Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire

Prior to the launch of Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire’s region wide station, three MW local stations existed:

• Greatest Hits Radio East Yorkshire began broadcasting to the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire on 31 October 1988 as Viking Gold.
• Greatest Hits Radio South Yorkshire began broadcasting to South Yorkshire and the North Midlands on 1 May 1989 as Classic Gold.
• Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire began broadcasting to Leeds and West Yorkshire on 17 July 1990 as Magic 828.

Under relaxed OFCOM requirements for local content on commercial radio, the Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire region was permitted be able to share most programming between thirteen licences located in the ITV Yorkshire region.

In May 2020, Bauer announced that, in response to requirement relaxing, local radio stations in their new GHR Yorkshire region and would rebrand under (merge most content) in line with the national Greatest Hits Radio UK station.

On 16 July 2020, Bauer announced Radio Aire would flip from the Hits Radio network to Greatest Hits Radio network, merging with the aforementioned stations in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.[1] The regional station and all newly realigned and renamed local stations in GHR Yorkshire region launched on 1 September 2020.

Eleven local FM licences are folded into the region wide station:

• Pulse 2 began broadcasting as Pennine Radio to Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees in September 1975.
• Radio Aire began broadcasting to Leeds and West Yorkshire on 1 September 1981.
• Minster FM began broadcasting to York and surrounding areas in July 1992, extending to the Thirsk and Northallerton area four years later.
• Yorkshire Coast Radio began broadcasting to Scarborough, Whitby and surrounding areas in November 1993, before expanding to the Bridlington area in November 1999.
• Stray FM began broadcasting to Harrogate and Ripon in July 1994, before expanding to the Yorkshire Dales in January 2012.
• Peak FM began broadcasting to north Derbyshire in October 1998.
• Trax FM began broadcasting in November 1998, initially providing separate services to Doncaster and Bassetlaw.
• Ridings FM began broadcasting to Wakefield in October 1999.
• Compass FM began broadcasting to Grimsby in June 2001.
• Dearne FM began broadcasting to Barnsley and the Dearne Valley in October 2003.
• Rother FM began broadcasting to Rotherham in October 2006.

A single DAB only station for Lincolnshire launched in November 2020.[2]

Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Bauer's Leeds studios from 4-7pm on weekdays, presented by Steve Priestley.[3]

Bauer’s Leeds, Scarborough and Lincoln newsrooms broadcast local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 7am to 1pm at weekends. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins.

Separate localised bulletins are produced for the former Minster, Stray and Yorkshire Coast licence areas of North Yorkshire, Hull/East Riding/Northern Lincolnshire, Bradford/Kirklees/Calderdale, Leeds/Wakefield, South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire, Greater Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.

Bauer produces its own England and Wales national bulletins on weekend (and Bank Holiday/Christmas time) afternoons. National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried at other times.

• Greatest Hits Teesside, a sister station also Broadcasting in Yorkshire (North Riding). It also broadcasts in the county to the north of Yorkshire in County Durham).

• Official website