Hallam 2

Hallam 2
City Sheffield
Broadcast area South Yorkshire & North Midlands
Slogan The Greatest Hits for South Yorkshire
Frequency MW: 990, 1305, 1548 kHz
DAB: 11C
First air date 1 May 1989
Format Oldies
Owner Bauer Radio
Sister stations Hallam FM
Hallam 3
Website planetradio.co.uk/hallam-2/

Hallam 2 is a commercial local radio station which broadcasts to South Yorkshire and the North Midlands. The station forms part of the Bauer City 2 network and is owned by Bauer Radio. It is the sister station of Sheffield-based Hallam FM.

Technical

The station broadcasts on three separate frequencies, 1305 kHz in Barnsley, 1548 kHz for Sheffield & Rotherham and 990 kHz in Doncaster.

History

Magic AM logo used from 1998 to 2015.

The station was formed when Radio Hallam split its FM and medium wave frequencies to provide two separate services. The AM station became "Classic Gold", then "Classic Gold Radio", "Great Yorkshire Gold" and "Great Yorkshire Radio". The original incarnation was owned by The Yorkshire Radio Network who were then taken over by Metro Radio group before being bought by EMAP in 1996.

At the start of 1997, Emap decided to scrap the regional Classic Gold station and replaced it with local stations under the brandname of Magic, with a new format of Hot Adult Contemporary music. Magic AM launched at 8 am on 12 February 1997.[1]

In December 2001, EMAP decided that it was more economical for the Magic AM to share off-peak programmes in line with the other 7 Magic stations in northern England. Stations began networking 10 am-2 pm from Magic 1152 in Manchester, and 7 pm-6 am from the London station Magic 105.4 providing the programmes – during these hours it was simply known as Magic, although there were local commercial breaks, and local news on the hour.

In January 2003 after a sharp decline in listening, the station ceased networking with the London station, Magic 105.4, and a regional northern network was created with Magic 1152 at the hub at the weekend and the Newcastle station of the same name during the week. During networked hours, local adverts are aired, as well as a local news summary on the hour.

From July 2006, more networking was introduced across the northern Magic stations, meaning only the breakfast show would be produced locally. However the decision was taken in April 2013 to network this show across the other Yorkshire-based Magic stations and the Leeds-based programme replaced the locally produced show.[2] The regional breakfast show was axed in December 2014.

On 5 January 2015, Magic AM was rebranded as Hallam 2 as part of a revamp of the Bauer network and is entirely networked with the other Bauer AM stations in the North although local news, weather and travel continue to be broadcast as opt-outs during the day.

Programming

The majority of Hallam 2's programming is taken from the Bauer City 2 network, although there are separate shows for northern England at peak times, including weekday breakfast and drive time.[3]

Programming originates from Key 2 in Manchester, Clyde 2 in Clydebank, Forth 2 in Edinburgh, Metro Radio 2 in Newcastle, Tay 2 in Dundee and Bauer's headquarters at Golden Square, Soho.

News and sport

Hallam 2 broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6 am to 7 pm on weekdays, from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays and from 9 am to 12 pm on Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside sport and traffic bulletins.

National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried overnight with bespoke networked bulletins at weekends, produced from Key 103's newsroom in Manchester. Extended sports coverage is featured in the network's Game On programme on Saturday afternoons.

References

  1. ↑ [http://aircheckdownloads.com/MagicAM_JeffCooper_12Feb97.mp3 Audio of the launch of Magic AM
  2. ↑ http://radiotoday.co.uk/2013/04/bauer-networks-three-more-magic-stations/
  3. ↑ Schedule released for Bauer City 2 stations, RadioToday, 19 December 2014

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