The station was previously known as Pennine Radio, Classic Gold, Great Yorkshire Gold, Great Yorkshire Radio, 1278 and 1530 AM West Yorkshire, West Yorkshire's Big AM, Pennine's Big AM, West Yorkshire's Classic Gold and Pulse Classic Gold and under previous ownership was part of the Yorkshire Radio Network. When, in 1989, Pennine Radio was split into Pennine FM and Classic Gold, the AM service became part of a network, initially with sister stations in Hull and Sheffield. In 1997, bosses decided to buy in the former GWR Classic Gold service and produced local programming at breakfast. A couple of years later, Classic Gold was dropped in favour of becoming part of the BIG AM network with sister stations in Stoke and Manchester. Shortly after, Gold reappeared, simulcasting the GWR/UBC Classic Gold and latterly GCap Gold network. However, on 1 December 2008 the station was re-launched as a fully local service for West Yorkshire and is one of the very few legacy ILR AM stations in England to broadcast local programming.
Station rebrand
On 8 February 2019, Pulse 2 and the Wireless Group's local radio stations were sold to Bauer Radio. The sale was ratified in March 2020 following an inquiry by the Competition and Markets Authority. On 27 May 2020, it was announced that Pulse 2 will join Bauer's Greatest Hits Radio network. On 13 July 2020, local programming outside weekday breakfast was replaced by networked output from the GHR network, with Pulse 2 retaining its own branding. In September 2020, the station will rebrand as Greatest Hits Radio and merge with ten stations in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The station's local breakfast show will be replaced by a regional drivetime show. Localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising will be retained.
Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from studios in Bradford from 6am–10am on weekdays. Networked programming originates from the Greatest Hits Network's Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow studios and from Bauer's Golden Square headquarters in Soho.
News
Pulse 2 broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 6pm on weekdays, from 8am to 1pm on Saturdays and from 8am to 12pm on Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows. The station also simulcasts hourly Sky News Radio bulletins at all other times.
