Greatest Hits Radio Teesside is a local

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

serving

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

, 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 Ra ...

network.

History

Originally launched as

Great North Radio Great North Radio, or G.N.R as it was sometimes called, launched in March 1989 using the AM frequencies of Metro Radio and Radio Teesbr> This happened after the Metro Radio group decided to split the FM and AM frequencies. The station was broa ...

by the Metro Radio Group in March 1989. The station broadcast on the old

Radio Tees TFM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Teesside and surrounding areas of County Durham and North Yorkshire. As of Septem ...

AM frequency of 1170 kHz

Medium Wave Medium wave (MW) is the 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 daytime ...

. In 1996,

Emap Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Ric ...

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 present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

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 10am-2pm, and 7pm-6am. 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 and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

station,

Magic 105.4 Magic Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer. The station is available on 105.4 FM in London and across the UK on Digital Radio, on the Magic Radio app, television and online. It had previously been a part of a ...

, and a regional network was created with

Magic 1152 Greatest Hits Radio North East is a local radio broadcasting, radio station serving North East England, as part of Bauer Radio, Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio network. History Great North Radio (also known as G.N.R) was formed in March 1989 ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

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 Teesside.

Programming

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

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

studios, and from Bauer's Golden Square 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 Novembe ...

, airing each Sunday from 10pm-2am. 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

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Transmitter Site Information

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