Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire (previously Magic 828 and Radio Aire 2) is a local radio station serving

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

on 96.3 FM, DAB, Online and App.

History

Magic 828

Magic 828 was launched by Roger Kirk at 8:28 am on 17 July 1990. The station was formed due to

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 ...

splitting its AM and FM frequencies, with Radio Aire rebranding as Aire FM. The station broadcast on 828 kHz AM and the first song played was " Magical Mystery Tour" by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. The 'Magic 828' name was created by

Bob Preedy Robert "Bob" Preedy is a broadcaster, a book author and was formerly a presenter on BBC Radio York and the chief continuity announcer for Yorkshire Television. Career Television After joining the BBC in London as a trainee cameraman in 1970, he ...

who was a presenter on Radio Aire at the time. Its first jingle package was produced by ''Century 21'' and the voice-overs were voiced by John Myers. The programmes between 6 am and 1 am were broadcast live from Studio 2 in Radio Aire's Burley Road studio complex in Leeds. The original weekday line-up was Roger Kirk (6am-9.30am), Ray Stroud (9.30am-1pm), ''The Magic Mix'' (1pm-2pm),

Peter Tait Peter Tait may refer to: * Peter Tait (physicist) (1831–1901), Scottish mathematical physicist * Peter Tait (footballer) (1936–1990), English professional footballer * Peter Tait (mayor) (1915–1996), New Zealand politician * Peter Tait (radio ...

(2pm-6pm), ''Nothing But The 60's'' (6pm-7pm), Mike Vitti (7pm-10pm), Alex Hall (10pm-1am) and The Superstation (1am-6am). A few months after Magic 828's launch, The Superstation closed, Andy Siddell took over evenings and Mike Vitti presented the new overnight programme, ''Nightflight''. The ''Nightflight'' programme was simulcast on Aire FM & Magic 828 and broadcast between 1 am & 6 am from Studio 1 (the studio used for Aire FM). Local news during the early 1990s was also simulcast on both stations, although Aire FM only took the first two minutes of the four-minute bulletin. After

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 Radio Aire and Magic 828 in 1995, they began to roll the Magic brand out across the other AM stations in they owned, creating

Magic 1161 Greatest Hits Radio East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire is a local radio station serving East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire. The station was replaced by a relay of Magic UK, as part of a restructure, on 1 September 2020. On ...

(Hull), Magic 990, 1305 & 1548 (Sheffield),

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 ...

(Newcastle),

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 ...

(Teesside),

Magic 999 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 ...

(Preston),

Magic 1548 Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Liverpool, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Merseyside, North West England, Cheshire ...

(Liverpool) and

(Manchester). 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 10 am-2 pm, and 7 pm-6 am. 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 sharp decline in listening, the station ceased networking with the London 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 ...

. At this point, a regional northern network was created with programmes broadcast from

in Newcastle. During networked hours, local

advert Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

s were aired, as well as local news on the hour. In July 2006, more networking was introduced across the Northern Magic AM network with only the 4-hour breakfast show between 06:00 and 10:00 presented from the local studios. However, the decision was taken in April 2013 to network this show across the other Yorkshire-based Magic stations. Other programming was networked from Newcastle,

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 ...

and

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 ...

Radio Aire 2

Following the rebrand of the Magic AM stations in northern England at the start of 2015, the station became known as Radio Aire 2 and then Greatest Hits Radio from January 2019.

Greatest Hits Radio

Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire was formed on 7 January 2019. It later moved to FM to replace

, and the Leeds medium wave transmitter was switched off.Radio Today, February 2021
/ref>

References

External links

Magic 828 Archive
The History of Magic 828 {{coord missing, West Yorkshire Bauer Radio Radio stations in Yorkshire Radio stations established in 1990