Bauer City 2 (radio Network)

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 Radio City 2 in Liverpool on FM.New Greatest Hits Radio network confirmed for 2019
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As of December 2021, the network consists of 18 local and regional radio stations operating 50 FM and DAB licences in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as a national DAB station in areas not served by a local Bauer-owned licence.

In most cases, the stations are networked, apart from a three-hour regional afternoon show on weekdays and localised opt-outs for news, travel and advertising.

History

Gold

The stations forming the Greatest Hits Radio network are predominantly sister stations to the corresponding Hits Radio network stations. Many were originally set up as a 'Gold' counterpart (e.g. Radio City Gold in Liverpool) when stations were instructed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority to cease simulcasting their services on both FM and AM in the late 1980s. The main exception to this was FM station West Sound in Dumfries and Galloway.

Greatest Hits Radio (Scotland) and Magic (Northern England)

In Northern England, the stations were rebranded as Magic in 1997 – a station brand first used by Radio Aire upon the launch of their AM station in July 1990.

In Scotland, local programming on AM stations was largely retained until networking outside of weekday breakfast and specialist shows was introduced in June 2009.

The Magic stations gradually began to form a network merging most of their schedule until, and by March 2013, only local content consisted of three regional breakfast shows on weekdays, serving the North West, the North East and Yorkshire.

In July 2013, the remaining Scottish local output ceased, leading to a fully networked schedule known as Greatest Hits Network''.

Greatest Hits Radio (Scotland) and Radio City 2 (Northern England)

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). Magic's AM network closed with the London equivalent, Magic 105.4 FM, launched nationwide on DAB.

The relaunch took place on Monday 5 January 2015. Initially, the two networks serving Scotland (The Greatest Hits Network) and northern England (City 2 Network) were replaced by one carrying programming from both nations over all stations, with some peak time opt-outs. Further split programming for the two nations was reintroduced the following year.

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.

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).

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

Greatest Hits Radio (National)

On 7 January 2019, Greatest Hits Radio replaced the Bauer City 2 branding due to the success of Radio City 2 in Liverpool. Local station identities in Northern England took on Greatest Hits Radio branded names and Scottish stations retaining their local brands.

Greatest Hits Radio also became available on FM in the West Midlands taking over the 105.2 FM frequency from Absolute Radio. Greatest Hits Radio also took over Absolute Radio's London FM frequency (105.8) on 17 May 2021.

The network expanded with Greatest Hits Radio UK broadcasting across most of the local DAB multiplexes across the UK.

The service took the Liverpool FM programming with national news bulletins and traffic reports.

Network expansion

In May 2020, Bauer announced 48 local radio stations in England and South West Wales will rebrand and join the Greatest Hits Radio network, following the acquisition of licences from UKRD, Wireless Group, Lincs FM Group and Celador.

Most of the stations were merged and began carrying networked output, alongside a regional show on weekdays and localised news, travel and advertising.

On 13 July 2020, the former Wireless Group and Celador-owned stations joined the Greatest Hits Radio network. The nineteen stations carried local breakfast shows and voicetracked programming whilst retaining separate branding until the full relaunch on 1 September 2020.

On 1 September, Bauer closed down Leeds-based Radio Aire so that it could switch the frequency from the Hits Radio network to Greatest Hits Radio as part of the merging with twelve stations in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

On 17 September 2020, Bauer bought Radio Plymouth.

On 15 October 2020, it was announced that the Suffolk station Ipswich 102, part-owned by Bauer through their purchase of Lincs FM Group, would take the GHR brand and network programming, including the East region drivetime show, from November, with the former Town 102 on DAB, which had carried GHR East since the September network relaunch, being replaced by Hits Radio.

On 22 October 2020, it was reported the Oldham and Rochdale station Revolution 96.2 had been sold to Bauer for conversion into GHR, joining the Manchester AM and Bolton/Bury FM licenses in the GHR North West network.

In March 2021, Ofcom approved Bauer's application for permission to alter the FM licence held by the London FM relay of Absolute Radio, enabling the frequency to be used to provide a London variant of GHR. with Absolute Radio continuing to be available by way of its national AM and digital transmissions. The change took place on 17 May.

