Pulse 2 was 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 radi ...

serving Bradford,

Kirklees Kirklees is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Kirklees Council with the status of a metropolitan borough. The largest town and administrative centre of Kirklees is Huddersfield, and the district also includes ...

and Calderdale areas from studios in Bradford. The station was folded into Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020.

Background

The station was previously known as Pennine Radio,

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 Yo ...

, Great Yorkshire Gold, Great Yorkshire Radio, 1278 and 1530 AM West Yorkshire, West Yorkshire's Big AM, Pennine's Big AM, West Yorkshire's Classic Gold and Pulse Classic Gold and under previous ownership was part of 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, Viking Radio in Hull and Radio Hallam in Sheffield. History YRN was based ...

. When, in 1989, Pennine Radio was split into Pennine FM and Classic Gold, the AM service became part of a network, initially with sister stations in Hull and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

. In 1997, after a management buy-out of the parent company, the Bradford-based radio station became a stand-alone operation, and bosses decided to buy in the former GWR Classic Gold service with opt-outs for local programming, initially at breakfast and later for afternoon drivetime. A couple of years later, Classic Gold was dropped in favour of becoming part of the BIG AM network with sister stations in Stoke and

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 ...

. Shortly after though, Classic Gold reappeared, simulcasting the GWR/UBC

and latterly GCap

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

network with local afternoon programming for West Yorkshire remaining. However, on 1 December 2008 the station was re-launched as a fully local service for West Yorkshire and was one of the last legacy ILR AM stations in England to broadcast local programming.

Station rebrand

On 8 February 2019, Pulse 2 and the Wireless Group's local radio stations were sold to

Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in ...

. The sale was 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 ...

. On 27 May 2020, it was announced that Pulse 2 would join 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. On 13 July 2020, local programming outside weekday breakfast was replaced by networked output from the GHR network, with Pulse 2 retaining its own branding. On 1 September 2020, the station rebranded as Greatest Hits Radio and merged with ten stations in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The station's local breakfast show was replaced by a regional drivetime show. Localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising are retained.Most of acquired Bauer stations to become Greatest Hits Radio
Stuart Clarkson, Radio Today, 27 May 2020

References

External links

* {{coord missing, West Yorkshire Mass media in Bradford Radio stations in Yorkshire Radio stations established in 1989 Bauer Radio Greatest Hits Radio