Heat Radio is a British digital radio station, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the

Kiss Network The Kiss Network is a network of radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned by Bauer Media Audio UK, focusing on the 15-34 age group. According to RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a si ...

. It broadcasts online to the UK and on Digital Radio in

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...

. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 456,000 listeners according to

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

History

Heat Radio launched in 2003 as a non-stop music station broadcasting from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where it was located alongside the sister magazine. In 2007 the station re-launched with presenters and showbiz news throughout the day. In 2009, Heat moved to

Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in ...

's studios in Castlefield,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, as part of a cost-cutting programme, to be based alongside sister radio stations

Key 103 ''For the Network, see Hits Radio. For the National DAB station, see Hits Radio UK.'' Hits Radio Manchester is an Independent local radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Greater Mancheste ...

and

The Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 25 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. As of October 2022, the network has a combined reach of 6.6 million weekly listeners according to RAJAR. Overvie ...

, where music and entertainment news output would be sourced. That same year, the station, along with

Smash Hits Radio Smash Hits Radio was a UK-based digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Radio based in Manchester. It was available throughout the UK on Freeview channel 712. The format was based on the now defunct Smash Hits Magazine. It was a Cont ...

, Q Radio and

Kerrang Radio Kerrang! Radio is a specialist digital rock music radio station owned and operated by Bauer and forms part of the Kiss Network. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 341,000 listeners according to RAJAR. Stations His ...

, were removed from Sky, Virgin Media and UPC Ireland, due to cost-cutting measures with

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

and

Liberty Global Liberty Global plc is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Plc, Liberty Global B.V. and Liberty Global, Inc., with ...

. In January 2015, heat moved back to London be based with Bauer's other national brands at One Golden Square. In early 2016 the station, along with

Kisstory Kisstory is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Kiss Network. Playing "old skool and anthems", it is a sister station to Kiss. As of June 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 2.1 million listeners, ...

, migrated from being provided on local-layer DAB multiplexes to instead being transmitted over the

Sound Digital Sound Digital is a semi-national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva, Bauer Media Group and Wireless Group. The multiplex covers 73% of the population from a total of 45 transmitters. History Following t ...

national multiplex, in which Bauer is a shareholder. Some of the local-level capacity previously used by Heat and Kisstory has been reallocated to

KissFresh Kiss Fresh is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Kiss Network, and a sister station to Kiss. As of June 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 301,000 listeners, according to RAJAR. History Initial ...

. The station has been appearing in Heat magazine, with regular adverts, shared content and joint campaigns like a recent promotion with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera '' Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on sister channel E4 a ...

'', and

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, ...

's ''

The Only Way Is Essex ''The Only Way Is Essex'' (often abbreviated as ''TOWIE'' ) is a British reality television series based in Brentwood, Essex, England. It shows "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." Originally b ...

''. In its early years, Heat generally broadcast at 64 kbit/s in mono on DAB. Following the 2007 relaunch, the service was boosted to 112 kbit/s in stereo where possible (in London,

moved to the former Heat capacity to allow the prior SH slot to be used as part of the extended Heat.) More recently, the heat service switched back to mono, generally at 80 kbit/s, and this bitrate carried over when heat migrated to SDL National. On 1 February 2019, Heat Radio became an online only non-stop music station as it was taken off the

national multiplex but remained on Freeview until June 2020 when it was replaced by

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer. Overview The network launched on 5 January 2015 as the "Bauer City 2 Network", and rebranded on 7 January 2019 due to the success of Rad ...

. On 27 July 2020, it returned to be broadcast via DAB via local radio in Inverness.

References

External links

* Digital-only radio stations Bauer Radio Radio stations established in 2003 {{UK-radio-station-stub

History

See also

References

External links