The station is transmitted from the High Hunsley transmitter on the Yorkshire Wolds, near North Cave, sharing the 200 ft tower with Capital Yorkshire and BBC Radio Humberside, as well as on the Bauer Humberside DAB multiplex from three transmitters, located at High Hunsley, Buckton Barn near Bridlington and Grimsby town centre. It is also streamed over the Internet via Viking FM's website, making it accessible to listeners from all across the United Kingdom. Worldwide webcasting has recently been suspended for licensing reasons.
History
During the application process for the licence, the station's working title was Humber Bridge Radio; however on 17 April 1984, it was launched as Viking Radio and broadcast on 102.7 FM and 1161 kHz AM. The first on-air presenter was David Fewster and the first song played was Celebration by Kool & the Gang. In Spring 1986, the frequency was changed to 96.9 FM, the then residence of arch-competitor Radio Humberside,. In the Summer of 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 to take The Network Chart Show. On 31 October 1988, Viking Radio split frequencies on a permanent basis and was transformed into Viking FM on 96.9 FM and Viking Gold on 1161 medium wave. The AM station later became Classic Gold, Classic Gold Radio, Great Yorkshire Gold, Great Yorkshire Radio, Magic 1161 and Viking 2. It is now known as Greatest Hits East Yorkshire. In 1990, The Yorkshire Radio Network, who owned Viking as well as Radio Hallam, Pennine Radio and Classic Gold, were bought by The Metro Radio group. In 1996, the station was bought by media empire, EMAP and as a result of a group takeover in 2008, Viking is now owned by Bauer Media Group, as part of the Hits Radio network of radio stations. In August 2019, Bauer announced Viking FM would cease broadcasting from its Hull studios and co-locate with sister station Hallam FM in Sheffield from Wednesday 2 October 2019. The station retains local news, advertising and charity staff, based in the broadcast area.
Achievement
In 2005, the station won its first Gold Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards for "Happy Hour"; a news investigation into binge drinking in the region. They won a Bronze award in 2006 for their series of programmes on subjects like ASBO's and street crime. In 2005, Viking FM's Creative Team won a Vox Award for a Road Safety ad, in 2006 they won no less than 4 Vox Awards and the London International Awards for Sound Design. In 2007 they achieved a finalist place at the New York Awards and won a United Nations Award for Peace and Human Rights, one of only 4 given out worldwide.
Branding
The original logo depicted the station mascot "Eric the Viking", this was phased out in the late 1980s when the logo style was shared with its sister stations. This was later phased out and replaced by the Bauer City 'splash'; used by many stations on the network. In 2015, the logo was overhauled across the Bauer City network and Viking FM has now adopted the 'Your' logo, in line with branding changes to all Bauer City stations. Viking's original package was produced by CBC Creative - further idents were made by Jam Creative Productions, Alfasound and Reelworld. Viking went through a stage starting in the late 1990s of only using voice over sweeper production produced in-house, however, in 2006 a new sung package was commissioned, produced by Wise Buddah.
Programming
Networked programming originates from Bauer's Manchester headquarters. Local programming is produced and broadcast from Bauer's Sheffield studios, weekdays 6-10am
News
Bauer’s Sheffield newsroom broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am-7pm on weekdays, and from 7am-1pm on weekends. Headlines are broadcast on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins. National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried overnight with bespoke networked bulletins on weekend afternoons, usually originating from Bauer's Leeds newsroom.
