Broadcast area Leeds
West Yorkshire First air date 1 September 1981 | Slogan Your Music, Your Life Format CHR/Pop | |
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Frequency FM: RDS __AIRE__ MHz96.3 DAB: 12D Audience share 5.1% (June 2016, RAJAR) | ||
Radio Aire is an Independent Local Radio station serving Leeds and West Yorkshire. It is owned & operated by Bauer Radio and forms part of Bauer's City 1 network of stations.
Contents
History
The station was launched on 1 September 1981 by presenter Graham Thornton and the first song played was Pilot of the Airwaves by Charlie Dore. Radio Aire originally broadcast on 362 metres medium wave (828 kHz AM) and 94.6 VHF but was moved to 96.3 FM (VHF) in 1986.
Radio Aire is situated on Burley Road (Kirkstall Road) next to Yorkshire Television's studios and was the first Independent Local Radio station to have studios specially built for the purpose of radio transmission. In the late 1980s, the studios were used for The James Whale Radio Show, which was a late night TV show, broadcast on ITV, Radio Aire and Red Rose Radio.
On 17 July 1990, Radio Aire split frequencies, forming Aire FM and Magic 828. In 1992, the name was changed to Radio Aire FM and then, 96.3 Aire FM in 1995. A change of format in 1996 saw another station name change to The New 96.3 Aire FM before The New was dropped in 1998. By March 2001, Radio Aire had reverted to its original name.
The station, together with Magic 828 was bought by EMAP in 1995 and it became part of their Big City Network of stations and has maintained a generic branding with sister stations across Northern England since about 2000. Following the acquisition of EMAP Radio, the station is now part of Bauer Radio.
Transmitter information
The station's FM transmission is radiated at the Tingley site in Morley, close to the A653 and junction 28 of the M62. The adjacent mast, known as Morley, is former home of the station's FM transmissions. It continues to broadcast sister station Radio Aire 2 on medium wave, and the Leeds DAB multiplex, which also carries Radio Aire 3.
Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from Radio Aire's Leeds studios from 6am-2pm and 3-7pm on weekdays, 2-6pm on Saturdays and 12-4pm on Sundays.
Radio Aire also airs networked programming from sister station 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 130 commercial radio stations across the UK.
The station's local presenters include Ant Arthur, Kelly Pegg and Michael Blades (Radio Aire Breakfast), Scott Makin and Carl Spencer (Home Run). The station's network presenters include Paddy McGuinness, Darryl Morris, Marvin Humes, and Wes Butters.
News
Radio Aire broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays, from 7am to 1pm on Saturdays and from 9am to 12pm on 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 usually produced in the Leeds newsroom for the rest of the group stations.