Timeline of radio in Manchester

This is a timeline of the development of radio in Greater Manchester.

1970s
  • 1970
  • 1971
    • No events.
  • 1972
    • BBC Radio Manchester begins broadcasting on MW. Previously the station had only been available on VHF.
  • 1973
    • No events.
  • 1974
    • 2 April – Piccadilly Radio begins broadcasting at 5am.
  • 1975 - 1979
    • No events.

1980s
  • 1980
    • No events.
  • 1981
    • No events.
  • 1982
    • No events.
  • 1983
    • November – Pirate radio station KFM begins broadcasting to Stockport.
  • 1984
    • During the first half of 1984, the BBC conducts five trials of community stations in Greater Manchester. Each trial, which covers a specific area of Greater Manchester, lasts for a few weeks, broadcasts only on MW and operated for a few hours each day, opting out of BBC Radio Manchester. The station airdates are BBC Radio Bury (late 1983/early 1984), BBC Radio Oldham, BBC Radio Rochdale (eight weeks from 14 May 1984), BBC Radio Trafford and BBC Radio Skelmersdale (summer 1984).
  • 1985
    • February – KFM stops broadcasting.
  • 1986
    • No events.
  • 1987
    • No events.
  • 1988
    • 1 September – The Radio 1 FM 'switch on' day sees three new transmitters brought into service, one of which, at Holme Moss, covers the Manchester area.[1]
    • 3 September – Key 103 and Piccadilly Gold launch. Piccadilly Gold is a continuation of Piccadilly Radio whereas Key 103 is a new chart station aimed at younger listeners.
    • 30 October – BBC Radio Manchester is renamed BBC GMR.
  • 1989
    • Evening programmes begin on BBC GMR but the programming is regional as it is broadcast on all four of BBC North West's local radio stations. Local programming ends at 7.30pm with the regional output, broadcasting under the banner of Network North West, continuing until 12midnight.
    • 22 October – Sunset Radio begins broadcasting in central Manchester.

1990s
  • 1990
  • 1991
    • May – Network North West is subsumed into the BBC Night Network. Consequently, the evening programming heard on BBC GMR is the same across all ten of the BBC's local stations in northern England. Also, local programming ends slightly earlier, at 7.05pm (7pm at the weekend), although BBC GMR occasionally opts out to provide local evening sports coverage.
    • KFM is bought by Signal Radio and its new owners merge the station with Echo 96, resulting in the station being relaunched as Signal Cheshire with a coverage area which includes much of the county of Cheshire.
  • 1992
    • Soul Nation Radio and The Super Station broadcast across Manchester on 104.6 FM and 97.7 FM.
  • 1993
    • BBC GMR stops broadcasting on MW.
    • August – Sunset 102 stops broadcasting and two months later the station goes into liquidation. The liquidator reapplies for the licence but loses to Faze FM which launches a dance station on the frequency the following year.
  • 1994
  • 1995
    • No events.
  • 1996
    • May – A second FM transmitter is launched for BBC GMR. Radiating from Saddleworth on 104.6 FM, it provides better coverage to the Upper Tame Valley.
    • 3 June – Asian Sound begins broadcasting on MW across. The station's official broadcast area is east Lancashire but it can be heard across most of Greater Manchester.
    • 9 September – Following a change in ownership, Manchester station Fortune 1458 is relaunched as Lite AM.
  • 1997
    • 1 April – Wish FM starts broadcasting to Wigan.
    • 29 September – Following the purchase of Faze FM, owner of Kiss 102 and Kiss 105, by Chrysalis Radio, Kiss 102 is renamed Galaxy 102.
    • For a brief period in 1997, BBC GMR broadcasts as an all-talk station called GMR Talk.
  • 1998
    • 8 September – The north west's second regional station, Century 105, begins broadcasting.
  • 1999

2000s
  • 2000
    • Signal Cheshire is relaunched as 104.9 Imagine FM and once again focusses on the South Manchester area.
    • Radio Regan operates a four-day station called Radio Longsight and on the back of the susccessul broadcast, ALL FM is created to broadcast to the neighbouring areas of Ardwick and Levenshulme, hence the acronym ALL.[3][4]
    • 4 June – Manchester's local DAB multiplex, operated by CE Digital, goes on the air.
  • 2001
    • 15 February – Fuse FM starts broadcasting. The student station broadcasts to the campuses of the University of Manchester.
    • 25 September – A DAB multiplex covering all of north west England begins broadcasting. It is operated by MXR North West.
  • 2002
    • Capital Gold launches on MW 1458, the frequency previously occupied by Fortune 1458 and more recently by Lite AM and Big AM.
  • 2003
    • ALL FM launches on a more permanent basis as part of the government's Access Radio trial of community radio.[4]
  • 2004
    • 13 February – 100.4 Jazz FM is closed down as research concluded that, any people were dissuaded by the name ‘jazz’.
    • 1 March – Jazz is replaced by 100.4 Smooth FM which adopts a mainstream mix of easy listening music although jazz music continues to be broadcast at night.[5]
  • 2005
    • Wythenshawe FM and ALL FM begin full-time broadcasting later they are awarded full-time community radio licenses.
  • 2006
  • 2007
  • 2008
    • 3 May – After 14 years on air, Manchester United Radio closes due to the club announcing that they had agreed a deal with local radio station Key 103.
    • 5 May – 106.1 Rock Radio launches. The station had originally applied to broadcast as Rock Talk.[6][7]
  • 2009

