[Laotian_12_inMember]

Radio City has just announced that they will be changing their name to Hits Radio Liverpool by April this year, MONTHS before they turn 50.

We must all agree that Bauer is becoming a very evil corporation by getting rid of all the local stations and replacing them with Hits Radio and GHR, as part of UK Radio’s journey downhill.

Edit: Turns out it is also happening with the rest of the former Bauer City 1 stations and former Wireless-owned FM stations in England and Wales, I guess the Scottish stations like Clyde 1 and Forth 1 are safe for now…

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• This topic was modified 3 months ago by .

[Laotian_12_inMemberAuthor]

But some good news – DevonAir is coming back! Let’s hope they have those Alfasound jingles.

[Neil LeibowitzMember]

“Hits” Radio–just imagine moving the “S” IN FRONT of the “H”…:)

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[Vaughn Stephen BaskinMember]

No! Just no.

[IainJohnstonMember]

” I guess the Scottish stations like Clyde 1 and Forth 1 are safe for now…”

All skooshing faster and faster downhill here too.

Forth1 Edinburgh TOH/news-in now “mentions” being “part of the Bauer family of stations”.

Also, only breakfast now live from Edinburgh, Forth House Forth Street now long gone, all comes
from a cubbyhole in the delightfully nicknamed “Walnut Whip” new shopping centre,
with rest of it smart-networked out of Clydebank.
Very slick “joined-up bits” though – ordinary punter would never know, unless they hop
quickly between any two over-lapping “local” Bauer stations here.

And in Fife…
The Beano’s Kingdom FM introduced some (handful?) new jingles after New Year…for some reason using
a VERY recognisable 6-note American logo stinger before-and-after just anything with speech, which
of course doesn’t match the 5-note logo they’ve used for years. And its now so over-played it’ll burn
out in no time.
Programming very tightened-up, ad breaks longer but with fast brief spoken station namechecks within the
breaks c.f. French networked stations – and shades of the old WABC “programming element” insertion perhaps?

[IainJohnstonMember]

PS
The Radio City sign name is entangled legally with the Listing Building Grading of the Tower…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-67937248

And Metro Newcastle going is not making the Geordies happy either!
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/metro-radio-lose-famous-name-28423039

[UKJinglesMember]

Just have to be thankful those of us over 50 can remember when we had proper LOCAL Radio in the UK…
Unfortunately Both BBC and Independent LOCAL Radio have been murdered…. 😢

[TigerQ105Member]

I feel like this ‘Hits Radio’ branding feels so… Orwellian. It’s giving iHeart’s so-called “Premium Choice” network where there are no local shows, no local personalities, just a bunch of generic low-live voice trackers all over the schedule with a default playlist consisting only of the same 5-10 songs in a row every hour from their “Middle-of-Sodding-Nowhere Honda Studios”

Who thought that mega-corporations like Bauer and Global decided they wanted to unify their radio stations into one brand the same way ITV did back in the late 1990s was a good idea anyway? Who approved this just to let go of these heritage brands and slap on some generic Hits Radio brand? This isn’t what a REAL local radio is about nowadays. This doesn’t seem right at all.

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[TigerQ105Member]

Balls. Now it’s Wave 105’s and Pirate’s turn to become GHR. Seems like Bauer’s evil rebranding plan is almost close to 100% soon.

Wave 105 and Pirate FM frequencies to become Greatest Hits Radio

[Author]

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