Greatest Hits Radio Plymouth is a local radio station serving

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

in England. Previously called Radio Plymouth, the station was folded into

Greatest Hits Radio South West Greatest Hits Radio South West is a regional radio station serving the South West of England, as part of Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio network. Coverage The ten local stations broadcast to the areas of Bath, Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Glouceste ...

, as part of a rebrand, on 1 November 2020.

History

Radio Plymouth was launched at 10am on Sunday 28 February 2010 by television presenter

Phillip Schofield Phillip Bryan Schofield (born 1 April 1962) is an English television presenter who works for ITV. He is currently the co-presenter of ITV's '' This Morning'' (2002–present) and ''Dancing on Ice'' (2006–2014, 2018–present) alongside Holly ...

, an investor in the station. The first song played was ''The Way It Is'' by

Bruce Hornsby and the Range Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions. ...

. Tim Manns, formerly with

Orchard FM Heart Somerset (formerly Somerset's Orchard FM) was an Independent Local Radio station serving Somerset, England. Originally owned by (and officially remains licensed to) Orchard Media Ltd, the company was purchased by GWR Group in 1999, and s ...

Radio Plymouth's station manager and Drivetime presenter, welcomed listeners to a two-hour show which featured presenters. Five companies applied in December 2005 for the licence to broadcast in Plymouth. It was won in March 2006 by a London company, Macquarie, under the name Diamond FM. The station failed to launch and the licence was given back to

OFCOM The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

. Two companies applied and Radio Plymouth won against

UKRD The UKRD Group Ltd was a British media company that owned 15 commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The name originates from UK Radio Developments. Since its acquisition in March 2019, it has been run as a subsidiary of Bauer Radio. H ...

's plan to extend its existing station,

Pirate FM Pirate FM is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Bauer and based in Cornwall. The station forms part of the Hits Radio network, although its entire output and playlist is locally produced and takes no network programming. ...

. The licence was one of the last to be granted by Ofcom during the final round of commercial licence awards. Radio Plymouth was until 17 September 2020 owned 100 per cent by individuals through Radio Plymouth Limited. The licence covers Plymouth, which has a population aged 15 and older of 250,000. Radio Plymouth currently has 18% reach in the city and is listened to by 35,000 listeners every week. Most recently the station was launched on DAB in Plymouth and surrounding areas (Frequency 12D).

Closure

On 17 September 2020, Radio Plymouth announced its acquisition by Bauer with their intentions of using Radio Plymouth's business assets to expand the

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. Local programmes ended at 1100 hrs GMT on 1 November 2020. Radio Plymouth is now folded into the

regional station.

References

External links

Official siteAudio of launchRadio Plymouth Media UK listingDetails of OFCOM's decision
{{coord, 50.3678, -4.1473, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Radio stations in Devon Radio stations established in 2010 Mass media in Plymouth, Devon Greatest Hits Radio