History
It began as Viking Radio on 102.7FM and 1161MW. During the application process for the licence the station's working title was Humber Bridge Radio. In spring 1986, the radio station had to move to 96.9FM, the then residence of arch-competitor Radio Humberside, which moved to 95.9FM. In summer 1986, the station hit the showbiz big time by signing up the pop music connoisseur Paul Gambaccini. Viking was the first commercial radio station in the UK to introduce split programming so that it could broadcast rugby league commentary on Sunday afternoons on its AM frequency leaving FM clear to take the Network Chart Show. In 1988, Viking Radio split frequencies on a permanent basis and was transformed into Viking FM on 96.9 FM and Viking Gold on 1161 (said "Double-One Six-One") medium wave. The AM station later became Classic Gold, Classic Gold Radio, Great Yorkshire Gold and Great Yorkshire Radio. It is now known as Magic 1161 (said "Eleven-Sixty-One").
In 1990, The Yorkshire Radio Network, who owned Viking as well as Radio Hallam, Pennine Radio and Classic Gold, were bought by Metro Radio group, who in turn were bought by media empire EMAP in 1996 and is part of their Big City Network of stations. As a result of their 2008 takeover of the group, Viking is now owned by H. Bauer Publishing as part of their radio arm.
Read more about this topic: 96.9 Viking FM
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)