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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 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.

Overview

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.

Stations

Programming and presenters

The majority of programming is broadcast among all Bauer City 2 stations in Scotland and Northern England, although there are separate shows for the two countries at peak times, including weekday breakfast and drive time.

Most programming originates from the studios of Key 2 in Castlefield and Clyde 2 in Glasgow. Some other output is broadcast from Metro 2 Radio in Newcastle, Forth 2 in Edinburgh, Tay 2 in Dundee and Bauer's headquarters at Golden Square, Soho.

Networked presenters

Local opt-outs

All stations in the network carry their own local news and traffic bulletins every hour from 6am to 6pm on weekdays and from 9am to 1pm at weekends.

In Scotland, the stations opt-out on Saturday afternoons throughout the football season for live match commentaries, predominantly on Scottish Premiership games. West Sound FM, which carries output from the Bauer City 2 network, also airs its own local programming.

Radio City 2 is due to introduce local programming at breakfast and drive time when it swaps its AM frequency with Radio City Talk on 105.9 FM, following a request for format changes from OFCOM.

References

1. Schedule released for Bauer City 2 stations, RadioToday, 19 December 2014
2. Magic AM starts networking at breakfast, RadioToday, 15 February 2013
3. Galloway goes national at Bauer Scotland, RadioToday, 3 June 2013
4. Major brand swap for Bauer's local stations, RadioToday, 28 September 2014
5. Schedule released for Bauer City 2 stations, RadioToday, 19 December 2014
6. Radio City wants to swap AM & FM services, RadioToday, 21 July 2015
7. OFCOM statement on Radio City 2 and City Talk format change requests, 29 October 2015

External links

• Official website
• Bauer Media

• British radio networks
• Bauer Radio
• Bauer Group (UK)
• Bauer City network