Peak FM (North Derbyshire)

Peak FM was a local radio station serving North Derbyshire. The station was folded into Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020.

Peak FM
CityChesterfield
Broadcast areaNorth Derbyshire
FrequencyFM: 102.0, 107.4 MHz
SloganThe Greatest Hits for North Derbyshire
Programming
FormatClassic Hits
Ownership
OwnerBauer
History
First air date
7 October 1998
Last air date
31 August 2020
Former names
Peak FM▶️

Coverage area

GHR North Derbyshire's coverage area includes the towns of Alfreton, Bakewell, Bolsover, Clay Cross, Dronfield, Matlock, Pinxton, Ripley, Shirebrook, South Normanton and Staveley. Southern districts of the City of Sheffield are also included, though the topography of the area made reception unreliable in certain parts.

Frequencies
  • 107.4 FM covers Chesterfield, south Sheffield, north Alfreton, north-eastern Derbyshire, Mansfield and Worksop from the Chesterfield transmitter at Unstone.
  • 102.0 FM covers Matlock, Bakewell, the Derbyshire Dales and central Alfreton from the Stanton Moor transmitter.

GHR North Derbyshire is also available as an audio stream on the Internet.

History

GHR North Derbyshire began broadcasting to Chesterfield as 'Peak 107 FM' on 7 October 1998, at 8 am, with the Simple Minds song "Alive and Kicking". The Radio Authority had awarded Grand Central Broadcasting the licence earlier in the spring.

The station was launched by Dave Kilner, with the (then) Mayor and Mayoress of Chesterfield. Mark Burrows presented Breakfast after the launch, followed by Dave Kilner on mid-mornings, James Hilton on drive, Trev Parsons one hour of drive and the evening show and Richard Spinks on Late Night Love.

At the same time, the authority also awarded licences for two other small stations, in nearby Bassetlaw and Mansfield.

Forever Broadcasting

In 2001, Forever Broadcasting bought Grand Central Broadcasting and Peak 107 was rebranded with 'The 50/50 Music Mix of Yesterday And Today', tagline, accompanying change in music policy.

Forever sold three of its stations in 2003: with three remaining- Peak, Tower FM in Bolton and Wolverhampton's 107.7 The Wolf. In early 2004, Forever Broadcasting was itself bought by The Wireless Group, run by former newspaper editor Kelvin MacKenzie.

Wireless Group and UTV Radio
Former Logo

Under the new regime, the station's name changed from 'Peak 107' to 'Peak FM' in Summer 2004. The station had always broadcast on two frequencies.

Station output did not change dramatically after the takeover, but presenters were occasionally required to promote other stations and services offered by The Wireless Group, which was itself taken over by UTV Radio in June 2005.

Bauer

On 8 February 2019, the Wireless Group's local radio stations (including Peak FM) were sold to Bauer. The sale was ratified in March 2020 following an inquiry by the Competition and Markets Authority.[1] Local programming was produced and broadcast from studios in Chesterfield from 6am–10am on weekdays but on 27 May 2020 Bauer announced Peak FM would become part of the Greatest Hits Radio network[2] with all local programming ending albeit with some regional shows. On 13 July 2020, all local programming was replaced by networked output from GHR apart from the breakfast show, although the Peak FM branding was retained, resulting in the loss of most presenting jobs.[3][4] On September 2020 Peak FM (and 11 other stations) ceased their remaining local breakfast shows and completed rebranding to Greatest Hits Radio. Peak FM was folded into Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, which provides a regionalised drivetime show from Bauer's Leeds studios. Localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising were retained.[2] The station's Chesterfield studios closed.

Programming

Networked programming originated from the network's Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow studios and from Bauer's Golden Square headquarters in Soho. A regionalised drivetime show broadcasts from GHR Yorkshire's Leeds studios.

News

Peak FM broadcast local news bulletins hourly from 6 am to 6 am on weekdays, from 7 am to 1 pm on Saturdays and from 8 am to 12 pm on Sundays. Headlines were broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows.[5] The station also simulcasted hourly Sky News Radio bulletins at all other times.

References
  1. https://www.bauermedia.co.uk/newsroom/press-releases/cma-today-clears-the-acquisitions-of-lincs-fm-celador-radio-ukrd-and-wireless-local-stations CMA today clears the acquisitions of Lincs FM, Celador Radio, UKRD and Wireless local stations, Bauer Media, 12 March 2020
  2. Most of acquired Bauer stations to become Greatest Hits Radio Stuart Clarkson, Radio Today, 27 May 2020
  3. Bauer starts to roll out Hits and Greatest Hits to new radio stations Stuart Clarkson, Radio Today, 9 July 2020
  4. Broomhead, Michael (13 July 20120). "Presenter jobs lost at Chesterfield's Peak FM as station transitions to Greatest Hits Radio". Derbyshire Times. Retrieved 14 July 2020. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. Peak FM public file
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