The origins of the station lie in a student radio station,
Oxygen 107.9 which was trialled in November 1995 and launched at 1.07pm on Valentine's Day 1997. It was acquired in late 2000 by Fusion Radio Holdings, which rebranded the station as
Fusion 107.9. Fusion merged with the
Milestone Group in 2003 and the station was relaunched again as
Passion 107.9, but was sold to ARI Consultancy (previously known as Absolute Radio International) in 2006, leading to another rebrand as '''Oxford's FM 107.9'''. In February 2010, the station's owners lodged a request with
Ofcom to change the station's format to one that would target listeners over 45 years old. The station argued the "transient" nature of students makes it commercially difficult to market a radio station to an audience that leaves the city each year. Several fans of late night "specialist" shows responded to Ofcom's public consultation as well as local business owners. Ofcom considered this, but the Radio Licensing Committee rejected this proposal. The station responded by saying that changes it had made meant the format change had become less necessary. On 18 August 2010, after a
publicity stunt where it briefly branded as
Glee FM (airing only
music from the American musical
comedy-drama series
Glee)
, the station relaunched as
Glide FM. The new format would be positioned towards women.'''' The station relaunched again as
Jack 2 on 20 August 2013. As JACK 2 Hits, it was a music-heavy station with only limited speech, instead allowing listeners to control the music and submit recordings of themselves to be played (through WhatsApp or the Jack 2 Hits app). The station was aimed at a young adult-contemporary audience and plays seven hours per week of specialist music as required by
Ofcom. In July 2023 it was announced that JACK Media Oxfordshire licences serving Oxfordshire, including JACK 2 Hits, would be acquired by
Bauer subject to regulatory approval. The owners of JACK Media Oxfordshire will retain the ownership of the UK rights to the JACK FM brand, with the Oxfordshire services to be rebranded following the acquisition as
Greatest Hits Radio and Hits Radio. JACK 2 Hits ceased transmission in the early hours of 30 October 2023. The final song played was “
Rather Be” by
Clean Bandit. ==References==