Greatest Hits Radio Teesside is an

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2 ...

station serving

Teesside Teesside () is an urban area around the River Tees in North East England. Straddling the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire, it spans the boroughs of Borough of Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough, Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, Stockton ...

, as part of Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio network.

History

Originally launched as Great North Radio by the Metro Radio Group in March 1989. The station broadcast on the old Radio Tees AM frequency of 1170 kHz

Medium Wave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...

. In 1996,

Emap Ascential (formerly EMAP) was a British-headquartered global company, specialising in events, intelligence and advisory services for the marketing and financial technology industries. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was ac ...

bought Metro Radio Group and at the start of 1997, Emap decided to scrap Great North Radio and replaced it with local stations under the brand name of ''Magic'', with a new format of

Hot Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

music. Magic 1170 launched on 19 February 1997. Tom Davies was the first ever voice heard on Magic 1170 and successfully hosted the breakfast show on the station for a number of years. In December 2001, EMAP decided that it was more economical for the Magic network to share off-peak programmes and in line with the other Magic AM stations began networking between 10a.m.-2p.m., and 7p.m.-6a.m. 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 decline in listening, the station ceased networking with the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

station, Magic 105.4, and a regional network was created with Magic 1152 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

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 together with local traffic and travel in the afternoon. From July 2006, more networking was introduced across the Northern Magic AM network with only the weekday breakfast (with a running length of four hours) presented from local studios. Between March 2013 and December 2014, weekday breakfast was a syndicated regional programme from Magic 1152 in Newcastle presented by Anna Foster. On 5 April 2013, the studios in Thornaby ceased broadcasting local programming on sister station TFM. On 5 January 2015, Magic 1170 was rebranded as TFM 2 as part of a revamp of the Bauer network and all programming is now 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. On 7 January 2019, TFM 2 rebranded as Greatest Hits Radio Teesside.

Programming

The station carries primarily a schedule of networked programming, produced and broadcast from Bauer's

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

studios, and from Bauer's

Golden Square Golden Square, in Soho, the City of Westminster, London, is a mainly hardscaped garden square planted with a few mature trees and raised borders in Central London flanked by classical office buildings. Its four approach ways are north and so ...

headquarters in Soho. Regional programming consisted (until April 2022) of ''Night Owls'' with

Alan Robson Alan Robson (born 1 October 1955) is an English radio presenter, and host of the North East radio talk show, ''Alan Robson's Night Owls''. Radio Robson started his career with Metro Radio in Gateshead, presenting his first show on 12 Novem ...

, airing each Sunday from 10p.m.-2a.m. This was syndicated via the sister station in Newcastle.''Night Owls'' and Alan Robson move to Greatest Hits Radio
Roy Martin, Radio Today, 27 June 2019

News

Bauer’s Newcastle newsroom broadcasts local news bulletins for Teesside hourly from 06:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and from 07:00 to 13:00 at weekends. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins. National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried at other times.

References

External links

* {{Radio stations in North East England Bauer Radio Greatest Hits Radio Radio stations in Yorkshire Radio stations in North East England Radio stations established in 1975