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74-522: Hits Radio is a network of 26 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK . As of September 2024, the network has a combined reach of 7.2 million weekly listeners according to RAJAR . Hits Radio UK broadcasts on DAB in many parts of the UK and online. 25 localised variants air on FM and DAB across England and Wales. As of May 2024, there are

148-560: A dozen and a half AM, FM and TV stations at various times, experimenting with formats other than top 40 (including beautiful music and all-news). In the early 1960s Rick Sklar also developed the Top 40 format for radio station WABC in New York City which was then copied by stations in the eastern and mid-western United States such as WKBW and WLS . Bill Drake built upon the foundation established by Storz and McLendon to create

222-470: A looped promo featuring tracks from MNEK , Kylie Minogue , Calvin Harris , Kim Petras , Years & Years and Lady Gaga , along with promo trailers. The multiplex variation request submitted to Ofcom suggested the station would arrive on DAB multiplexes from 26 August 2020. On Monday 16 September 2024, at 7:00PM (UK) Hits Radio Chilled launched playing “laid back hits and throwbacks”. The first programme

296-768: A modernized Rock 40 format, are similar in some ways to the Adult CHR and Mainstream CHR/Pop formats, but also incorporate modern rock / alternative / active rock and modern AC titles in an upbeat presentation. Examples include KSXY in Santa Rosa, California, WDJQ in Canton, Ohio, WIXX in Green Bay, Wisconsin, KKCK in Marshall, Minnesota, and WMOM in Ludington, Michigan. An early version of rock-leaning CHR

370-792: A more limited base of currents and recurrents from the mainstream, rhythmic and/or adult CHR formats with a broader playlist of gold from the 2000s and 2010s. Stations from this format may also be called rhythmic hot AC if their library is particularly rhythmic-leaning. Examples include WPOW and WFLC in Miami, WKFS in Cincinnati, Ohio, WBBM-FM in Chicago, WMOV in Hampton Roads and WKTU in New York City. Playing dance remixes of popular songs with perhaps some current hits from

444-486: 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, weather, travel and advertising. However the regional programmes will end on 31 October 2024. The stations which initially formed the Greatest Hits Radio network are predominantly sister stations to

518-1094: A pioneer of the AOR format, Rock 40 was "too wimpy for the real rockers and too hard for the mainstream people". Stations that previously broadcast the format include KEGL in Dallas, KQLZ (Pirate Radio) in Los Angeles, KRZR in Fresno, California, KXXR in Kansas City, and WMMS in Cleveland. Rock 40 stations eventually segued to CHR or an AOR spinoff format such as active rock or modern rock . There are also variations targeting minority ethnic groups, such as CHR/español ( Latin pop ), and CHR/Tejano ( Tex-Mex and Tejano ) which are commonly found in Arizona , Texas , California , and Mexico . In Greater China (People's Republic of China , Taiwan , and Hong Kong ), there

592-946: A ship anchored off the coast of southern England in international waters. At that time there were no commercial radio stations in the UK , and BBC radio offered only sporadic top 40 programming. Other noteworthy North American top 40 stations that used the Drake approach included KFRC in San Francisco ; CKLW in Windsor, Ontario ; WRKO in Boston ; WHBQ in Memphis; WOLF in Syracuse, New York ; and WOR-FM in New York City . Most listeners identified Boss Radio with less talk, shorter jingles and more music. Mike Joseph's "hot hits" stations of

666-555: A station brand first used by Radio Aire 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

740-658: A total of 25 local radio stations in the network providing local programming, news, traffic and sport, along with networked output from Hits Radio UK. The FM network of stations was formerly known as the Big City Network, Bauer Place and Bauer City 1. The national DAB station was formerly known as The Hits. Until 17 April 2024, most of the stations broadcast under their local identities, such as Clyde 1 in Glasgow and Radio City in Liverpool. After this date, only

814-663: A variation called " Boss Radio ". This format began in California in early 1961 at KSTN in Stockton, then expanded in 1962–63 to KYNO in Fresno, in 1964 to KGB in San Diego , and finally to KHJ in Los Angeles in May 1965; it was further adapted to stations across the western US. Boss Radio was later broadcast by American disc jockeys as a hybrid format on pirate radio station Swinging Radio England , broadcasting from on board

