Bauer City 2 (radio network)
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| Broadcast area | Scotland and northern England |
|---|---|
| Slogan | The Greatest Hits for... |
| Frequency |
MW: 828 – 1584 kHz FM: 96.5 - 105.9 MHz DAB |
| First air date | 5 January 2015 |
| Format | Oldies and specialist music |
| Language(s) | English |
| Owner | Bauer Radio |
| Sister stations |
Bauer City 1 Bauer City 3 |
| Website | planetradio.co.uk/ |
Bauer City 2 is a network of 15 local radio stations in Scotland and northern England, owned and operated by Bauer Radio.
The stations, which carry separate localised branding, air a mainly networked schedule of classic hits music, alongside local news and travel, specialist music programming and a weekly current affairs phone-in on Sunday mornings. The network launched on Monday 5 January 2015.
The stations which form the Bauer City 2 network are predominantly AM sister stations of the corresponding Bauer City 1 station. Many were originally set up as a 'Gold' counterpart (e.g. Radio City Gold in Liverpool) when stations were told by the Radio Authority to stop simulcasting on both FM and AM in the late 1980s. The exception to this is the FM station West Sound (Dumfries and Galloway).
In Northern England, the stations were latterly rebranded as Magic - a station brand first used by Radio Aire upon the launch of their AM station in July 1990. The stations gradually began to network most of their schedule - by March 2013, the only local content consisted of three regional breakfast shows on weekdays, serving the North West, the North East and Yorkshire.
In Scotland, local programming on AM stations was largely retained until networking outside of weekday breakfast and specialist shows was introduced in June 2009. In July 2013, the remaining local output was axed, leading to a fully networked schedule known as The Greatest Hits Network.
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, being launched nationwide on DAB.
The schedules for the stations were announced in December 2014. The two previous networks serving Scotland (The Greatest Hits Network) and northern England (Magic AM) were replaced by one carrying programming from both Scotland and England over all stations. The relaunch took place on Monday 5 January 2015.
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.
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