City Newcastle Format CHR, news and talk | First air date 15 July 1974 | |
 | ||
Broadcast area Tyne and Wear
County Durham
Northumberland Slogan All the biggest hits, All day long Frequency FM:
102.6 MHz (Alnwick)
103.0 MHz (Fenham)
103.2 MHz (Hexham)
97.1 MHz (Tyne Tunnel Relay)
97.1 MHz (Newcastle upon Tyne)
RDS: METRO
DAB: 11C | ||
Metro Radio is a local radio station owned and operated by Bauer Radio as part of the City 1 network. It broadcasts to County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear from studios in Newcastle. The station's output is shared with sister North East station TFM.
Contents
Launch
The Newcastle-based station, broadcasting to North East England, launched on 15 July 1974. The first Breakfast Show was presented by Don Dwyer, an Australian radio presenter formerly at ABC, Len Groat, Giles Squire, Dave Gregory, James Whale, Peter Wraight, Peter Sampson and Harry Rowell were also there from the beginning. The first show also included messages of congratulations from Kenny Everett at the equivalent local commercial station in London, Capital Radio.
Studios
The station transmitted from a studio in Swalwell, Gateshead, which, in later years, would be adjacent to the MetroCentre. In 2005 Metro, and sister station Magic 1152 moved to the former BT building, previously known as Swan House, now known as 55° North, next to the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Football commentary
Until 2005 the station broadcast live football commentary for the region's two biggest clubs — Newcastle United and Sunderland. In an attempt to boost ratings, the football commentary was stopped. However, a negative response from football fans prompted the owners to cover all Newcastle and Sunderland games on sister station Magic 1152.
TFM co-location
As of Monday 8 April 2013, all Metro's programming is shared with TFM. However, the Metro branding is retained along with separate advertising. The two stations were able to co-locate without consultation as the Metro Radio licence area is located in one approved broadcast area (North East England).
Programming
All programming on Metro Radio - local, networked and syndicated - is shared with TFM. The majority of the station's programming is produced from Newcastle. Other networked programming originates from Key 103 in Manchester via the Bauer City 1 network. The Vodafone Big Top 40 is syndicated from Global Radio at its Capital studios in London for broadcast on over 145 commercial radio stations across the UK.
The station's main presenters include Steve Furnell and Karen Wight (Steve & Karen's Breakfast Show), Brian Moore (weekday daytimes), Dan Moylan (Home Run), Alan Robson (Night Owls), Chris Felton (Saturday afternoons) and Jonny Chambers (Sunday afternoons).
News
Metro Radio broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays, from 7am to 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside sport and traffic bulletins.
National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried overnight with bespoke networked bulletins on weekend afternoons from Key 103's Manchester newsroom.
Notable former presenters
The DJ and TV presenter James Whale launched his radio career on Metro, presenting the Nightowls show between 1974 and 1980. Other notable former presenters include: