Greatest Hits Radio Midlands is a regional radio station serving the

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

as part of Bauer’s

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 ...

network.

Localised variants

The station has seven variants: * Birmingham & the West Midlands (formerly

Greatest Hits Radio West Midlands Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the West Midlands. The station form ...

) * Black Country & Shropshire (formerly Signal 107) * Coventry & Warwickshire (formerly

Free Radio 80s Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the West Midlands. The station form ...

C&W; DAB only) * Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire & Leicestershire (DAB & FM only) * Herefordshire & Worcestershire (formerly Signal 107 (Kidderminster) & Free Radio 80s H&W) * Staffordshire & Cheshire (unchanged) * Stamford & Rutland (formerly Rutland Radio)

History

Under relaxed OFCOM requirements for local content on commercial radio, Greatest Hits Radio Midlands is permitted to share all programmes between seven licences located in the

ITV Central ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands. It was created following the rest ...

region. Previously, these licences broadcast as separate stations: *

Signal Radio Signal 1 is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Staffordshire and South Cheshire. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 172,000 listeners ...

began broadcasting to Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding areas in September 1983. It later expanded its coverage area to South Cheshire in 1989 and Stafford a year later. * 107.7 The Wolf began broadcasting to

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

and surrounding areas in October 1997. * Rutland Radio began broadcasting to the Rutland and Stamford areas in December 1998. *

Telford FM 107.4 Telford FM was a commercial local radio station broadcasting in Telford, Shropshire and the surrounding areas of Bridgnorth and Newport from 3 May, 1999 until 20 September, 2010. In 2010, the station was later renamed as 'The Severn' to ...

began broadcasting to

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

and surrounding areas in May 1999. *

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 Hist ...

began broadcasting a specialist rock music service to the

in June 2004. *

The Wyre 107.2 The Wyre was a local commercial radio station serving Kidderminster, Bewdley, Stourport-on-Severn, Stourbridge and Bromsgrove in England. The station was owned by MNA Broadcasting but was sold to UTV Media and merged on Monday 26 March ...

began broadcasting to the

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

and Bromsgrove areas in September 2005. * The Severn launched separate services for Shrewsbury and Oswestry in September 2006. Signal Radio began carrying split programming on AM in 1992, initially airing a 'Golden Breakfast Show' on weekdays before expanding into a full-time sister station, Signal Gold (later Signal 2) in January 1993. Telford FM, The Severn and The Wyre - all under the ownership of the Midlands News Association - initially ran separate services but gradually shared most programming outside Breakfast and local news. In 2010, Telford FM merged with The Severn and began sharing all output. The stations were earmarked for closure in November 2011 unless a buyer could be found. In February 2012, MNA sold its radio assets to UTV Media, which also owned Signal Radio since 2005. The following month, The Severn and The Wyre merged with 107.7 The Wolf to form a new regional station, Signal 107. UTV sold off its radio assets - including the three Signal-branded stations - to News Corp (

Wireless Group Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...

) in September 2016. In June 2013, Kerrang! Radio ceased broadcasting on FM in the West Midlands and was replaced by a similar classic rock service, Planet Rock, following its sale to Bauer. In September 2015, the 105.2 FM frequency was taken over again by Absolute Radio. In January 2019, Bauer launched

launched in the West Midlands, replacing Absolute Radio on 105.2 FM. Local programming returned with the launch of a weekday Drivetime show. In February 2019, Bauer Radio brought the Lincs FM Group and the Wireless Group's network of local radio stations, although these sales was only ratified in March 2020 following an inquiry by the

Competition and Markets Authority The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the competition regulator in United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-com ...

. In May 2020, Bauer announced Rutland Radio and the Wireless Group stations would rebrand and join the Greatest Hits Radio network. Two months later, Signal 107 and Signal 2 entered a transition period - carrying local breakfast shows and voicetracked programming ahead of the full relaunch on 1 September 2020. The former Wireless Group studios in Wolverhampton and Rutland Radio's studios in

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

were closed. Local newsgathering and sales staff were retained. On 23 November 2021, Bauer announced it would move Greatest Hits Radio's Midlands operation from its

Brindleyplace Brindleyplace is a large mixed-use canalside development, in the Westside district of Birmingham, England. It was named after Brindley Place, the name of the street (in turn named after the 18th century canal engineer James Brindley) around whi ...

studios in Birmingham city centre to a smaller facility at 54

Hagley Road Known as the Hagley Road in Birmingham, the A456 is a main road in England running between Central Birmingham and Woofferton, Shropshire, south of Ludlow. Some sections of the route, for example Edgbaston near Bearwood, are also the route of ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

at the end of 2021.

Programming

Networked late night shows presented by

Alex Lester Alexander Norman Charles Lester (born 11 May 1956) is a British broadcaster. He presented the weekday overnight/early-morning programme on BBC Radio 2 from 1992 until 2014. From October 2014 until January 2017, he presented the midnight to 3am pr ...

and weekend breakfast shows are produced from Bauer’s Birmingham studios. On weekdays, the station airs a regional three-hour afternoon show from 1-4pm, presented by Andy Goulding.Greatest Hits Radio Drivetime presenters revealed
RadioToday, 27 August 2020

News

Bauer’s Birmingham newsroom 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 traffic bulletins. Separate bulletins are produced for the five licence areas. National bulletins from

Sky News Radio Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations aro ...

are carried at other times.

References

External links

Official website
{{West Midlands radio Bauer Radio Greatest Hits Radio Radio stations established in 2020