City Newcastle Frequency MW: 1170 kHz
DAB: 11B Format Oldies | Broadcast area Tees Valley First air date 24 June 1975 | |
Slogan The Greatest Hits for the North East | ||
TFM 2 is a local radio station owned and operated by Bauer Radio as part of the City 2 network. It broadcasts to County Durham, Tees Valley and North Yorkshire from studios in Newcastle.
Contents
History
Originally launched as Great North Radio by Metropolitan Broadcasting or The Metro Radio group as it was known in March, 1989. The station broadcasts on the old Radio Tees AM frequency of 1170 kHz Medium Wave.
Tom Davies was the first ever voice heard on the re-launched magic 1170 and successfully hosted the breakfast show on the station for a number of years.
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 decline in listening, the station ceased networking with the London station, Magic 105.4, and a regional network was created with Magic 1152 in Manchester at the hub at the weekend and the Newcastle station of the same name during the week. During networked hours, local adverts are aired, as well as a local news summary on the hour together with local traffic and travel in the afternoon.
From July 2006, more networking was introduced across the Northern Magic AM network with only the weekday breakfast (with a running length of four hours) presented from local studios.
Between March 2013 and December 2014, weekday breakfast was a syndicated regional programme from Magic 1152 in Newcastle presented by Anna Foster. On 5 April 2013, the studios in Thornaby ceased broadcasting local programming on sister station TFM.
On 5 January 2015, Magic 1170 was rebranded as TFM 2 as part of a revamp of the Bauer network and all programming is now 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 TFM 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
TFM 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.