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

Radio City 2 Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Liverpool, England, owned and operated by Bauer Radio, Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Merseyside, North West Englan ...

in Liverpool on FM.New Greatest Hits Radio network confirmed for 2019
/ref> As of December 2021, the network consists of 18 local and regional radio stations operating 50 FM and DAB licences in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as a national DAB station in areas not served by a local Bauer-owned licence. In most cases, the stations are networked, apart from a three-hour regional afternoon show on weekdays and localised opt-outs for news, travel and advertising.

History

Gold

The stations forming the Greatest Hits Radio network are predominantly sister stations to the corresponding

Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 25 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. As of October 2022, the network has a combined reach of 6.6 million weekly listeners according to RAJAR. Overvie ...

network stations. Many were originally set up as a 'Gold' counterpart (e.g. Radio City Gold in Liverpool) when stations were instructed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority to cease simulcasting their services on both FM and AM in the late 1980s. The main exception to this was FM station West Sound in

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...

Greatest Hits Radio (Scotland) and Magic (Northern England)

In Northern England, the stations were rebranded as Magic in 1997 – a station brand first used by

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 ...

upon the launch of their AM station in July 1990. In Scotland, local programming on AM stations was largely retained until networking outside of weekday breakfast and specialist shows was introduced in June 2009. The Magic stations gradually began to form a network merging most of their schedule until, and by March 2013, only local content consisted of three regional breakfast shows on weekdays, serving the North West, the North East and Yorkshire. In July 2013, the remaining Scottish local output ceased, leading to a fully networked schedule known as Greatest Hits Network''.

Greatest Hits Radio (Scotland) and Radio City 2 (Northern England)

In September 2014, Bauer Radio announced it would rebrand the Magic stations under localised identities, based on the main FM station names (e.g. Magic 1152 in Manchester becomes Key 2, based on Key 103). Magic's AM network closed with the London equivalent,

Magic 105.4 FM Magic Radio is a Radio in the United Kingdom, British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Radio, 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 onli ...

, launched nationwide on DAB. The relaunch took place on Monday 5 January 2015. Initially, the two networks serving Scotland (The Greatest Hits Network) and northern England (City 2 Network) were replaced by one carrying programming from both nations over all stations, with some peak time opt-outs. Further split programming for the two nations was reintroduced the following year. On 7 December 2015,

in Liverpool swapped frequencies with sister station Radio City Talk on 105.9 FM and reintroduced local programming at peak times. In April 2018, Northsound 2 ceased analogue broadcasting on 1035 AM, becoming the first commercial radio station in Scotland – and the first local Bauer-owned station – to broadcast only on digital platforms (DAB and online). On 4 June 2018, Key 2 in Manchester was rebranded as Key Radio, in tandem with Key 103's relaunch as

Greatest Hits Radio (National)

On 7 January 2019, Greatest Hits Radio replaced the Bauer City 2 branding due to the success of

in Liverpool. Local station identities in Northern England took on Greatest Hits Radio branded names and Scottish stations retaining their local brands. Greatest Hits Radio also became available on FM in the West Midlands taking over the 105.2 FM frequency from

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British National radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via Digital audio broadcasting and on 1215 kHz MW. History 1993–1997: Vi ...

. Greatest Hits Radio also took over Absolute Radio's London FM frequency (105.8) on 17 May 2021. The network expanded with Greatest Hits Radio UK broadcasting across most of the local DAB multiplexes across the UK. The service took the Liverpool FM programming with national news bulletins and traffic reports.

Network expansion

In May 2020, Bauer announced 48 local radio stations in England and South West Wales will rebrand and join the Greatest Hits Radio network, following the acquisition of licences from UKRD,

Wireless Group Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland an ...

Lincs FM Group The Lincs FM Group was the parent company of several Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations. As of Q2 2019 the group had a combined audience of 524,000. It was based in Lincolnshire, in the UK. History The Lincs FM Group was formed in the earl ...

and

Celador CPL Productions (formerly Celador) is a British entertainment company originally formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as an independent television production company. It created and produced a number of popular light entertainment shows and is ...