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888-556: Is Rock 40 , which was popular in the late 1980s. This format, developed by Joint Communications who service marked the name in 1987, is a young-male-targeted hybrid of CHR and album-oriented rock (AOR) that combines the formatics of the former with the music mix of the latter. After a short period of successful ratings, the Rock 40 format began to decline because it was too similar to conventional AOR yet lacked appeal among CHR fans who desired less emphasis on rock. According to Lee Abrams ,

962-482: Is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK . 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 in Liverpool on FM. As of April 2023, the network consists of 18 local and regional radio stations operating over 50 FM and DAB licences in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as

1036-510: Is also Mandopop and Cantopop which are the top 40 variants in that language. Credit for the format is widely given to Todd Storz , who was the director of radio station KOWH -AM in Omaha, Nebraska in 1951. At that time typical AM radio programming consisted largely of full-service " block programming ": pre-scheduled, sponsored programs of a wide variety, including radio dramas and variety shows. Local popular music hits, if they made it on

1110-477: Is also used to refer to the actual list of hit songs, and, by extension, to refer to pop music in general. The term has also been modified to describe top 50 ; top 30 ; top 20 ; top 10 ; hot 100 (each with its number of songs) and hot hits radio formats, but carrying more or less the same meaning and having the same creative point of origin with Todd Storz as further refined by Gordon McLendon as well as Bill Drake . The format became especially popular in

1184-538: Is presented by Joel Ross and Leanne Campbell and broadcast from Bauer's Liverpool studios at the Hits Radio Tower . The stations continue their separate branding and news bulletins. In January 2024, it was announced that fifteen of Bauer's local radio stations in England and Wales - which form part of the Hits Radio network - would be rebranded as Hits Radio from 17 April 2024. No changes are expected to

1258-767: Is produced and broadcast from the studios of several Bauer stations across the UK. Off-peak time programming airs across all GHR stations from the Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and Soho studios. This consists of a regional weekday afternoon show in the East, Midlands, North West, South, South West, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire; and separate weekday Breakfast and mid-afternoon shows in South England and in Scotland. Almost all of these regional programmes will end on 31 October 2024 when Bauer removes these programmes following

1332-564: Is provided, with the ability to split from the network programming content for localised branding, news material and advertising. Hits Radio Suffolk was withdrawn after 1 October 2022, with the capacity reverting to GHR, as a consequence of the FM frequency (the prior Ipswich 102) transitioning to Nation Radio Suffolk . In November 2021, Bauer announced the two Free Radio breakfast shows - known as Hits at Breakfast - would be merged into one regional show across all four Free Radio licences. The merger

1406-826: The Free Radio group of stations in the West Midlands began carrying off-peak programming from the Northern England network, replacing most of its own regional output from Birmingham. Gem in the East Midlands joined the network in July 2019 to carry late night and overnight programming from Manchester. Five stations were acquired to join the network, of which four retained heritage branding: Pulse 1 (Bradford), Signal 1 (Stoke-on-Trent), The Wave (Swansea) and Fire Radio (Bournemouth). Pulse, Signal, and The Wave began carrying off-peak programming from

1480-567: The GHR East network . The 106.1 frequency in Norwich would continue to carry Kiss. On 12 November 2023, it was announced that GHR's remaining medium wave transmissions, in Scotland and northern England, would cease by the end of the year, but the station would continue on DAB in the affected areas. On 13 December 2023, Greatest Hits Radio was removed from satellite and cable platforms, along with every other radio station owned by Bauer Media on

1554-531: The urban contemporary format; urban stations will often play R&B and soul songs that CHR/rhythmic stations will not, and CHR/rhythmic stations, despite playlists heavy with urban product, sometimes have white disc jockeys and will include EDM and rhythmic pop music that urban outlets will not play. WQHT in New York , and KPWR in Los Angeles are among the most successful CHR/rhythmic stations in

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1628-537: The 105.2 FM frequency from Absolute Radio . 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. In May 2020, Bauer announced that 48 local radio stations in England and South West Wales would rebrand and join

