[BBI45]

It is quite interesting to see how despite the steady decline in AM listening, Bauer and Global have taken very different approaches.

Frequency Finder has a list of all the AM stations from 1978 to today, and you can see how the closures breaks down.

Global:
- Gold (Exeter & Torbay) (Gemini) - 2008
- Gold (Surrey) (Mercury) - 2011
- Smooth (Bristol & Bath) (GWR) - 2016
- Smooth (Berkshire & North Hampshire) (Radio 210) - 2015
- Smooth (Beds, Herts & Bucks) (Chiltern) - 2020
- Smooth (South Wales) (Red Dragon) - 2020

Bauer:
- Absolute Classic Rock 990/1017 (Black Country & Shropshire) (Beacon) - 2020
- Absolute Classic Rock 1152 (Birmingham) (BRMB) - 2020
- Greatest Hits Radio (Leeds) (Radio Aire) - 2021
- Greatest Hits Radio (Lancashire) (Red Rose) - 2021
- Greatest Hits Radio (Manchester) - 2021
- Greatest Hits Radio (Teesside) (Radio Tees) - 2023
- Greatest Hits Radio (Staffordshire & Cheshire) (Signal) - 2023
- Greatest Hits Radio (South Wales) (Swansea Sound) - 2022
- Greatest Hits Radio (Bradford) (Pennine) - 2023
- Greatest Hits Radio (Coventry & Warwickshire) (Mercia) - 2020
- Magic (East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire) (Viking) - 2021
- Northsound 2 - 2018
- Radio City Talk - 2020

It is quite interesting to see the contrast between the two companies. Global only seems to be closing transmitters down when they need to, which made for an interesting situation in when transmitters in Peterborough and Northamptonshire switched to Smooth in 2014, only to switch back to Gold in 2019 when Smooth replaced Connect FM in the area.

In comparison, Bauer seems to just switch them off once there is sufficient coverage on either FM or DAB. Although there are a couple of exceptions:

-  Greatest Hits Radio (South Wales) - When Swansea Sound was replaced, there was a bit of a stir in the Welsh Parliament because local programming was set to be scrapped. Bauer somewhat back-tracked and agreed to keep local content from 6am-7pm, along with a Welsh language programme as part of their AM licence conditions. Bauer surrendered the AM license in 2022 and shortly after scrapped all local shows except the evening show in Welsh.

- Magic (East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire) - As part of the terms of their buyout of Lincs FM Group, KCFM in Hull was sold to Nation under a licensing agreement. The GHR AM service for the same area was switched to Magic for a few months as KCFM became GHR, before the AM license was again surrendered.

- Northsound 2 - This one was actually prompted by transmitter site redevelopment 

- Radio City Talk - Bauer claim that the station was shuttered because it wasn't financially viable. Don't doubt that, but interesting that it took so long for them to do anything.

(Sorry for the long, rambling post. However, I needed to get a bit of geekery out)


Whilst putting this together, I noticed the discussion about Welsh language programming going on above. I actually went on a day trip to Llandudno earlier, and used it as an excuse to check out Capital Cymru. I must say that whilst the content does work IMO, it is a slightly weird mix. I think it would be better if it was part of the Smooth network, given that the English version of Capital is available on DAB in Anglesey & Gwynedd and on FM in other areas. Just a quirk of what happened after GMG was bought out really.