north west england frequency fm 106.1 mhz first air date 5 may 2008 format speech and classic rock audience share 1.4 % december 2015 rajar owner communicorp website www.xsmanchester.co.uk xs manchester is a radio station based in salford greater manchester broadcasting a variety of peak time news rock music and talk output . contents 1 history 2 rebrand 3 references 4 external links history edit the station began test transmissions as 106.1 rock radio on fm on 10 april 2008 . the transmitter is on top of the city tower the former sunley building in piccadilly in manchester the same place as capital manchester and radio x s transmitter and all 3 services share the same broadcast antenna system which is located on the centre transmission tower and is illuminated with red aircraft warning lights at night . the station organised a free one day festival to promote its launch this was held at cathedral gardens with headlining bands bad company and gun with support acts salford jets letz zep and mercury . the performances started at 1 00pm with a countdown to 6 00pm when the station went live . the first voice heard on rock radio was the mid morning presenter moose . due to the mix of output the original application was made under the name rock talk . the licence competition included bids by existing licence holders chrysalis and emap as well as a number by smaller local groups . 1 chrysalis radio s managing director expressed his surprise that the talk rock hybrid won in preference to a dedicated talk or rock station both of which had been offered by his group . 2 following the award a decision was made to position the station as a sister to the newly relaunched scottish station 96.3 rock radio . the then parent company guardian media group owns the local newspaper manchester evening news a series of local newspapers a city wide terrestrial and national satellite tv station channel m and the two regional licences for north west real radio north west and smooth radio . on 25 june 2012 it was announced global radio had bought gmg radio 3 4 the division continued to operate separately until 2014 when following ofcom s regulatory review into gmg radio s takeover global radio announced that 106.1 real radio xs would be one of eight stations it would be selling to communicorp . 5 in march 2016 the station was rebranded as xs manchester . 6 rebrand edit real radio xs logo used until 2016 . on 28 july 2011 gmg radio announced that the manchester based service would be re branded as 106.1 real radio xs while the glasgow based 96.3 rock radio would be sold and was released that the new real radio xs service would benefit from the brand and scale of sister station real radio . 7 on 29 august 2011 it was announced that the new service would launch on 5 september 2011 and would be extended to be available over a much larger area replacing jazz fm uk in london the north west and the west midlands as jazz fm had been launched nationally via the digital one dab platform . 8 the move gave the rock service dab availability in its 106.1 fm coverage area for the first time . real radio xs from manchester was also added to switch scotland replacing 105.2 smooth radio which moved from the regional multiplex to replace jazz fm on the bauer glasgow local multiplex . the glasgow multiplex also carries the local 96.3 real radio xs meaning dab listeners in glasgow can now access both versions . references edit rock talk plunkett john 8 february 2007 . rock talk wins manchester bid . mediaguardian . london guardian news and media . gmg radio sold to global for 50m mark sweeney the guardian 25 june 2012 global radio seals 50m purchase of gmg radio maisie mccabe media week 25 june 2012 martin roy 6 february 2014 . communicorp buys 8 global stations . radiotoday . retrieved 16 march 2016 . macpherson ande 23 february 2016 . real radio xs to rebrand as xs manchester . radiotoday . retrieved 16 march 2016 . radio today gmg drop rock radio for real radio xs radio today jazz fm leaves regional dab platforms permanent dead link external links edit official website v t e radio stations in greater manchester england longwave am stations 198 bbc radio 4 252 rt radio 1 medium wave am stations 909 693 bbc radio 5 live 1089 1053 talksport 1152 key 2 1215 absolute radio 1350 radio cavell 1377 asian sound radio 1458 gold fm stations 88.4 gaydio 89.3 89.8 bbc radio 2 90.1 legacy fm 91.5 91.9 bbc radio 3 92.8 unity radio 93.7 94.1 bbc radio 4 94.4 salford city radio 95.1 104.6 bbc radio manchester 96.2 96.2 the revolution 96.5 bolton fm 96.9 all fm 97.0 crescent radio 97.2 wythenshawe fm 97.7 radio x 98.9 99.3 bbc radio 1 99.7 oldham community radio 100.4 smooth radio 101.1 classic fm 102.0 capital 102.4 wish fm 103.0 key 103 103.6 tameside radio 104.9 imagine fm 105.4 heart 106.1 xs manchester 106.6 north manchester fm 107.4 tower fm 107.8 pure radio . the fm bbc radio stations are broadcast from two transmitters holme moss and saddleworth . dab stations absolute radio absolute radio 80s absolute radio 90s asian sound radio bbc radio 1 bbc radio 2 bbc radio 3 bbc radio 4 bbc radio 4 extra bbc radio 5 live bbc radio 5 live sports extra bbc radio 6 music bbc asian network bbc world service bbc radio manchester bfbs radio classic fm capital capital xtra heart north west heat radio key 103 key 2 key 3 kiss lbc magic uk planet rock premier christian radio radio x smooth extra smooth radio north west talksport ucb uk christian multiplexes ce manchester local united kingdom radio markets aberdeen glasgow london liverpool manchester northern ireland south west england west midlands west yorkshire worcester see also list of radio stations in the united kingdom coordinates 53 28 12 n 2 17 16 w 53.470053 n 2.28766 w 53.470053 ; 2.28766 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title xs manchester & oldid 733130598 categories radio stations in manchesterradio stations established in 20082008 establishments in englandclassic rock 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