1702-1885: The 1950s. Examples of CHR/pop stations in the United States, Canada, and Brazil include WHTZ in New York (NY), KIIS-FM in Los Angeles (CA), KYLD and KMVQ-FM in San Francisco (CA), KHKS in Dallas (TX), KRBE in Houston (TX), CFBT-FM in Vancouver (BC), CKFM-FM and CKIS-FM in Toronto (ON), KSMG in San Antonio (TX), WIOQ in Philadelphia (PA), WPRO-FM in Providence (RI), WXKS-FM in Boston (MA), WIFC in Wausau (WI), WWPW and WWWQ in Atlanta (GA), WKSC-FM in Chicago (IL), WFLZ in Tampa / St. Petersburg (FL), WHYI-FM in Miami (FL), KLUC in Las Vegas (NV), WNCI in Columbus, Ohio (OH), WZPL (IN) in Indianapolis , KDWB in Minneapolis / St. Paul (MN), and Jovem Pan FM (with language) in Brazil . The stations generally gain large popularity with this format. These stations typically are hybrids of

1776-498: The Big City Network, and latterly Bauer Place and Bauer City 1, networked programming on Bauer's local FM stations in Northern England and Scotland was initially confined to off-peak night time and weekend timeslots. On 18 April 2018, station owners Bauer announced Key 103 in Manchester would be rebranded and relaunched as Hits Radio Manchester a CHR -led music station aimed at 25-44 year olds on Monday 4 June 2018. The station

1850-527: The FM stations, produced from Manchester and Glasgow respectively. Local weekend programming for most of the English stations was replaced with additional network output in July 2019, followed in September 2019 by the introduction of a networked Drivetime show. The Scottish network of stations introduced a networked Drivetime show at the end of March 2020, except for MFR and Radio Borders. In February 2017,

1924-529: The GHR North West network. In March 2021, Ofcom approved Bauer's application for permission to alter the FM licence held by the London FM relay of Absolute Radio , 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

1998-586: The GHR brand and network programming, including the East region drivetime show, from November, with the former Town 102 on DAB, which had carried GHR East since the September network relaunch, being replaced by Hits Radio . 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

2072-522: The Greatest Hits Radio network, following the acquisition of licences from UKRD , Wireless Group , Lincs FM Group and Celador . 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

2146-522: The Hits Network positioning. In January 2023, Bauer announced that Radio Borders would follow CFM in transitioning from the Hits Radio network to Greatest Hits Radio, in April 2023. In November 2023, Bauer announced that from January 2024, the two individual breakfast shows on both Radio City and Rock FM would come to an end and would be merged to form a simulcast show on both stations. The new show

2220-533: The Hits Radio network on 15 June 2020. The fifth, The Breeze (Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester) rebranded as Hits Radio under a licensing agreement with Nation Broadcasting . On 20 July 2020, Pulse 1, Signal 1 and The Wave officially joined the Hits Radio network. On 31 August 2020, Radio Aire ceased broadcasting and moved to the sister Greatest Hits Radio network - it merged with twelve other stations to form Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire . The same day saw Hits Radio South Coast launch, thereby becoming

2294-456: The London equivalent, Magic 105.4 FM , 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

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2368-552: The Midwest and Great Plains, converted it to an all-hits format, and dubbed the result "top 40". Shortly thereafter WHB debuted the first "top 40 countdown", a reverse-order playing of the station's ranking of hit singles for that week. Within a few years, top 40 stations appeared all over the country to great success, spurred by the burgeoning popularity of rock and roll music, especially that of Elvis Presley . A 1950s employee at WHB, Ruth Meyer, went on to have tremendous success in

2442-593: 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 . 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

2516-473: The Scottish stations retained their heritage branding, with English and Welsh stations becoming localised outputs of Hits Radio. On 19 January 2015, The Hits formed the backbone of a new locally branded Bauer City 3 network of radio stations in Northern England and Scotland. The local City 3 branding was dropped on 31 August 2017, in favour of adding The Hits to all local DAB Multiplexes. Initially known as

2590-645: The TV platforms, including Absolute Radio , Absolute Radio 80s , Absolute Radio 90s , Absolute Radio Classic Rock , Hits Radio , Kiss , Magic , Jazz FM and Planet Rock . On 28 March 2024, Bauer closed down Hampshire based Wave 105 and it re-branded into the Greatest Hits Radio network as Greatest Hits Radio South Coast . On 9th September 2024, it was announced that a sister station named "Greatest Hits Radio 60s" begin broadcasting on 16th September 2024. Former stations Available on DAB and online only* - Available online only** Networked programming for GHR

2664-1193: The U.S. and among the pioneers of the format. Bilingual Spanish CHRs (such as WPOW in Miami, KHHM in Shingle Springs, California, KKPS and KBFM in Brownsville, Texas, WKAQ and WXYX in San Juan, Puerto Rico, KBHH in Fresno, California, WRUM -HD2 in Orlando, Florida and KLLI (FM) in Los Angeles) combine current and recent mainstream and rhythmic CHR hits with recent Latin pop hits, targeting young Latina listeners. Similarly, bilingual French CHRs (such as CKOI-FM in Montreal) are common in some Canadian markets, and combine anglophone and French pop hits. Filipino-based CHR stations (such as DWFO , DWTM , DWRX , DWRT-FM , DWCZ , and DYIO ) are also common in major Philippine market areas, which feature current mainstream and rhythmic CHR hits with recent OPM and P-Pop hits. Gold-based CHRs combine

2738-566: The UK government to come up with a station to replace the pirates, and so in 1967 BBC Radio 1 started broadcasting, employing many of the DJ's from the pirate stations ( Tony Blackburn , Kenny Everett and John Peel etc.) and obtaining re-sings of the PAMS jingles. In fact it was Tony Blackburn who played the first pop record on Radio 1, the Move's "Flowers In The Rain". National public / state-owned radio networks in bold . Metro Manila : Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area : Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire Greatest Hits Radio

2812-418: The West of England ended. Following this, on 1 November 2024, the regional mid-morning show in the South of England ended. As of January 2025, Forth 1’s breakfast show will expand, replacing MFR, Northsound 1 and Tay FM’s current 3 local breakfast shows. On 29 July 2020, Bauer announced a spinoff pop-up station to Hits Radio, Hits Radio Pride , which launched at 8am on 28 August 2020. The new station would be

2886-499: The air at all, had to be worked in between these segments. Storz noted the great response certain songs got from the record-buying public and compared it to the way certain selections on jukeboxes were played over and over. He expanded his domain of radio stations, purchasing WTIX-AM in New Orleans , Louisiana, gradually converted his stations to an all-hits format, and pioneered the practice of surveying record stores to determine which singles were popular each week. Storz found that

2960-425: The area over DAB - replacing the localised digital-only version of GHR broadcast to Cumbria since the local DAB multiplex began broadcasting in late 2021. Around the same time as announcing the CFM change, Bauer confirmed that two of the relay transmitters of Signal 1 would transfer to carrying GHR from January 2023, with the station's main transmitter area - where GHR broadcasts on AM (formerly Signal 2 ) - retaining

3034-481: The coming into law of the 2024 Media Act. Consequently, Bauer will operate a fully networked schedule across its Greatest Hits Radio stations although short news bulletins containing a mix of local and national/international news will be retained, as will peaktime local travel information. Bauer's newsrooms across the UK air mixed 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

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3108-407: The contemporary hit radio (CHR/pop) and Hot AC formats. This format contains a strong focus on current charts, contemporary and recurrent hits as well as placing a minority of older, classic hits from the 2000s and early to mid 2010s onto the playlist. Adult CHR stations play pop-friendly rhythmic, dance and hip hop titles alongside standard mainstream pop and pop rock fare, and often shying away from

3182-439: The corresponding Hits Radio 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 AM and FM in the late 1980s. The main exception to this was FM station West Sound in Dumfries and Galloway . In Northern England, the stations were rebranded as Magic in 1997 –

3256-427: The dance charts. Pure dance-music radio stations (as opposed to CHR/rhythmic and rhythmic AC formats such as MOViN) are not very common but tend to have loyal audiences in the markets where they do exist. Examples include WPTY on Long Island, NY and KNHC in Seattle . This format is very popular on internet radio stations such as KVPN Digital Broadcasting (VPN Digital 1) Los Angeles . Stations with this format,

3330-444: The development in that same city of PAMS jingles. McLendon's successful Mighty 1190 KLIF in Dallas, along with his two other Texas Triangle stations, 610 KILT (AM) Houston and 550 KTSA San Antonio, which went top 40 during the mid to late 1950s, soon became perhaps the most imitated radio stations in America. With careful attention to programming, McLendon presented his stations as packages to advertisers and listeners alike. It

3404-424: The early to mid-60's as program director of New York's premiere top 40 station at that time, WMCA. Storz Broadcasting Company consisted of six AM radio stations, all featuring top 40 in the sixties. Although Todd Storz is regarded as the father of the top 100 format , Gordon McLendon of Dallas , Texas, is regarded as the person who took an idea and turned it into a mass media marketing success in combination with

3478-498: The first time a major radio broadcaster in the United Kingdom has launched a station that was targeted to the LGBTQ+ community. The service is taking capacity on a select number of Bauer owned ensembles including Northern Ireland, Liverpool, Swansea, Bradford, Stoke and London. Bauer acquired additional DAB capacity as part of the deal to buy Wireless Group's local radio portfolio in 2019. In Liverpool, Hits Radio Pride took capacity previously used by Radio City Talk . In Northern Ireland

3552-462: The following year. On 7 December 2015, Radio City 2 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

3626-422: The former Kiss frequencies was Pink with Trustfall and Hattie Pearson was the presenter who launched the stations. On 4 August 2024, Bauer announced that after 27 years of the West FM name, the station would be rebranded to 'Clyde 1 Ayrshire' from 16 September 2024 and share all output with Clyde 1 whilst retaining local news, weather and travel bulletins. On 25 October 2024, the regional mid-morning show in

3700-475: The full relaunch on 1 September 2020. On 1 September, Bauer closed down Leeds-based Radio Aire so that it could switch the frequency from the Hits Radio 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 , part-owned by Bauer through their purchase of Lincs FM Group, would take

3774-416: 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 . According to RAJAR data,

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3848-488: The late 1970s and early 1980s attempted to revitalize the format by refocusing listeners' attention on current, active "box-office" music. Thus, hot hits stations played only current hit songs—no oldies unless they were on current chart albums—in a fast, furious and repetitive fashion, with fast-talking personalities and loud, pounding jingles. In 1977, WTIC-FM in Hartford, CT, dropped its long-running classical format for Joseph's format as "96 Tics" and immediately became one of

3922-560: The main offering." The adult CHR format is sometimes utilized by stations which are heritage Top 40/CHR outlets in their respective markets which have been in the format since the 1970s or 1980s or FM successors to former AM top 40s, with examples in the UK including the Hits Radio Network compiled of heritage radio stations including Clyde 1 in Glasgow and Radio City in Liverpool . Also known as CHR/rhythmic, rhythmic crossover, or CHR/urban. These stations focus on hip-hop and dance-pop . There are differences between CHR/rhythmic and

3996-433: The mid-sixties as radio stations constrained disc jockeys to numbered play lists in the wake of the payola scandal. Also known as CHR/pop or teen CHR. Plays pop , and dance , and sometimes urban , alternative , rock , and country crossover as well. Often referred as " Top 40 "; in terms of incorporating a variety of genres of music, CHR/pop is the successor to the original concept of top 40 radio which originated in

4070-453: The more people heard a given song on the radio or from the jukebox, the more likely they were to buy a copy; a conclusion not obvious in the industry at the time. In 1952 he purchased what was then WLAF-AM in Lafayette, Indiana and constructed WAZY-AM/FM which is still the longest running top 40 FM station in existence to this day. In 1954, Storz purchased WHB -AM, a high-powered station in Kansas City, Missouri , which could be heard throughout

4144-452: The most rhythmic CHR titles until they are established hits on the format. Examples in the U.S. include WIXX in Green Bay, WKRQ in Cincinnati and KZZO in Sacramento. United Kingdom (UK) media regulator Ofcom states: "where a format requires a contemporary and chart music service, the main diet must be of modern music, reflecting the charts of today and recent months. Older, classic tracks would not be out of place, but only as spice to

4218-414: The network's local, regional and national programming, including local news and traffic bulletins, as a result of the rebrand. All fifteen stations were relaunched as local variants of Hits Radio on 17 April 2024. On 8 August 2024, Bauer announced that Kiss would be replaced on FM in London, the Severn Estuary and Norwich by Hits Radio, with Kiss retaining its frequency in Bristol. In September 2024, it

4292-410: The platform. On 12 January 2023, Bauer announced that the seven heritage names in Scotland ( Clyde 2 , Forth 2 , MFR 2 , Tay 2 and Westsound (Ayrshire) and (Dumfries and Galloway), would rebrand as Greatest Hits Radio from 3 April. On 31 January 2023, Bauer announced that Radio Borders was to rebrand as Greatest Hits Radio from 3 April, following the news earlier in the month which will see

4366-550: 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 's Poole transmitter began carrying Greatest Hits Radio Dorset . On 22 November 2022, Bauer announced that CFM in Cumbria & South West Scotland will rebrand to Greatest Hits Radio from 3 April 2023. On 14 December 2022, Greatest Hits Radio launched on Sky , replacing Scala Radio on

4440-453: The second FM station to be known on air as Hits Radio. The station had previously broadcast as The Breeze South Coast and the change is made following the purchase in 2019 of The Breeze network from Celador Radio. Nation Broadcasting replaced Hits Radio South Coast with their own Easy Radio South Coast programming from 19 September 2022, with Bauer providing Hits Radio content thereafter on the South Hampshire DAB multiplex. In October 2020, it

4514-568: The service replaced Magic Chilled. The station is sponsored by Cooperative Bank for an initial run of 6 months. Additional content is produced by Reform Radio, as part of a grant awarded by the Audio Content Fund. Tough Talks’; is an 'intimate conversations between contributors from the LGBTQ+ community reflecting on the struggles that they face within society.' Hits Radio Pride also works with LGBT+ helpline Switchboard (UK) to promote support services. The station started online and smart speaker test transmissions on 21 August 2020. It consisted of

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4588-453: The seven Scottish heritage names also rebranding on the same day. On 1 March 2023, Bauer announced that Lincs FM would lose its FM frequency and go DAB only from 3 April. The FM frequency would become Greatest Hits Radio. On the same day, Bauer also announced that three of the four FM frequencies held by Kiss in Cambridge (105.6), Ipswich and Colchester (106.4) and Peterborough (107.7), would switch to carrying Greatest Hits Radio and join

4662-761: The standard Hits playlist, which continues elsewhere. Bauer's newsrooms across the UK air local news bulletins hourly from 6   am to 7   pm on weekdays and from 7   am to 1   pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins. National bulletins air on Hits Radio UK. At weekends, bespoke networked bulletins air from 2   pm (until 6   pm on Saturdays and 4   pm on Sundays) - separate bulletins are produced for England & Wales and for Scotland. At all other times, mainly evening & overnight, hourly national bulletins originate from Sky News Radio in London. Contemporary Hit Radio The term "top 40"

4736-431: The stations adopted a standardised audio identity package, produced by Wisebuddah, while retaining their local station branding. Two networked shows were also introduced across most stations - Old Skool and Anthems and In: Demand - produced from Key 103 in Manchester. Separate schedules for Northern England and Scotland were introduced in August 2015, followed in July 2017 by two networked mid-morning shows for most of

4810-512: The top radio stations in the market. The first Joseph station to use the term "hot hits" on the air was WFBL ("Fire 14", which played its top 14 hits in very tight rotation) in Syracuse, NY, in 1979. Then WCAU-FM in Philadelphia switched to hot hits as "98 Now" in the fall of 1981 and was instantly successful. Other major-market stations which adopted the hot hits format in the early 1980s included WBBM-FM Chicago , WHYT (now WDVD ) Detroit , WMAR-FM (now WWMX ) Baltimore , which we might add

4884-404: Was announced that Hits Radio would launch in Suffolk, taking over the DAB capacity which had been used for Greatest Hits Radio since September (previously Town 102 ), in tandem with the relaunch of Ipswich 102 as Greatest Hits Radio. The change took place on 3 November, at the point Ipswich 102 (and Radio Plymouth ) took the GHR affiliation. As in North Yorkshire, a localised feed of Hits Radio

4958-421: Was confirmed Hits Radio would launch in Bristol, London, Norwich and Somerset & South Wales on 23 September, and that the 97.2 FM frequency would join the other Kiss frequencies in flipping to Hits. Hits Radio would ultimately be launched at 10.00pm on 22 September 2024 across the West Of England on 97.2MHz, 101.0MHz & 106.5MHz, in London on 100.0 MHz and in Norfolk on 106.1 MHz. The first song that played on

5032-1063: Was hosted by the Irish singer-songwriter Cian Ducrot with his song ‘All for You‘ being the first song to be played on the station. News jingles had been playing for some weeks before. The station is a rebrand of Magic Chilled. Most of the stations broadcast their own local breakfast shows from 6 to 10   am each weekday - in most cases, these are produced and broadcast from the originating station's studios. Network programming for England and Wales originates from Bauer's London headquarters or studios in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. In Scotland, it originates from Bauer's Clydebank studios near Glasgow , and on occasion, from Bauer's Edinburgh studios. Overnight programming and The Hits UK Chart airs across all Hits Radio stations in England, Wales and Scotland originates from Bauer's London Headquarters and its Castle Quay studios at Castlefield in Manchester. Until May 2022, CFM, Gem, MFR, Radio Borders and The Wave opted out of networked scheduling, during weekdays, and weekends respectively. This

5106-479: Was merged with national DAB station The Hits, which in turn was rebranded itself as Hits Radio UK to provide a single national service across the UK on DAB, Freeview and online. In Manchester, Hits Radio continues to provide local news & information, traffic bulletins and advertising on its local platforms - 103 FM, DAB and online. The station's programming is networked across 24 local FM stations - all of which opt out at times for local output. In February 2014,

5180-470: Was not successful against market leader WBSB B104, KITS San Francisco, and WNVZ Norfolk . Don Pierson took the formats of Gordon McLendon, boss radio and PAMS jingles to the UK in the form of Wonderful Radio London , (a pirate radio ship) and subsequently revolutionized the popular music format. On 14 August 1967 The Marine Offences Act was introduced in the UK and the pirate stations were shut down. The British Broadcasting Corporation were chosen by

5254-517: Was permitted under OFCOM's local content guidelines, although all four Free Radio licences retain opt-outs for local news, traffic updates and advertising. In November 2022, it was announced that CFM in Cumbria would follow Radio Aire in transitioning from the Hits Radio network to Greatest Hits Radio, with the change slated to take place as of April 2023; CFM's local weekday show would remain, moved from breakfast to broadcast in an afternoon slot on GHR, with Hits Radio content continuing to be available in

5328-486: Was rebranded as Key Radio, in tandem with Key 103's relaunch as Hits Radio . On 7 January 2019, Greatest Hits Radio replaced the Bauer City 2 branding due to the success of Radio City 2 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

5402-472: Was replaced by networked programming. As of 23 September 2024, Hits Radio in London, Norwich and the West of England carry a revised version of the Hits Radio playlist, with some tracks replaced by remixed 'dance' versions; this is likely to fulfil the requirement for 'rhythmic' music on the former Kiss licences. Prior to September 2024 the local Bristol FM/DAB station and digital-only London service had followed

5476-540: Was the combination of top 40 and PAMS jingles which became the key to the success of the radio format itself. Not only were the same records played on different stations across America, but so were the same jingle music beds whose lyrics were resung repetitively for each station to create individual station identity. To this basic mix were added contests, games and disc jockey patter. Various groups (including Bartell Broadcasters ) emphasized local variations on their top 40 stations. Gordon McLendon would operate approximately

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