Greatest Hits Radio for FM in London

Bauer has announced plans to bring Greatest Hits Radio to 105.8 FM in London.

The character of service would change from:

A rock-oriented station combining new music with classic album tracks, aimed at 25-44 year-old Londoners

And change to:

A station playing classic pop and rock hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s with specialist features, music documentaries and a classic album tracks show, plus local news and information aimed at 25-54 year-old Londoners

Currently Absolute Radio, the regional licence was won following an unsuccessful campaign by it’s predecessor, Virgin Radio, for a national FM network (initially wanted to use Radio 4′s transmitters, then suggested the 105-108 band should be set aside). It launched on 10th April 1995 and required a daily London opt-out in those days.

It’s not the first time an Absolute station has flipped to GHR - in late 2018, Bauer requested to change the 105.8 West Midlands regional from:

A rock-orientated station combining new music with classic album tracks aimed at 25-44 year-olds

To:

A classic pop hits service with local news and information aimed primarily at the over-30s in the West Midlands

As both are regional licences, local programming isn’t required if the service also broadcasts on national DAB. GHR isn’t, therefore WM has its own weekday drivetime show (soon to be afternoons) - London would be covered by the fact at least three hours per day comes from studios in Camden.

This makes perfect sense. Nationwide, Absolute is well-established as a digital brand and its digital hours outweigh analogue by around 3,500 in the capital.

For GHR, having a London station makes the network more attractive to agencies. Radio 2 is second in the market so it’ll be particularly interesting to see how Simon Mayo’s new national drivetime show (launching 8th March) holds up.