Metro Radio is an

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 based in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the

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. It broadcasts to

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

and

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcas ...

. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 302,000 listeners according to

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

History

Launch

The Newcastle-based station, broadcasting to north-east England, launched on 15 July 1974.Metro Radio
Media UK The first breakfast show was presented by Don Dwyer, an Australian radio presenter formerly at ABC and the United Biscuits Network. The first show included messages of congratulations from

Kenny Everett Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English comedian, radio disc jockey and television presenter. After spells on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, he was one of the fi ...

at the equivalent local commercial station in London,

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...

Studios

The station transmitted from a studio in Swalwell,

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Millennium Bridge, The Sage, and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary ...

, which in later years would be adjacent to the Metrocentre and is now Metropolitan House—a business centre providing serviced office accommodation. Metro, and sister station

Magic 1152 Greatest Hits Radio North East is a local radio station serving North East England, as part of Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio network. History Great North Radio (also known as G.N.R) was formed in March 1989 using the AM frequencies of Met ...

, moved in 2005 to the former BT building previously known as Swan Housenow known as 55° Northnext to the

Tyne Bridge The Tyne Bridge is a through arch bridge over the River Tyne in North East England, linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead. The bridge was designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson, who later designed the Forth Road Bridge, ...

in Newcastle upon Tyne. In April 2021, it was announced that Metro Radio were relocating their studios once more. Later in 2021 as planned, they relocated their broadcasting studios to the

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

building, Gainsborough House on Newcastle's Grey Street. Before the move, the studio had undergone a purposed fit-out which included 2 additional studios and a contemporary, flexible office space.

Football commentary

Until 2005 the station broadcast live football commentary for the region's two biggest clubs – Newcastle United and Sunderland. In an attempt to boost ratings, the football commentary was stopped. However, a negative response from football fans prompted the owners to cover all

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

and Sunderland games on sister station

TFM co-location

From 8 April 2013, all Metro Radio's programming has been shared with TFM. However, the Metro Radio branding was retained along with separate advertising and local news bulletins.TFM leaves Teesside to share with Metro
RadioToday, 5 April 2013 The two stations were able to co-locate without consultation, for the Metro Radio licence area is located in one approved broadcast area (north-east England).

Programming

Networked programming originates from Bauer's Manchester headquarters. Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Bauer's Newcastle studios, weekdays 6-10am ('' Steve & Karen's Breakfast Show'') and is syndicated with sister station TFM. The station's long-running talk show ''Night Owls'', presented by

Alan Robson Alan Robson (born 1 October 1955) is an English radio presenter, and host of the North East radio talk show, ''Alan Robson's Night Owls''. Radio Robson started his career with Metro Radio in Gateshead, presenting his first show on 12 Novembe ...

since 1983, ran for over 40 years before airing its final edition in June 2019. It then aired weekly on GHR North East and GHR Teesside until 24 April 2022, after which Robson moved into making material for online distribution only.

News

Bauer's Newcastle newsroom broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am-7pm on weekdays, and from 7am-1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins. National bulletins 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 ...

are carried overnight with bespoke networked bulletins on weekend afternoons, usually originating from Bauer's Leeds newsroom.

Notable former presenters

* Rich Clarke ( Heart South) *

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 ...

(

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 ...

) *

Pete Graves Pete Graves has been a British television presenter working for British Sky Broadcasting. He anchored live association football and rugby union matches on Sky Sports. He also co-presented on Sky Sports News and Sky News. Radio Graves event ...

(

Sky Sports News Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British paid television sports news channel run by Sky, a division of Comcast. History Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and later this was expanded into a ...

) *

Lucy Horobin Lucy Clare Horobin (born 17 October 1979 in Canterbury, Kent) is a British radio presenter well-known for presenting Heart London Drivetime with Jason King. She attended Nottingham Trent University where she achieved a BA (Hons) in Broadcast ...

(

Heart Dance The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide ...

) * Dave Kelly ( Radio City) * Jason King (

Heart London History Heart London is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format. Across London and its neighbouring counties, it can be heard on 106.2 MHz. ...

) * Gabby Logan * Jonathan Morrell ( BBC Radio Newcastle) *

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' ...

(Greatest Hits Radio) *

(Greatest Hits Radio) * Joel Ross ( Rock FM) * Lisa Shaw (deceased) *

Bill Steel Bill Steel (born 20 May 1939) is a broadcaster and actor from North East England, best known for his work at Tyne Tees Television and Metro Radio. Career Early career Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Steel was educated at Pendower Boys School in ...

* Pip Tomson ('' Good Morning Britain'') *

Clive Warren Clive Warren (born 1967) is a British radio presenter. Early career Warren's first experience of radio broadcasting came at Radio Moorfields, the hospital station at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, which broadcast from 1974 until 2006. Fro ...

James Whale James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: '' Frankenstein'' (1931), '' The ...

(

talkRADIO TalkRadio (previously styled as talkRADIO) is a talk radio station broadcasting nationally in the United Kingdom, which was relaunched on 21 March 2016. Based in London and owned by Wireless Group, a subsidiary of News Corp., it is the sist ...

) * Russ Williams ( Nation Radio UK)

Awards and nominations

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

References

External links

* *
Metro Radio - Cash for Kids
{{Radio stations in North East England Bauer Radio Hits Radio Radio stations in North East England Radio stations established in 1974 1974 establishments in England