Hits Radio East Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire, formerly Viking FM, 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

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the

Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 26 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. The network launched in 2018 with the rebranding of Bauer's Manchester station Key 103 and its merger with The Hi ...

network. It broadcasts to the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

and Northern Lincolnshire. It replaced Viking FM in 2024, 40 years to the day after the station originally launched as Viking Radio. As of September 2024, the station has a weekly audience of 199,000 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 ...

Technical

The station is transmitted from the

High Hunsley High Hunsley is a small hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the Yorkshire Wolds approximately south-west of Beverley town centre and north-west of the village of Little Weighton. High Hunsley forms part of th ...

transmitter on the

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in Northern England. They are the northernmost chalk hills in the UK and within lies the northernmost chalk stream in Europe, the Gypsey Race. ...

, near North Cave, sharing the 200 ft tower with Capital Yorkshire and BBC Radio Humberside, as well as on the Bauer Humberside DAB multiplex from three transmitters, located at nearby Cave Wold, Buckton Barn near

Bridlington Bridlington (previously known as Burlington) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is on the Holderness part (Flamborough Head to the Humber estuary) of the Yorkshire Coast by the North Sea. The town is ...

and

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town in Lincolnshire, England with a population of 86,138 (as of 2021). It is located near the mouth on the south bank of the Humber that flows to the North Sea. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes dir ...

town centre. It is also streamed over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

via Rayo, making it accessible to listeners from across the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Worldwide webcasting is no longer possible, for licensing reasons.

History

During the application process for the licence, the station's working title was ''

Humber Bridge The Humber Bridge is a single-span road suspension bridge near Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. When it opened to traffic on 24 June 1981, it was the longest of its type in the world; the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge surpassed ...

Radio''; but launched as Viking Radio at 6.55am on 17 April 1984 and broadcast on 102.7 FM and 1161 kHz AM (258m Medium Wave). The first on-air presenter was David Fewster and the first song played was Celebration by

Kool & the Gang Kool & the Gang is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B, soul music, soul, and funk band formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1964. Its founding members include brothers Robert "Kool" Bell and Ronald Bell (musician), Ronald Bell (also known as " ...

. In spring 1986, the frequency was changed to 96.9 FM, with BBC Radio Humberside, which had occupied this frequency, moving to 95.9 FM. Viking was the first commercial radio station in the UK to introduce split programming, doing so to broadcast rugby league commentary on Sunday afternoons without interrupting

The Network Chart Show ''The Commercial Radio Chart Show'' was a radio programme that was broadcast across commercial adult contemporary and contemporary hit radio stations across the United Kingdom, from 30 September 1984 to 30 December 2018. It had many different na ...

. The rugby was aired on MW with The Network Chart broadcast on FM. On 31 October 1988, Viking Radio split frequencies on a permanent basis and was transformed into Viking FM on 96.9 FM and Viking Gold on 1161 medium wave. The AM station later became Classic Gold, Classic Gold Radio, Great Yorkshire Gold, Great Yorkshire Radio, Magic 1161 and Viking 2 and finally Greatest Hits Radio East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire until the transmitter was switched off on 26 April 2021. In 1990, The

Yorkshire Radio Network The Yorkshire Radio Network was a group of three radio stations which shared programmes in the evening and at weekends. YRN was made-up of Pennine Radio in Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire ...

, which owned Viking as well as Radio Hallam, Pennine Radio (now known as

Pulse 1 Hits Radio West Yorkshire, formerly Pulse 1, is an Independent Local Radio station based in Leeds, England, owned and operated by Bauer Radio, Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to West Yorkshire. As of Sept ...

) and

Classic Gold Classic Gold was a network of three "Gold" music formatted stations which broadcast on AM in Bradford, Hull and Sheffield. They were the sister stations of Pennine Radio, Viking Radio and Radio Hallam respectively and they were part of the ...

, were bought by The Metro Radio Group. In 1996, the station was bought by

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 ...

and as a result of a group takeover in 2008, Viking is now owned by

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 August 2019, Bauer announced Viking FM would end broadcasting from its Hull studios and co-locate with sister station

Hallam FM Hits Radio South Yorkshire, formerly Hallam FM, is an Independent Local Radio station based in Sheffield, England, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire and Chesterfiel ...

in Sheffield from Wednesday 2 October 2019, but that it would maintain a local presence in the form of local news, advertising and charity staff. In 2020, Viking FM moved again, this time co-locating with

in Leeds. Pulse itself had also moved to Leeds, in its case from Bradford.

