Historic 'Gold' Stations The stations which initially formed the Greatest Hits Radio network are predominantly sister stations to the corresponding
Hits Radio network stations. Many were originally set up as a 'Gold' counterpart (e.g. Radio City Gold in Liverpool) when stations were instructed by the
Independent Broadcasting Authority to cease simulcasting their services on both AM and FM in the late 1980s. The main exception to this was FM station
West Sound in
Dumfries and Galloway.
Greatest Hits Radio (Scotland) and Magic (Northern England) In Northern England, the stations were rebranded as
Magic in 1997 – a station brand first used by
Radio Aire upon the launch of their AM station in July 1990. In Scotland, local programming on AM stations was largely retained until networking outside of weekday breakfast and specialist shows was introduced in June 2009. The Magic stations gradually began to form a network merging most of their schedule until, and by March 2013, only local content consisted of three regional breakfast shows on weekdays, serving the North West, the North East and Yorkshire. In July 2013, the remaining Scottish local output ceased, leading to a fully networked schedule known as '
Greatest Hits Network.
Greatest Hits Radio (Scotland) and Radio City 2 (Northern England) In September 2014, Bauer Radio announced it would rebrand the Magic stations under localised identities, based on the main FM station names (e.g. Magic 1152 in Manchester becomes
Key 2, based on
Key 103). Magic's AM network closed with the London equivalent,
Magic 105.4 FM, launched nationwide on DAB. The relaunch took place on Monday 5 January 2015. Initially, the two networks serving Scotland (The Greatest Hits Network) and northern England (City 2 Network) were replaced by one carrying programming from both nations over all stations, with some peak time opt-outs. Further split programming for the two nations was reintroduced the following year. On 7 December 2015,
Radio City 2 in Liverpool swapped frequencies with sister station
Radio City Talk on 105.9 FM and reintroduced local programming at peak times. In April 2018,
Northsound 2 ceased analogue broadcasting on 1035 AM, becoming the first commercial radio station in Scotland – and the first local Bauer-owned station – to broadcast only on digital platforms (DAB and online). On 4 June 2018,
Key 2 in Manchester was rebranded as Key Radio, in tandem with Key 103's relaunch as
Hits Radio.
Greatest Hits Radio (National) On 7 January 2019, Greatest Hits Radio replaced the Bauer City 2 branding due to the success of
Radio City 2 in Liverpool. Local station identities in Northern England took on Greatest Hits Radio branded names and Scottish stations retaining their local brands. Greatest Hits Radio also became available on FM in the West Midlands taking over the 105.2 FM frequency from
Absolute Radio. Greatest Hits Radio also took over Absolute Radio's London FM frequency (105.8) on 17 May 2021. The network expanded with Greatest Hits Radio UK broadcasting across most of the local DAB multiplexes across the UK. The service took the Liverpool FM programming with national news bulletins and traffic reports.
Network expansion In May 2020, Bauer announced that 48 local radio stations in England and South West Wales would rebrand and join the Greatest Hits Radio network, following the acquisition of licences from
UKRD,
Wireless Group,
Lincs FM Group and
Celador. Most of the stations were merged and began carrying networked output, alongside a regional show on weekdays and localised news, travel and advertising. On 13 July 2020, the former Wireless Group and Celador-owned stations joined the Greatest Hits Radio network. The nineteen stations carried local breakfast shows and voicetracked programming whilst retaining separate branding until the full relaunch on 1 September 2020. On 1 September, Bauer closed down Leeds-based
Radio Aire so that it could switch the frequency from the
Hits Radio network to Greatest Hits Radio as part of the merging with twelve stations in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. On 17 September 2020, Bauer bought
Radio Plymouth. On 15 October 2020, it was announced that the Suffolk station
Ipswich 102, part-owned by Bauer through their purchase of Lincs FM Group, would take the GHR brand and network programming, including the East region drivetime show, from November, with the former
Town 102 on DAB, which had carried GHR East since the September network relaunch, being replaced by