. Most of the stations were merged and began carrying networked output, alongside a regional show on weekdays and localised news, travel and advertising. On 13 July 2020, the former Wireless Group and Celador-owned stations joined the Greatest Hits Radio network. The nineteen stations carried local breakfast shows and voicetracked programming whilst retaining separate branding until the full relaunch on 1 September 2020. On 1 September, Bauer closed down Leeds-based

so that it could switch the frequency from the

network to Greatest Hits Radio as part of the merging with twelve stations in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. On 17 September 2020, Bauer bought Radio Plymouth. On 15 October 2020, it was announced that the Suffolk station

Ipswich 102 Nation Radio Suffolk is an Independent Local radio station owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting. It broadcasts from Ipswich in Suffolk. As of December 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 27,000, according to RAJAR. Histo ...

, part-owned by Bauer through their purchase of Lincs FM Group, would take the GHR brand and network programming, including the East region drivetime show, from November, with the former

Town 102 Town 102 was a radio station serving Ipswich that was owned by Tindle Radio, Anglian Radio Group and Bauer Radio. It broadcast from 2006 to 2020. Launched in 2006, in its later years, Town 102 carried identical content to Anglian Radio sister ...

on DAB, which had carried GHR East since the September network relaunch, being replaced by

. On 22 October 2020, it was reported the Oldham and Rochdale station Revolution 96.2 had been sold to Bauer for conversion into GHR, joining the Manchester AM and Bolton/Bury FM licenses in the GHR North West network. In March 2021,

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 ...

approved Bauer's application for permission to alter the FM licence held by the London FM relay of

, enabling the frequency to be used to provide a London variant of GHR. with Absolute Radio continuing to be available by way of its national AM and digital transmissions. The change took place on 17 May. On 17 June 2021 Bauer announced the purchase of Imagine Radio from the Like Media Group, with the existing Imagine service slated to be replaced by separate GHR feeds for Stockport and North Cheshire and the Peak District and Derbyshire Dales. On 19 September 2022,

Wave 105 Wave 105 is an Independent Regional Radio station based in Fareham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to South Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex and Wiltshire, and until September 202 ...

's Poole transmitter began carrying Greatest Hits Radio Dorset.

Stations

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

* GHR UK

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
& West Midlands

* GHR Midlands ** Birmingham & the West Midlands ** Black Country & Shropshire ** Coventry & Warwickshire ** Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Nottinghamshire ** Herefordshire & Worcestershire ** Staffordshire & Cheshire ** Stamford and Rutland

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, ...

* GHR East **

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

** Norfolk & North Suffolk **Ipswich and Suffolk - on DAB only ** West Norfolk Former stations *

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...

(DAB) – carries

as of 3 Nov 2020

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

*GHR London

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary author ...

*GHR North East **

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

* GHR North West **Cumbria - DAB only (FM from April 2023 replacing CFM) **

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

** Liverpool & The North West ** Wigan & St Helens ** Oldham & Rochdale

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

* Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire - Broadcasting as Northsound 2 *

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of ...

- Broadcasting as Westsound *

- Broadcasting as Westsound * Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife - Broadcasting as Forth 2 * Glasgow and West of Scotland - Broadcasting as Clyde 2 * Scottish Highlands, Moray and Orkney -Broadcasting as MFR 2 *

Tayside Tayside ( gd, Taobh Tatha) was one of the nine regions used for local government in Scotland from 15 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. The region was named for the River Tay. It was created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, following rec ...

- Broadcasting as Tay 2

South East England

* GHR South ** Berkshire & North Hampshire ** Bucks, Beds and Herts **

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

**South Coast - DAB only ** Surrey & East Hampshire **

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...

* GHR South West ** Bath & The South West ** Bristol & The South West ** Cornwall - DAB only **

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. Devo ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, 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 ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon unitary authority area had a population ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

* GHR South Wales - DAB Only

Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York. It is ...