On 17 June 2021 Bauer announced the purchase of Imagine Radio from the Like Media Group, with the existing Imagine service slated to be replaced by separate GHR feeds for Stockport and North Cheshire and the Peak District and Derbyshire Dales.

On 19 September 2022, Wave 105's Poole transmitter began carrying Greatest Hits Radio Dorset.

Stations

United Kingdom

* GHR UK

East & West Midlands

* GHR Midlands
** Birmingham & the West Midlands
** Black Country & Shropshire
** Coventry & Warwickshire
** Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Nottinghamshire
** Herefordshire & Worcestershire
** Staffordshire & Cheshire
** Stamford and Rutland

East of England

* GHR East
**Essex
** Norfolk & North Suffolk
**Ipswich and Suffolk - on DAB only
** West Norfolk

Former stations
*Suffolk (DAB) – carries Hits Radio as of 3 Nov 2020

London

*GHR London

North East England

*GHR North East
** North East
**Teesside

North West England

* GHR North West
**Cumbria - DAB only (FM from April 2023 replacing CFM)
**Greater Manchester
**Lancashire
** Liverpool & The North West
** Wigan & St Helens
** Oldham & Rochdale

Scotland

* Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire - Broadcasting as Northsound 2
*Ayrshire - Broadcasting as Westsound
*Dumfries and Galloway - Broadcasting as Westsound
* Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife - Broadcasting as Forth 2
* Glasgow and West of Scotland - Broadcasting as Clyde 2
* Scottish Highlands, Moray and Orkney -Broadcasting as MFR 2
*Tayside - Broadcasting as Tay 2

South East England

* GHR South
** Berkshire & North Hampshire
** Bucks, Beds and Herts
**Dorset
**Salisbury
**South Coast - DAB only
** Surrey & East Hampshire
**West Sussex

South West England

* GHR South West
** Bath & The South West
** Bristol & The South West
** Cornwall - DAB only
**Devon
**Gloucestershire
**Plymouth
**Somerset
** Swindon

Wales

* GHR South Wales - DAB Only

Yorkshire and the Humber

* GHR Yorkshire
** East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire - DAB only
**Grimsby
** Harrogate and the Yorkshire Dales
**Lincolnshire - DAB only
** North Derbyshire
**South Yorkshire
**West Yorkshire
** York and North Yorkshire
**Yorkshire Coast

Programming

Networked programming for GHR is produced and broadcast from the studios of several Bauer stations across the UK.
* In England, daytime output originates from Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester and from Bauer's Golden Square headquarters in Soho.
* In Scotland, programming originates from the studios of Clyde 2 in Glasgow and Forth 2 in Edinburgh.
* In South West Wales, local programming originates from Bauer's Gowerton studios.

Off-peak time programming airs across all GHR stations from the Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and Soho studios.

There are some opt-outs and variations:
*In South West Wales, most of GHR's schedule consists of local programming – including daily breakfast shows, daytime output on weekdays and a Welsh language late show on Sunday – Thursday nights.
*In the East, Midlands, North West, South, South West and Yorkshire, regional afternoon shows air each weekday from 1-4pm. These previously aired in the 4-7pm Drivetime slot until the launch of Simon Mayo's networked show on 15 March 2021.
*The Scottish stations air a separate Drivetime show on weekdays from 3-7pm.

News

Bauer's newsrooms across the UK air local and national news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 7am to 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins.

At weekends, bespoke networked news bulletins air during the afternoon produced by the Bauer newsroom in Glasgow for Scotland and usually either Leeds or Manchester for England and Wales. At all other times, mainly evening and overnight, hourly national bulletins originate from Sky News Radio.

Notable presenters

* Richard Allinson
* Jackie Brambles
* Andy Crane
* Paul Gambaccini
* Mark Goodier
* Martin Kemp
* Alex Lester
* Simon Mayo
* Jenny Powell
* Simon 'Rossie' Ross
* Jo Russell
* Pat Sharp
* Kate Thornton
* Matt Williams (drivetime sport reporter)

Past presenters

* Janice Long (died in 2021)
* Darren Proctor
* Rick Houghton

Audience

According to RAJAR data, the GHR stations have a combined weekly reach of 4.1 million people as of September 2022.RAJAR https://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

References

External links

Greatest Hits RadioBauer Media

{{London radio

Bauer Radio
British radio networks