Classic Gold

Classic Gold was a network of three "Gold" music formatted stations which broadcast on AM in Bradford, Hull and Sheffield. They were the Pennine Radio, Viking Radio and Radio Hallam's medium wave franchises. These stations were part of the Yorkshire Radio Network.

History

It was originally formed when Viking Radio split its frequencies and turned its medium wave service into "Viking Gold" on 31 October 1988; at the time this was group's first oldies station. Pennine and Hallam soon followed on 1 May 1989 and a network was formed calling itself Classic Gold.

For most of its life, Classic Gold was produced with a presenter in Hull, and local 'tech-ops' in Bradford and Sheffield. In Bradford two sets of adverts would be played out - one for Bradford and one for the Halifax/Huddersfield transmitter. Tech-ops included Paul Bromley, Rol Hirst, Melanie Robinson, Richard Hizzard, James Cridland, Colin Bates and Peter Carter. Part of the tech-op's duties would also be to drive the desk for the news readers - the first three minutes of which were taken by the FM station, while Classic Gold listeners got a full five minutes of news.

Classic Gold (George Carlin album)

Classic Gold is an album by American comedian George Carlin, released on October 27, 1992 on Atlantic Records. It contains the comedian's first three gold albums in their entirety: FM & AM (disc 1, tracks 1–10), Class Clown (disc 1, 11–13 and disc 2, tracks 1–6) and Occupation: Foole (disc 2, tracks 7–17).

Track listing

Disc 1

Disc 2

Plymouth Gold

Plymouth Gold (formerly Classic Gold 1152) is a radio station broadcasting to the city of Plymouth in Devon and surrounding areas. It is owned by GCap Media and was part of the national Classic Gold Digital Network. It broadcasts on 1152 kHz AM, DAB digital radio, as well as online and on Sky Digital Channel 0189 (the latter two were the national versions of Classic Gold, lacking the local elements). Based at Earl's Acre, Plymouth, its sister station is Heart Plymouth, formerly known as Plymouth Sound until 2009.

History

Plymouth Gold was launched on 19 May 1975, as Plymouth Sound, broadcasting on 97.0 FM and 261 metres medium wave (1152 AM). It was one of the earliest ILR's to launch in the UK and was the first commercial radio station for the West Country.

Towards the end of the 1980s/ early 1990s, as with most other ILRs Plymouth Sound split into two stations; the FM frequency remained as Plymouth Sound and the AM service became Plymouth Sound AM. After being owned (either fully or partly) by the GWR Group, the Capital Group and The Local Radio Company, throughout the 1990s, the station was fully bought by the GWR Group around 2000. On 7 February 2000 Plymouth Sound AM was re-branded Classic Gold 1152 (Plymouth). Due to ownership rules the GWR Group had to sell off all of their Classic Gold stations. They were sold to the UBC Media Group, although the GWR Group did keep a 20% stake in the brand. The 20% stake was increased to 100% in 2007 and GCap assumed full control of both Capital Gold and the Classic Gold Digital Network, merging the two networks, and renaming it simply Gold on 3 August.