were told by the Radio Authority to stop simulcasting on both FM and AM in the late 1980s. The exception to this is the FM station West Sound (Dumfries and Galloway).

In Northern England, the stations were latterly rebranded as Magic - a station brand first used by Radio Aire upon the launch of their AM station in July 1990. The stations gradually began to network most of their schedule - by March 2013, the only local content consisted of three regional breakfast shows on weekdays, serving the North West, the North East and Yorkshire.[2]

In Scotland, local programming on AM stations was largely retained until networking outside of weekday breakfast and specialist shows was introduced in June 2009. In July 2013, the remaining local output was axed, leading to a fully networked schedule known as The Greatest Hits Network.[3]

In September 2014, Bauer Radio announced it would rebrand the Magic stations under localised identities, based on the main FM station names (e.g. Magic 1152 in Manchester becomes Key 2, based on Key 103).[4] Magic's AM network closed with the London equivalent, Magic 105.4 FM, being launched nationwide on DAB.

The schedules for the stations were announced in December 2014. The two previous networks serving Scotland (The Greatest Hits Network) and northern England (Magic AM) were replaced by one carrying programming from both Scotland and England over all stations. The relaunch took place on Monday 5 January 2015.

On 7 December 2015, Radio City 2 in Liverpool swapped frequencies with sister station Radio City Talk on 105.9 FM and reintroduced local programming at peak times.[5]

In April 2018, Northsound 2 ceased analogue broadcasting on 1035 AM, becoming the first commercial radio station in Scotland - and the first local Bauer-owned station - to broadcast only on digital platforms (DAB and online).[6]

On 4 June 2018, Key 2 in Manchester was rebranded as Key Radio, in tandem with FM sibling Key 103's relaunch as Hits Radio.

Stations

Programming and presenters

The majority of programming is broadcast among all Greatest Hits stations in Scotland and Northern England, although there are separate shows for the two countries during daytimes from 6am - 7pm.[7]

Most programming originates from the studios of Key Radio in Castlefield and Clyde 2 in Glasgow. Some other output is broadcast from Metro 2 Radio in Newcastle, Forth 2 in Edinburgh, Tay 2 in Dundee and Bauer's headquarters at Golden Square, Soho.

Networked presenters

Local opt-outs

All stations in the network carry their own local news and traffic bulletins every hour from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 7am to 1pm at weekends, with bespoke network bulletins produced in the Glasgow newsroom for Scotland and Leeds for England from 2pm (until 6pm Saturday and 4pm Sunday). Sunday 5pm and 6pm network bulletins are produced from the London newsroom.

The two FM stations in the network - West Sound in Dumfries & Galloway and Radio City 2 in Liverpool - air their own local programming at breakfast (Monday to Saturday), weekday drivetime and Sunday mornings with networked output carried at off-peak times.

References

  1. ↑ Schedule released for Bauer City 2 stations, RadioToday, 19 December 2014
  2. ↑ Magic AM starts networking at breakfast, RadioToday, 15 February 2013
  3. ↑ Galloway goes national at Bauer Scotland, RadioToday, 3 June 2013
  4. ↑ Major brand swap for Bauer's local stations, RadioToday, 28 September 2014
  5. ↑ Simon Ross moves to Radio City 2 Breakfast, RadioToday, 30 November 2015
  6. ↑ Northsound 2 to switch off AM radio service, Radio Today, 8 March 2018
  7. ↑ Schedule released for Bauer City 2 stations, RadioToday, 19 December 2014
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