Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire

Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire (previously Magic 828 and Radio Aire 2) is a local radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Yorkshire on 828 AM and DAB radio. The station will merge with twelve local stations in the region to form Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire on 1 September 2020.

Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire
CityLeeds
Broadcast areaYorkshire
FrequencyMW: 828 kHz
DAB: 12D
SloganThe Good Times Sound Like This
Programming
FormatOldies
Ownership
OwnerBauer
Sister stationsRadio Aire
History
First air date17 July 1990
Links
WebsiteGHR West Yorkshire

History
Radio Aire 2's studios, shared with Radio Aire in Burley, Leeds.

The station started out as Radio Aire on its medium wave / AM frequencies and was launched on 1 September 1981. Initially broadcast on 362 metres medium wave (828 kHz AM) and 94.6 VHF (the VHF/FM frequency was moved to 96.3 in 1986), Radio Aire split its AM and FM output to form two different stations in 1990.

Magic 828

The AM service was named Magic 828 and was launched by Roger Kirk at 8:28am on 17 July 1990, with the first song played being "Magical Mystery Tour" by The Beatles.

The 'Magic 828' name was created by Bob Preedy who was a presenter on Radio Aire at the time.

Its first jingle package was produced by Century 21 and the voice-overs were voiced by John Myers.

The programmes between 6am and 1am were broadcast live from Studio 2 in Radio Aire's Burley Road studio complex in Leeds. The original weekday line-up was Roger Kirk (6am-9.30am), Ray Stroud (9.30am-1pm), The Magic Mix (1pm-2pm), Peter Tait (2pm-6pm), Nothing But The 60's (6pm-7pm), Mike Vitti (7pm-10pm), Alex Hall (10pm-1am) and The Superstation (1am-6am). A few months after Magic 828's launch, The Superstation closed, Andy Siddell took over evenings and Mike Vitti presented the new overnight programme, Nightflight. The Nightflight programme was simulcast on Aire FM & Magic 828 and broadcast between 1am & 6am from Studio 1 (the studio used for Aire FM). Local news during the early 1990s was also simulcast on both stations, although Aire FM only took the first two minutes of the bulletin.

After Emap bought Radio Aire and Magic 828 in 1995, they began to roll the Magic brand out across the other AM stations in the group, creating Magic 1161 (Hull), Magic AM (Sheffield), Magic 1152 (Newcastle), Magic 1170 (Teesside), Magic 999 (Preston), Magic 1548 (Liverpool) and Magic 1152 (Manchester).

In December 2001, EMAP decided that it was more economical for the Magic network to share off-peak programmes and in line with the other Magic AM stations began networking between 10am-2pm, and 7pm-6am. During these hours it was simply known as Magic, although there were local commercial breaks, and local news on the hour.

In January 2003 after a sharp decline in listening, the station ceased networking with the London station Magic 105.4. At this point, a regional northern network was created with programmes broadcast from Magic 1152 in Newcastle. During networked hours, local adverts are aired, as well as local news on the hour.

In July 2006, more networking was introduced across the Northern Magic AM network with only the 4 hour breakfast show between 06:00 and 10:00 presented from the local studios. However the decision was taken in April 2013 to network this show across the other Yorkshire-based Magic stations.[1] Other programming was networked from Newcastle, Manchester and London.

Radio Aire 2

Following the rebrand of the Magic AM stations in northern England at the start of 2015, the station was known as Radio Aire 2 and was entirely networked with the other Bauer AM stations in the North. Local news, weather and travel continued to be broadcast as opt-outs during the day.

Greatest Hits Radio

On 7 January 2019, Radio Aire 2 rebranded as Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire.[2]

On 1 September 2020, the West Yorkshire local station will merge with twelve local stations in the region to form Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire.

Programming

The station carries primarily a schedule of networked programming, produced and broadcast from Bauer's Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow studios, and from Bauer's Golden Square headquarters in Soho.

News

Bauer’s Leeds newsroom broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 06:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and from 07:00 to 13:00 at weekends. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins. National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried at other times.

References
  1. http://radiotoday.co.uk/2013/04/bauer-networks-three-more-magic-stations/
  2. Bauer Media to launch Greatest Hits Radio network Radio Today, 15 November 2018

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