Radio Aire 2

History

Radio Aire was launched on 1 September 1981 and was originally broadcast on 362 metres medium wave (828 kHz AM) and 94.6 VHF (although the VHF/FM frequency was moved to 96.3 in 1986). When Radio Aire split its AM & FM frequencies to form two different stations in 1990, the AM service was named Magic 828. It was launched by Roger Kirk at 8:28am on 17 July 1990 and the first song played was Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles.

The 'Magic 828' name was created by Bob Preedy who was a presenter on Radio Aire at the time.

Its first jingle package was produced by Century 21 and the voice-overs were voiced by John Myers.

The programmes between 6am and 1am were broadcast live from Studio 2 in Radio Aire's Burley Road studio complex in Leeds. The original weekday line-up was Roger Kirk (6am-9.30am), Ray Stroud (9.30am-1pm), The Magic Mix (1pm-2pm), Peter Tait (2pm-6pm), Nothing But The 60's (6pm-7pm), Mike Vitti (7pm-10pm), Alex Hall (10pm-1am) and The Superstation (1am-6am). A few months after Magic 828's launch, The Superstation closed, Andy Siddell took over evenings and Mike Vitti presented the new overnight programme, Nightflight. The Nightflight programme was simulcast on Aire FM & Magic 828 and broadcast between 1am & 6am from Studio 1 (the studio used for Aire FM). Local news during the early 1990s was also simulcast on both stations, although Aire FM only took the first two minutes of the bulletin.

After Emap bought Radio Aire and Magic 828 in 1995, they began to roll the Magic brand out across the other AM stations in the group, creating Magic 1161 (Hull), Magic AM (Sheffield), Magic 1152 (Newcastle), Magic 1170 (Teesside), Magic 999 (Preston), Magic 1548 (Liverpool) and Magic 1152 (Manchester).

In December 2001, EMAP decided that it was more economical for the Magic network to share off-peak programmes and in line with the other Magic AM stations began networking between 10am-2pm, and 7pm-6am. During these hours it was simply known as Magic, although there were local commercial breaks, and local news on the hour.

In January 2003 after a sharp decline in listening, the station ceased networking with the London station Magic 105.4. At this point, a regional northern network was created with programmes broadcast from Magic 1152 in Newcastle. During networked hours, local adverts are aired, as well as local news on the hour.

In July 2006, more networking was introduced across the Northern Magic AM network with only the 4 hour breakfast show between 06:00 and 10:00 presented from the local studios. However the decision was taken in April 2013 to network this show across the other Yorkshire-based Magic stations. Other programming was networked from Newcastle, Manchester and London.

Following the rebrand of all the North of England ex-Magic stations at the start of 2015, Magic 828 is now known as Radio Aire 2 and is entirely networked with the other Bauer AM stations in the North although local news, weather and travel continue to be broadcast as opt-outs during the day.

Programming

The majority of Radio Aire 2's programming is taken from the Bauer City 2 network, although there are separate shows for northern England at peak times, including weekday breakfast and drive time.

Programming originates from Key 2 in Manchester, Clyde 2 in Clydebank, Forth 2 in Edinburgh, Metro Radio 2 in Newcastle, Tay 2 in Dundee and Bauer's headquarters at Golden Square, Soho.

News and Sport

Radio Aire 2 broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays, from 9am 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 at weekends, produced from Key 2's newsroom in Manchester. Extended sports coverage is featured in the network's Game On programme on Saturday afternoons.