The Worlds Greatest Music Station (or WGMS) was the AM sister station to Hereward FM. Its time on-air was short lived and restricted to approximately two years when both local ILR stations were acquired by the GWR group in the 1990s.
Originally, Hereward Radio (which launched on 10 July 1980) broadcast on both on FM and 1332 AM. On 14 April 1992 the station split its AM and FM frequencies, with Hereward FM just broadcasting on 102.7 FM and The Worlds Greatest Music Station launching on 1332 AM. WGMS was short-lived, as around 1994, it was purchased by the GWR Group and then re-branded as Classic Gold 1332. Owing to going over the limits of the number of stations a group can own, GWR sold their "Classic Gold" stations, and they were bought by UBC Media, although GWR did keep a 20% stake. Then, on 3 August 2007, all Classic Gold stations were rebranded as simply "Gold". This followed the GCap Media purchase of the Classic Gold network, and the merging of the Capital Gold and Classic Gold stations [1] [2]
Classic FM is one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations and is owned and operated by Global. The station broadcasts classical music.
Heart Northants was a local commercial radio station serving Northamptonshire.
Heart Peterborough is an Independent Local Radio station serving Cambridgeshire, south Lincolnshire and west Norfolk. Launched on 10 July 1980 as Hereward Radio 225, the station was the first local service in the area, with the studios originally based in the back of a former pub in Bridge Street, Peterborough, before relocating to the Queensgate shopping centre in the city in 1987.
Heart 96.3 is a radio station serving Bristol and surrounding areas and broadcasting on 96.3 MHz in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare. Launched in 1981 as Radio West, it was merged with neighbouring Wiltshire Radio and relaunched under the name GWR in 1985, retaining the name through several changes of ownership until rebranding in March 2009. Heart Bristol merged with sister stations in Somerset and Bath to form Heart West Country.
Heart Wiltshire was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to north and west Wiltshire. The station was rebranded to Heart in March 2009 in line with Global Radio's rebranding of most of the One Network, to which the station was part of. Its local competitors were Sam FM, BBC Wiltshire and community radio station, Swindon 105.5.
Gold is a network of oldies radio stations in the United Kingdom, which was formed by the merger of the Capital Gold network and the Classic Gold network in August 2007. The station relaunched in March 2014 as a partly-automated service, broadcasting in fewer areas, after many of Gold's local AM/DAB frequencies were transferred to Smooth Radio. Most programming is broadcast from the Global Radio's studios in Leicester Square, London.
Pulse 2 was a local radio station serving Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale areas from studios in Bradford.
Solid Gold GEM AM was a United Kingdom radio station, broadcasting to much of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland and East Staffordshire from studios in Nottingham, and later Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. On 31 March 2008 the company agreed a takeover by Global Radio for £375 million. This was completed on 6 June 2008, and the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Radio.
Gold North Wales and Cheshire was a British independent local radio station broadcasting to Wrexham, Chester, Flintshire and some of the Wirral, and was part of the Gold radio network. It is the "sister" station to local FM station, Marcher Sound, launched by Marcher Radio Group in 1989. After a period of sales and takeovers which led to Gold being operated by a separate company to its FM sister station, both are now owned by Global Radio. It is broadcast from Mold Road, Gwersyllt, Wrexham, although most programming comes from London. Gold North Wales and Cheshire was replaced by Smooth Radio in March 2014.
Classic Gold 1332 was a British radio station broadcasting to the Peterborough area on 1332 kHz AM and DAB digital radio. It also was available around Cambridge on DAB digital radio. It was part of the Classic Gold Digital Network which was owned by GCap and was the sister station of 102.7 Hereward FM. Its studios were based in the Queensgate Centre, Peterborough.
Mid-Anglia Radio PLC, was a company that owned radio stations in the Norfolk and Cambridgeshire regions of the UK.
The Capital Gold network started in London in 1988 on Capital Radio's AM frequency, as the Government urged radio stations to end simulcasting and threatened to remove one of their frequencies if simulcasting continued. The original DJs on the early incarnation of Capital Gold included Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett and David Hamilton. The hiring of radio personalities to host networked shows continued to be a feature of the Capital Gold network as it grew.
Xtra AM was a United Kingdom radio station which was on the air between 1989 and 1998. It was broadcast to much of Birmingham, Coventry and Warwickshire and was the 'oldies' station which took over the mediumwave frequencies of both BRMB and Mercia FM. The programming came from the BRMB studios in Aston, Birmingham, and the signal was relayed from the Langley Mill transmitter (Birmingham) and Shilton (Coventry). The Coventry station was acquired in 1993 by GWR Group and replaced by Classic Gold, while the Birmingham station continued until 1998 when it was replaced by Capital Gold.
Capital Life, also known as Life, was a digital radio station broadcasting across the UK on the Digital One network and streamed online. Capital Life was due to be available on DTV but never launched due to the closure of the station.
This is a list of events in British radio during 1994.
Amber Radio was a classic hits/gold radio station operating from studios in both Norwich and Ipswich, in the region of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.
Midlands Radio plc was an independent radio operator, which operated seven radio licences in Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and surrounding areas in the United Kingdom.
Smooth Wales is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to the Cardiff area of South Wales and to the Wrexham area of North Wales, as well as parts of Cheshire in England. All programming content is now shared to both areas. It is the only AM station in the Smooth radio network to have its own content, a local four-hour weekday show, as all other Smooth AM stations, as added to the network in 2014, carry the London network FM content, opting out only for local news and advertising breaks. The local show on Smooth Wales was carried over from the station's previous incarnation as Gold.
This is a timeline of the development of independent radio in the UK.