Timeline of Hits Radio

A timeline of notable events relating to Hits Radio, a British commercial radio station operated by Bauer Radio.

1970s

1974
- 2 April – Piccadilly Radio, the first commercial radio station in Manchester, goes on the air, broadcasting on AM and FM.

1988
- 3 September – Piccadilly Radio splits its AM and FM services, launching adult-focused Key 103 on FM and mainstream service Piccadilly 1152 on AM.

1990
- Piccadilly revises its AM/FM split to move closer to the format used by other commercial radio operators, moving mainstream music to FM (as 'Piccadilly Key 103' for a time) and older-skewing music to AM (initially as 'PIccadilly Gold' before later reverting to the Piccadilly 1152 name; the AM station would go on to become Magic in 1999, Key 2 in 2015 and Key Radio in 2018.)

1996
- Key 103 and its AM sibling move from their original Piccadilly Plaza base to studios at Castlefield, where they remain based today.

2003
- 1 January – A station named The Hits, carrying the audio of the Box Plus Network television channel of the same name, appears on DAB in London.
- April – The Hits on DAB switches away from the TV audio and becomes a dedicated radio stream, playing contemporary pop hits.
- July – The Hits is made available nationally as a radio service when it is added to the radio section of the Freeview programme guide (as 'The Hits Radio' to differentiate itself from the television channel)
- Late in year – The Hits expands its DAB coverage with its addition to multiplexes outside London, including Emap-owned platforms in Northern England

2004
- early in year – the bitrate of The Hits on Emap's local DAB multiplexes is reduced to allow for the addition of heat radio. It is subsequently further reduced to allow the local Magic stations, which had also been hit by Heat's addition, to re-increase their bitrates.[1]
- April – The Hits is removed from Emap's local DAB multiplexes in favour of Kerrang! Radio.

2012
- Late in year – The Hits reappears on Bauer's northern English DAB multiplexes, following a reduction in the bitrate used by heat radio.

2015
- 5 January – Bauer's network of FM contemporary hit radio services, including Key 103, are relaunched as the Bauer City 1 network. Most of the stations had already been carrying network programming from the Castlefield studios (such as In:Demand) in offpeak slots prior to the relaunch, and continued to do so thereafter. It was at this point that Magic 1152 on AM became Key 2.
- 19 January –
  - The Hits is split into a network of fresh-hits DAB stations in Bauer's heritage areas - Bauer City 3 - with split localised news, branding and advertising, and shared programme content. This programming also remains available nationally on Freeview under The Hits Radio name.[2]
  - The Hits is removed from DAB in London and Birmingham, the Birmingham space going to Kisstory (then to KissFresh after Kisstory's move to Sound Digital in 2016).

2017
- 1 September – The Bauer City 3 network is disbanded, and The Hits as a single national service returns to DAB in its place.[3]

2018
- 18 April – Key 103 announces on-air that it will relaunch as a national station under the name Hits Radio from 4 June. The new station logo and some information about programming, including the new breakfast show, is unveiled.[4]
- 23 May – Absolute Radio 70s and Kerrang! Radio are removed from DAB in London and replaced by a stereo placeholder service of music and announcements listed as Hits Radio - this placeholder is also rolled out to numerous other DAB areas, mostly in newly created slots on Arqiva's NOWdigital multiplexes.
- late May – Magic Soul is replaced on DAB in Birmingham by the Hits Radio placeholder.
- 1 June – Key 103 and The Hits Radio cease presented programming at 6pm and run a 60-hour sequence of music and announcements in preparation for the impending relaunch. The Hits' social media accounts are deleted and Key 103's relabelled as 'HitsRadioUK'.
- 4 June – Hits Radio Manchester launches, replacing Key 103 on FM in Manchester; Hits Radio UK launches replacing The Hits on DAB and Freeview. Gethin Jones, Gemma Atkinson and Dave Vitty launch the Manchester station on-air, with Greatest Day by Take That, winner of an online Manchester Evening News poll, the first song played.[5]

2020
- 28 August – Hits Radio launches its first spin-off station - Hits Radio Pride. It is aimed at the LGBTQ+ community.[6]
- 31 August – Hits Radio South Coast launches, thereby becoming 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.
- 3 November - Hits Radio Suffolk launches on DAB digital radio, taking up the slot which had been carrying the local iteration of Greatest Hits Radio since September (and prior to this Town 102); the switch is made in tandem with the GHR affiliation switching to the former Ipswich 102. Like the digital-only North Yorkshire Hits Radio, all programming output is shared with the Hits network feed, but the option to use localised identity, news/information and advertising is retained.

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