The Pulse of West Yorkshire

The Pulse of West Yorkshire

Broadcast area	Bradford, Kirklees & Calderdale
Branding	West Yorkshire's HIT MUSIC Station [1]
Slogan	Today's Best Mix
Frequency	97.5 MHz, 102.5 MHz, DAB
First air date	16 September 1975
Format	contemporary
Audience share	7.9% (June 2010, [2])
Owner	UTV Radio

The Pulse is a British Independent Local Radio station that serves the Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale areas of West Yorkshire. The station was originally known as Pennine Radio. It is one of three stations that broadcast contemporary music in the UTV Radio brand.

History

The station was part of the Yorkshire Radio Network which also owned Viking FM and Hallam FM, this was bought out by Newcastle based Metro Radio Group (owners of Metro Radio and TFM). Pennine Radio became Pennine FM in the late 1980s when the AM frequency was split off to create the original incarnation of Classic Gold. In 1991, in a bid to revive flagging fortunes, Pennine FM was rebranded as "The Pulse".

The Metro Radio Group itself was bought out by EMAP in 1996 and ownership rules at the time meant that as they already owned neighbouring Radio Aire in Leeds something had to be sold on, and that was The Pulse and its sister station Classic Gold which were purchased in a management buyout from senior staff and ex-Metro Group executives. The new company was called The Radio Partnership, it was at this time that the station moved to number one position in the West Yorkshire radio market for the first time in its history.

The Radio Partnership expanded over the years to include other stations, such as Signal Radio in Stoke-on-Trent. In 1999, Kelvin MacKenzie's Talk Radio UK bought The Radio Partnership and formed The Wireless Group to include the national broadcaster and a series of local stations. In July 2005 The Wireless Group was bought out by UTV.

Service area

The main 102.5 FM signal comes from the Vicars Lot transmitter close to the M62 between Scammonden Dam and junction 23, close to the Scammonden arched bridge. This signal covers a lot of West Yorkshire and can be heard as far south as Doncaster and Sheffield, and also in the other direction in Lancashire and Greater Manchester (although Lancashire and Greater Manchester isn't the intended broadcast area). The signal is much stronger, and the transmitter at a higher altitude than the Idle transmitter. The 97.5 FM signal covers Bradford, and comes from the Idle transmitter, which is on the top of Idle Moor, between Idle and Shipley. The Idle transmitter also carries national radio frequencies, Galaxy Yorkshire on 105.6FM, Sunrise Radio on 103.2FM and Real Radio for Yorkshire on 107.6FM.

See also

• Pulse Two - sister station on AM

References

1. ^ [1]

External links

• The Pulse
• UTV Radio