Hits Radio rebrand

On 10 January 2024, station owners Bauer announced Viking FM would be rebranded as

East Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire from 17 April 2024, as part of a network-wide relaunch involving 17 local radio stations in England and Wales. The announcement signalled the end of the Viking Radio brand after 40 years of broadcasting. On 20 March 2025, Bauer announced it would end its local Hits Radio breakfast show for East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire to be replaced by a new national breakfast show for England and Wales on 9 June 2025. Local news and traffic bulletins will continue from the station's Leeds studios. The station's final local programme aired on 6 June 2025.

Achievement

In 2005, the station won its first Gold Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards for "Happy Hour"; a news investigation into

binge drinking Binge drinking, or heavy episodic drinking, is drinking alcoholic beverages with an intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time, but definitions vary considerably. Binge drinking is a style of ...

in the region. They won a Bronze award in 2006 for their series of programmes on subjects like ASBO's and street

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

. In 2005, Viking FM's Creative Team (who write and make the adverts) won a Vox Award for a Road Safety ad, in 2006 they won four Vox Awards (Best Campaign, Best Use of Music, Best Media Production and Other) and the London International Awards for Sound Design. In 2007 they achieved a finalist place at the New York Awards and won a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Award for Peace and Human Rights.

Branding

The original

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

depicted the station

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

"Eric the Viking", this was phased out in the late 1980s when the logo style was shared with its sister stations. This was later phased out and replaced by the Emap Big City 'splash'; used by many stations on the network. In 2015, the logo was overhauled across the Bauer City network and Viking FM has now adopted the 'Your' logo, in line with branding changes to all Bauer City stations. Viking's original package was produced by CBC Creative - further idents were made by

JAM Creative Productions JAM Creative Productions, Inc., is an American company that produces radio jingles, promo music for television, and commercial jingles for advertisers. It has made more radio jingles than any other jingle company and has become part of America ...

Alfasound Alfasound was a radio jingle production company based in Manchester from late 1970s to mid-1990s founded by Alan Fawkes and ex- Piccadilly Radio DJ Steve England. Alfasound was responsible for some of the most memorable radio jingles in the 8 ...

and Reelworld. Viking went through a stage starting in the late 1990s of only using

voice over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non-d ...

sweeper production produced in-house, however, in 2006 a new sung package was commissioned, produced by Wisebuddah. In the same year, it commissioned another sung package from JonesTM (now TM Studios).

Programming

All programming on the station is networked and is broadcast and produced from Bauer’s London headquarters or studios in Manchester and occasionally Newcastle.

News

Hits Radio East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am-7pm on weekdays, and from 7am-1pm on 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 overnight with bespoke networked bulletins on weekend afternoons, usually originating from the Hits Radio newsroom.

Notable past presenters

Jon Culshaw Jonathan Peter Culshaw (born 2 June 1968) is an English actor, comedian and Impressionist (entertainment), impressionist. He is best known for his work on the radio comedy ''Dead Ringers (comedy), Dead Ringers'' since 2000. Culshaw has voiced ...

(comedian) * Stephanie Hirst (now with

) *

Lucy Horobin Lucy Clare Horobin (born 17 October 1979) is a British radio presenter well-known for presenting Heart London Drivetime with Jason King. Career She attended Nottingham Trent University where she achieved a BA (Hons) in Broadcast Journalism. ...

(now with Heart Dance) * JK & Joel ( Jason King now at Heart London, Joel Ross now at Rock FM) * Allan Lake * Karen Petch (deceased) *

Steve Priestley Steve Priestley is a British disc jockey, who used to work for Magic (UK radio station), Magic 105.4 in London. Career He first came to prominence in the early 1990s as the voice over for an ITV Network, ITV programme on Saturdays called Movies ...

(now with BFBS and Planet Rock) * Matthew Rudd (now with

Absolute 80s Absolute Radio 80s (known on-air as Absolute 80s) is a national digital radio station, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. Its main output is non-stop 1980s hits. History Absolute Radio 80s launched at 7.00pm on ...

) * Harriet Scott (now with Magic Radio) * Tim Shaw

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hits Radio East Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire Bauer Radio Hits Radio Mass media in Kingston upon Hull Hits Radio East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire Radio stations established in 1984 Contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom