Magic was an AM radio network based in Northern England.

History

The Magic brand in UK radio originated with Magic 828, the sister station of

Radio Aire Radio Aire was an Independent Local Radio station, serving Leeds and West Yorkshire. The station was merged and relaunched as Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020. History Radio Aire was launched at 6am ...

in Leeds which was launched in July 1990, although no other stations were branded 'Magic' until the Emap group purchased the Metro Radio group in 1995. It can be regarded as the successor to

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 ...

which was a small network in the North East that consisted of what became

Magic 1170 Greatest Hits Radio Teesside is a local radio station serving Teesside, 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 th ...

and

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 ...

. Preston's

Red Rose Gold Greatest Hits Radio (Lancashire) is an Independent Local Radio station based in Manchester, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Lancashire and North West England. As of June 2022, t ...

was the last to be converted to the Magic brand, in 2000, two or so years since the conversion of the majority of the stations. In London,

Melody FM Melody Radio was an Independent Local Radio station, broadcast to Greater London between 1990 and 1998, when it was purchased by media group Emap and rebranded as Magic 105.4. History Melody Radio launched on 9 July 1990 on 104.9 FM in Gre ...

was rebranded

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 ...

in 1998. The northern AM stations played

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. The playlists of these Magic stations predominantly consisted of hits from the 1960s and 1970s, although music from other decades was included in the mix. The London station is more laid-back and its playlist more contemporary, playing

soft 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 sto ...

hits from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The London station is branded with the tagline, "More music, less talk". On 5 January 2015, the network merged with the Greatest Hits Network of Scottish AM stations to form the Bauer City 2 network.Bauer City 2 network gears up for launch
Radio Centre, 19 December 2014 The London-based

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

became available nationally via DAB at the same time.

Directory of stations

Television channel

Following the success of the radio stations, Emap set up a corresponding

TV channel which is available through

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

and

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

systems and plays non-stop

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

s of songs established as typical of the Magic brand.

Magic albums

The Magic network released several albums since the formation of the network in the late 1990s. The albums predominantly feature music on the Magic 105.4 play list, but were also promoted on the Northern England stations too.

References

External links

{{Magic Radio , state=autocollapse Bauer Radio Former British radio networks Franchised radio formats