Hits Radio. On 22 October 2020, it was reported the Oldham and Rochdale station
Revolution 96.2 had been sold to Bauer for conversion into GHR, joining the Manchester AM and Bolton/Bury FM licenses in the GHR North West network. In March 2021,
Ofcom approved Bauer's application for permission to alter the FM licence held by the London FM relay of
Absolute Radio, enabling the frequency to be used to provide a London variant of GHR. with Absolute Radio continuing to be available by way of its national AM and digital transmissions. The change took place on 17 May. On 17 June 2021 Bauer announced the purchase of
Imagine Radio from the Like Media Group, with the existing Imagine service slated to be replaced by separate GHR feeds for
Stockport and North Cheshire and
the Peak District and Derbyshire Dales. On 19 September 2022,
Wave 105's Poole transmitter began carrying
Greatest Hits Radio Dorset. On 22 November 2022, Bauer announced that
CFM in Cumbria & South West Scotland will rebrand to Greatest Hits Radio from 3 April 2023. On 14 December 2022, Greatest Hits Radio launched on
Sky, replacing
Scala Radio on the platform. On 12 January 2023, Bauer announced that the seven heritage names in Scotland (
Clyde 2,
Forth 2,
MFR 2,
Tay 2 and
Westsound (Ayrshire) and (Dumfries and Galloway), would rebrand as Greatest Hits Radio from 3 April. On 31 January 2023, Bauer announced that
Radio Borders was to rebrand as Greatest Hits Radio from 3 April, following the news earlier in the month which will see the seven Scottish heritage names also rebranding on the same day. On 1 March 2023, Bauer announced that
Lincs FM would lose its FM frequency and go DAB only from 3 April. The FM frequency would become Greatest Hits Radio. On the same day, Bauer also announced that three of the four FM frequencies held by
Kiss in Cambridge (105.6), Ipswich and Colchester (106.4) and Peterborough (107.7), would switch to carrying Greatest Hits Radio and join the
GHR East network. The 106.1 frequency in Norwich would continue to carry Kiss. On 4 September 2023, localised versions of GHR launched in
Kent and
Northern Ireland. Both previously had the national version of the station on DAB. On 12 November 2023, it was announced that GHR's remaining medium wave transmissions, in Scotland and northern England, would cease by the end of the year, but the station would continue on DAB in the affected areas. On 13 December 2023, Bauer pulled its stations from satellite and cable television. On 28 March 2024, Bauer closed down Hampshire based
Wave 105 and it re-branded into the Greatest Hits Radio network as
Greatest Hits Radio South Coast. On 9 September 2024, it was announced that a sister station named "Greatest Hits Radio 60s" begin broadcasting on 16 September 2024. A new national weekday afternoon show airs from 11 November 2024, resulting in the axe of many regionalised shows in England. The national breakfast show extended to the South of England from 23 December 2024, meaning all England stations are now fully networked. On 10 March 2025, it was announced that sister stations named "Greatest Hits Radio 70s and Greatest Hits Radio 80s" would launch across the UK on DAB+. They began broadcasting on 31 March 2025. In June 2025,
Bauer Media Audio Ireland soft launched a version of Greatest Hits Radio aimed at listeners in the
Republic of Ireland, as part of one-year trial licenses of DAB+ services in the country. Whilst it maintains a similar branding and playlist as the UK network, the Irish station does not syndicate any of the networked programming from the UK station, instead utilising
automated music programming with Ireland-based presentation. On 22 June 2025, Choice Broadcasting Ltd. obtained a temporary injunction prohibiting Bauer from using the name "Greatest Hits Radio" in the Republic of Ireland, as it was too similar to its own competing
Ireland's Classic Hits Radio network. Choice argued that it had already warned Bauer against using the name in correspondence prior to the launch, and also cited summaries
generated by artificial intelligence (AI) on
Google Search which
falsely stated that Bauer's GHR was replacing Choice's Classic Hits Radio. On 28 July 2025, the Greatest Hits at Breakfast show presented by Simon "Rossie" Ross began broadcasting nationwide, which included the show being rolled out to Scotland, making Greatest Hits Radio a fully networked station, however local and regional news bulletins, weather, traffic and travel reports and adverts have been retained. == Stations ==