2010s
  • 2010
    • 18 June – Gaydio begins broadcasting to the central area of Manchester on a permanent basis, two years after being granted a full-time community radio license.[9]
  • 2011
    • 3 January – 95.8 Capital FM London launches nationally and becomes available in Manchester when it replaces Galaxy 102.[10] Other than daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows, the majority of Capital's London-based output will be networked.[11]
    • 5 September – 106.1 Real Radio XS replaces Rock Radio.
    • 8 October – BBC Radio Manchester moves from its Oxford Road studios and begins broadcasting from MediaCityUK in Salford Quays.
  • 2012
    • No events.
  • 2013
  • 2014
  • 2015
    • 5 January – Magic 1152 is renamed Key 2 when it becomes part of the newly launched fully networked Bauer City 2 network.[15] The revamped station is fully networked with the only local content being daytime news, weather and travel bulletins.
    • 30 August – As part of a trial of small-scale digital multiplexes, a small-scale multiplex in Manchester, operated by Niocast Digital, goes on air. Initially a nine-month trial, the multiplexes are now licensed until March 2020.[16]
    • 28 August – A small-scale trial multiplex covering central Manchester, operated by Niocast Digital, begins operating. This multiplex is one of 10 trial multiplexes across the UK which cover areas much smaller than the county-wide local DAB multiplexes. Initially a nine-month trial, the multiplexes are now licensed until March 2020.[17]
    • 21 September – XFM Manchester is replaced by Radio X.
    • 12 October – Sunset 102 returns after 22 years as The New Sunset Radio. Programming is similar to the original station and the relaunched station features many of the original DJs.
  • 2016
  • 2017
    • No events.
  • 2018
    • 19 March – Local weekday evening programmes return to BBC Radio Manchester with the launch of The Dead Good Show.
    • 4 June –
      • Manchester station Key 103 is rebranded as Hits Radio Manchester. The station is a localised version of The Hits Radio with seven hours of local programming on weekdays - 6am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm - and a single four hour local programme at the weekend.[19]
      • Key 2 is renamed Key Radio.[20]
  • 2019
    • 7 January – Key Radio is renamed Greatest Hits Manchester and becomes part of the Greatest Hits Radio network.[21]
    • July – Local weekend programming on Hits Radio Manchester ends.[22]
    • 2 September – Hits Radio Manchester's local programming is further reduced following the decision by owners Bauer Radio to broadcast Hits Radio Manchester's Drivetime show across all of Bauer's English Hits Radio stations. Consequently, the one remaining local programme is the weekday breakfast show.[23]

References
  1. "Radio 1 History – Transmitters". Radio Rewind. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  2. "MU Radio 400 Not Out". Manchester United F.C. 27 November 2007.
  3. "ALL FM". Retrieved 24 December 2011. Contact: Dave Lenaghan
  4. "ALL FM launches in Manchester inner-city as part of Access Radio Pilot Scheme". Retrieved 24 December 2011. ALL FM has a licence to broadcast for one year as part of the experiment which aims to explore how Access Radio - a new tier of not-for-profit radio which will have social and educational benefits - might work in practice.
  5. "Impressive Line-Up for 100.4 Smooth FM". Radio Today. 10 February 2004. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  6. Rock Talk
  7. Plunkett, John (8 February 2007). "Rock Talk wins Manchester bid". MediaGuardian. London: Guardian News and Media.
  8. "End of an Era for Century". Radio Today. 18 Dec 2008. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009.
  9. "Gaydio for LGBT audiences to launch on 18 June". New Statesman. London. 26 May 2010.
  10. Global Radio takes Capital national, Brand Republic, 13 September 2010
  11. Capital FM to replace Galaxy Archived November 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, RadioToday, 13 September 2010
  12. "Mark Forrest to host BBC networked show". Radio Today. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  13. "North West MXR DAB multiplex falls silent". Radio Today. 2013-09-24. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  14. Martin, Roy (2014-02-06). "Communicorp buys 8 Global stations". RadioToday. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  15. Schedule released for Bauer City 2 stations Archived 22 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine, RadioToday, 19 December 2014
  16. "www.commedia.org.uk/news/2018/03/ssdab-trial-extension/". commedia.org.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  17. https://www.commedia.org.uk/news/2018/03/ssdab-trial-extension/
  18. Macpherson, Ande (23 February 2016). "Real Radio XS to rebrand as XS Manchester". RadioToday. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  19. "Hits Radio Manchester replaces Key 103 – RadioToday". radiotoday.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  20. "Key 2 on AM and DAB rebrands as Key Radio – RadioToday". radiotoday.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  21. Bauer Media to launch Greatest Hits Radio network Radio Today, 15 November 2018
  22. Hits Radio Network stations drop local weekend programmes, Radio Today, 30 May 2019
  23. "Bauer to network drivetime across 11 licences in North and Midlands".
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