Northsound 1 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 based in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Scotland, owned and operated by

Bauer Media Audio UK Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of Bauer Media Group owning brands; Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio, Jazz FM, Hits Radio, KISS, Planet Rock, Magic, Kerrang! Radio and Heat Radio. History In early 2008, German ma ...

as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

and North East Scotland. As of September 2024, the station has a weekly audience of 117,000 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 c ...

History

Until Northsound Radio's establishment, the only local radio output available to listeners in the North East of Scotland was a regional opt-out from the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

at Beechgrove, which broadcast specialist music programmes for a couple of hours a week along with some opt-out regional news coverage. When a commercial radio franchise for Aberdeen, Peterhead and the surrounding areas was advertised by the then-regulator, the

Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television ( ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Author ...

, a group of local businessmen applied under the consortium of ''North of Scotland Radio Ltd'' and won the franchise. After a change of name, ''Northsound Radio'' commenced broadcasting at 6am on 27 July 1981 from its original studios in an old schoolhouse on Kings Gate, near Anderson Drive in the city. Originally, the station was broadcast from 6am to 8pm each day on 1035 kHz (290 metres) and 96.9 FM (VHF). For a two-year period from 1994, the station was the main sponsor of Aberdeen Football Club, with the logo appearing on the players' shirts. On 9 January 1995, Northsound Radio was renamed Northsound 1 and

Northsound 2 Greatest Hits Radio North East Scotland is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire on DAB digital radio and online. Owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK, Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio networ ...

was established as a classic hits station using the station's AM frequency. Both stations have since started broadcasting on DAB radio and online.

Free concerts

From 1997 until 2007, Northsound held free music concerts in

almost bi-annually. Northsound delivered its first major outdoor event when the Tall Ships arrived in Aberdeen, which called ''Free at the Quay''. Following its success, ''Free 2000'' was staged at the Queen’s Links at Aberdeen Beach followed by ''Free at the Dee'' at Duthie Park. Due to the numbers attending, Northsound decided to move the event to Hazlehead Park and the event was renamed to simply ''Free 2007''. More than 30,000 people attended ''Free 2007'' which saw

Beverley Knight Beverley Knight (born Beverley Anne Smith, 22 March 1973) is an English singer, songwriter, actress and radio personality. She released her first album, ''The B-Funk'', in 1995. Heavily influenced by American soul music icons such as Sam Cooke ...

McFly McFly are a British pop rock band formed in London in 2003. The band took their name from the ''Back to the Future (franchise), Back to the Future'' character Marty McFly. The band consists of Tom Fletcher (lead vocals, guitar, and piano), Da ...

Shayne Ward Shayne Thomas Ward (born 16 October 1984) is an English singer and actor. He rose to fame as the winner of the second series of ''The X Factor''. His debut single, "That's My Goal", was released in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2005 a ...

, Booty Luv, MacDonald Brothers, Ali Love, Unklejam and others perform free. Northsound has also been sponsors and organisers of Aberdeen's free Hogmanay street party when they were staged in the city, where performers such as Sandi Thom, Travis and

Amy MacDonald Amy Elizabeth Macdonald (born 25 August 1987) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. In 2007, she released her debut studio album, ''This Is the Life (Amy Macdonald album), This Is the Life'', which produced the singles "Mr. Rock & Roll" and "This ...

have played to large crowds.

Ownership

Northsound Radio was bought over by Radio Clyde in 1988, which changed the name of its parent company to Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) in 199

SRH was bought by Ascential, Emap in 2005, which then sold its radio stations to

Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (), trade name, trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations, ...

in 2007.

Programming

The entirety of the station's programming, apart from one weekend show, is networked; produced and broadcast from Clyde 1 in

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

, Forth 1 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and Hits Radio in London & Manchester. The last remaining local programming strand which consisted of just weekday breakfast was axed in December 2024.

News and sport

Northsound 1 broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 7am to 1pm at weekends. Headlines are broadcast on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside sport, traffic and business bulletins. National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried overnight with networked Scottish bulletins at weekends, produced from Radio Clyde's newsroom in Clydebank. Extended sports coverage airs under the ''Superscoreboard'' banner on Saturday afternoons.

Notable DJs

* Nicky Campbell - now a

journalist and television presenter. * Alan Fisher - worked at the station as a reporter/newsreader and is now a senior correspondent with the global news channel, Al Jazeera English based in the United States. * Robin Galloway - later became a continuity announcer and newsreader for

Grampian Television Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and which, decades later, was merged with the Central Belt channel STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isle ...

. He would later present the breakfast show on Pure Radio in Glasgow & Tayside.

References

External links

Northsound 1
{{coord, 57.1249, -2.0993, region:GB, display=title Bauer Radio Hits Radio Radio stations in Scotland Radio stations in Aberdeen Radio stations established in 1981 1981 establishments in Scotland Contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom