Greatest Hits Radio North West

• Greatest Hits Radio Manchester began broadcasting to Greater Manchester on 2 April 1974 (as Piccadilly Radio)
• Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool & The North West began broadcasting to Merseyside and parts of Cheshire and North Wales in October 1974 (as Radio City, on MW)
• Greatest Hits Radio Lancashire began broadcasting to Central Lancashire on 5 October 1982 (as Red Rose Radio).
• Radio Wave began broadcasting to Blackpool and The Fylde in May 1992.
• Wish FM began broadcasting to the Wigan and St Helens areas in April 1997.
• Wire FM began broadcasting to the Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn areas in September 1998.
• Tower FM began broadcasting to the Bolton and Bury areas in March 1999.
• The Revolution began broadcasting to the Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside areas on 30 August 1999.

Radio City initially ran a single service on AM and FM, but by 1989, it launched a separate daytime talk service on AM, City Talk. However, poor ratings saw the station revert to a classic hits format, Radio City Gold, two years later.

By 1998, Radio City Gold fell into the ownership of Emap, who rebranded the station as Magic 1548, which would adopt an increasing amount of networked programming until its local breakfast show was axed in March 2013.

Tower FM, Wish FM and Wire FM would become part of The Wireless Group, which was brought in 2005 by UTV Media, before being sold again to News Corp in 2016. These three stations co-located to studios in the Orrell area of Wigan in 2009, while maintaining separate identities and local programming.

In 2008, the Magic stations in the North West were sold to Bauer, who would launch the Greatest Hits ('Bauer City 2') network under local branding in January 2015. The following December, Radio City 2 swapped frequencies with sister station Radio City Talk on 105.9 FM and reintroduced local programming at peak times.

In January 2019, Greatest Hits Radio replaced the localised Bauer City 2 branding. The following month, the Wireless Group's network of local radio stations - including Tower, Wish and Wire - were sold to Bauer Radio, although this sale was only ratified in March 2020 following an inquiry by the Competition and Markets Authority.[1]

In May 2020, Bauer announced the Wireless Group stations would rebrand and join the Greatest Hits Radio network.[2] Two months later, Tower, Wish and Wire entered a transition period - carrying local breakfast shows and voicetracked programming ahead of the full relaunch on 1 September 2020.[3] The former Wireless Group studios in Orrell were closed, although local newsgathering and sales staff were retained.

Following the purchase of The Revolution broadcast license, from November 2020 the service is additionally broadcast on the 96.2 frequency from a transmitter in Oldham which serves much of East and Central Greater Manchester.[4]

Greatest Hits Radio produces and broadcasts networked programming from Bauer's Manchester and Liverpool studios, including most of its daytime output on weekdays. Other output originates from studios in Birmingham, Nottingham, Glasgow and London.

On weekdays, the station airs a regional three-hour Drivetime show from 4-7pm, presented by Darren Proctor.[5] However, the show also airs in London, the North East, Teesside and the national DAB station.

Greatest Hits Radio