Gold North Wales and Cheshire (originally Marcher Gold and later Classic Gold Marcher) was a British
independent local radio
Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...
station broadcasting to
Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
,
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
,
Flintshire
, settlement_type = County
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, image_shield = Arms of Flint ...
and some of
the Wirral
Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee, Wales, River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the Ri ...
, and was part of the
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 met ...
radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio ( duplex communication) type ...
. It is the "sister" station to local
FM station,
Marcher Sound
Heart Cheshire and North East Wales (formerly Marcher Sound and previously MFM 103.4) was an independent radio station broadcasting to north east Wales and Cheshire from its Mold Road studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham, also shared with Gold and H ...
, launched by
Marcher Radio Group
Marcher Radio Group Ltd, previously Marcher Sound Ltd, was a British media organisation which operated several radio stations in north Wales and northwest England. The company, now owned by Global Radio (but legally still existing,) founded the ...
in 1989. After a period of sales and takeovers which led to Gold being operated by a separate company to its FM sister station, both are now owned by
Global Radio
Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysa ...
. It is broadcast from Mold Road,
Gwersyllt
Gwersyllt () is an urban village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales.
The densely populated village is one of Wrexham's largest and is situated in the north western suburbs of the city, bordering the nearby villages of Llay, Cefn-y ...
, Wrexham, although most programming comes from London. Gold North Wales and Cheshire was replaced by
Smooth Radio Smooth Radio may refer to:
* Smooth Radio (2010), the original national network in the UK
* Smooth Radio (2014)
See also
* Smoothfm
smoothfm is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by NOVA Entertainment. From original ...
in March 2014.
History
The station launched in 1989 when new radio regulations prevented the simulcasting of independent local radio stations on
AM radio bands, and therefore
Marcher Radio Group
Marcher Radio Group Ltd, previously Marcher Sound Ltd, was a British media organisation which operated several radio stations in north Wales and northwest England. The company, now owned by Global Radio (but legally still existing,) founded the ...
created MFM 103.4 on
FM, while the 1260 AM frequency became Marcher Gold. Both frequencies previously simulcast
Marcher Sound
Heart Cheshire and North East Wales (formerly Marcher Sound and previously MFM 103.4) was an independent radio station broadcasting to north east Wales and Cheshire from its Mold Road studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham, also shared with Gold and H ...
.
Marcher Radio Group was purchased by
GWR Group
GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...
in 2000, which also included the sale of Marcher Gold. However, after regulations on how many stations one company could own, Marcher Gold became part of the ''
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 ...
''
radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio ( duplex communication) type ...
, when the majority stake of the network was sold to
UBC Media, with GWR retaining 20%. As a consequence, all participating stations in the network were re-branded, and Marcher Gold became ''Classic Gold Marcher''. Despite the changes in ownership, Classic Gold Marcher continued to share facilities with the GWR Group-owned former sister station, MFM 103.4.
GWR Group merged with
Capital Radio Group
GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. O ...
in 2005, creating
GCap Media
GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...
. After approval from the regulator, GCap successfully purchased 18 of the Classic Gold Network stations from UBC and merged it with its own
Capital Gold
The Capital Gold radio station started in London in 1988 on Capital Radio's AM frequency, after the Independent Broadcasting Authority had urged stations to end simulcasting (broadcasting the same programmes simultaneously on AM and FM) and t ...
network, forming simply "
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 met ...
" on 3 August 2007.
As a result, the station's Wrexham and Chester licence was renamed "Gold North Wales and Cheshire".
In 2008 GCap Media was purchased by
Global Radio
Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysa ...
.
Content
Since the renaming of the station as Gold, local content included a daily four-hour local show, at one time presented by Simon Nicks. Local news bulletins feature hourly from 6am until 6pm, with local headlines during breakfast and drivetime. There are also regular local travel bulletins and local commercial breaks. It generally focuses on
classic hit and late 20th Century music.
When the station was providing local programmes in daytime, Drivetime ended an hour earlier than the rest of the Gold Network at 6pm for an hour-long
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...
programme called ''Cŵl Cymru'' which was networked with
Champion 103
Capital Cymru is a local Welsh-language radio station owned and operated by Global. The station broadcasts to Gwynedd and Anglesey from studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham via the Arfon transmitting station.
Previously, the station formed part of th ...
and later repeated at 10pm on
Coast 96.3
Heart North Wales Coast (formerly Coast 96.3 and originally Marcher Coast FM) was an independent local radio station broadcast along the North Wales coast, and owned & operated by Global Radio.
The station, which broadcast from studios in Colwy ...
. All stations are in the
Marcher Radio Group
Marcher Radio Group Ltd, previously Marcher Sound Ltd, was a British media organisation which operated several radio stations in north Wales and northwest England. The company, now owned by Global Radio (but legally still existing,) founded the ...
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
of Global Radio. The Welsh programming was later dropped from Gold (though remaining on the FM stations as required by their licences) such that Gold could take the networked programming from London outside of a single daily local four-hour programme, also the format used by Gold's stations in England until local programming was dropped on these in 2010.
References
External links
Gold Network homepage
{{Smooth Radio
Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom
Radio stations established in 1989
1989 establishments in Wales
Radio stations disestablished in 2014
2014 disestablishments in Wales
Global Radio
Marcher Radio Group
Radio stations in Wales
Wrexham
Radio stations in Cheshire
Chester