* GHR Yorkshire ** East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire - DAB only **

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...

** Harrogate and the Yorkshire Dales **Lincolnshire - DAB only ** North Derbyshire **

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. ...

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 ...

** York and North Yorkshire ** Yorkshire Coast

Programming

Networked programming for GHR is produced and broadcast from the studios of several Bauer stations across the UK. * In England, daytime output originates from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

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 ...

and from Bauer's Golden Square headquarters in Soho. * In Scotland, programming originates from the studios of

Clyde 2 Clyde 2 is an Independent Local Radio station based in Glasgow, Scotland, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Glasgow and West Central Scotland. As of September 2022, the station has a week ...

in Glasgow and Forth 2 in Edinburgh. * In South West Wales, local programming originates from Bauer's Gowerton studios. Off-peak time programming airs across all GHR stations from the Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and Soho studios. There are some opt-outs and variations: *In

South West Wales South West Wales is one of the regions of Wales consisting of the unitary authorities of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. This definition is used by a number of government agencies and private organisations including ...

, most of GHR's schedule consists of local programming – including daily breakfast shows, daytime output on weekdays and a Welsh language late show on Sunday – Thursday nights. *In the East, Midlands, North West, South, South West and Yorkshire, regional afternoon shows air each weekday from 1-4pm. These previously aired in the 4-7pm Drivetime slot until the launch of

Simon Mayo Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo (born 21 September 1958) is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio ...

's networked show on 15 March 2021. *The Scottish stations air a separate Drivetime show on weekdays from 3-7pm.

News

Bauer's newsrooms across the UK air local and national news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 7am to 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins. At weekends, bespoke networked news bulletins air during the afternoon produced by the Bauer newsroom in Glasgow for Scotland and usually either Leeds or Manchester for England and Wales. At all other times, mainly evening and overnight, hourly national bulletins originate from

Sky News Radio Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations aro ...

Notable presenters

* Richard Allinson *

Jackie Brambles Jackie Todd Brambles (previously Sherry-Brambles) (born 1 March 1967), formerly known as Jakki Brambles, is a British journalist, radio DJ and television presenter. Early life and early career Brambles was born in Harlow, Essex, England and gre ...

Andy Crane Howard Andrew Crane (born 24 February 1964) is an English television and radio presenter, best known for presenting Children's BBC between 1987 and 1990 and for his current work as a presenter on the Greatest Hits Radio network. Career Crane ...

* Paul Gambaccini *

Mark Goodier Mark Goodier (born 9 June 1961) is a British radio disc jockey best known for his time on BBC Radio 1 between 1987 and 2002. He had two spells presenting the station's Top 40 singles chart, from 1990 to 1992 and from 1995 until 2002. He also h ...

* Martin Kemp * Alex Lester *

Jenny Powell Jenny Powell (born 8 April 1968) is an English television and radio presenter. After appearing on '' No Limits'', she went on to present series such as '' Wheel of Fortune'', ''UP2U'', '' Gimme 5'', '' Live Talk'', ''Wordplay'' and '' Daybreak' ...

* Simon 'Rossie' Ross *

Jo Russell Jo Russell is an English radio presenter currently working for Greatest Hits Radio. Biography Russell worked for an insurance company and Coca-Cola among other roles before beginning her broadcasting career at York Hospital Radio. She later ...

Pat Sharp Patrick Sharpin, known professionally as Pat Sharp (born 25 October 1961), is an English radio presenter, television presenter and DJ. In the UK, he is known mainly for his work on the children's ITV programme '' Fun House'', and his extens ...

* Kate Thornton * Matt Williams (drivetime sport reporter)

Past presenters

* Janice Long (died in 2021) * Darren Proctor * Rick Houghton

Audience

According to RAJAR data, the GHR stations have a combined weekly reach of 4.1 million people as of September 2022.RAJAR https://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

References

External links

Greatest Hits RadioBauer Media
{{London radio Bauer Radio British radio networks