Media UK

Key 103 - news archive

This is an archive of news about Key 103. Some links may no longer work, due to the transient nature of the internet.

Ditchy back in Manchester
From Radio Today. Posted April 22 2008, 6.13pm
David Ditchfield is returning to the north-west to join 105.4 Century Radio’s breakfast show, just months after leaving Bauer Radio's flagship station Key 103. Ditchy is the third breakfast presenter for the GMG Radio station in the past 15 months. (more)

James H Reeve joins Rock Radio
From Radio Today. Posted April 22 2008, 10.13am
James H Reeve is the latest Mancunian broadcaster to join Manchester's Rock Radio. The former BBC and Key 103 presenter will host weekend breakfast on the new station.GMG Radio have also announced their signings for weekday mid-mornings and evenings. (more)

Bauer extends local job site
From Radio Today. Posted April 22 2008, 3.23am
Bauer Radio is launching a station-branded recruitment service at two more north west radio stations. Rock FM in Preston and Radio City in Liverpool will follow Key 103's lead in Manchester to offer online classifieds and jobs, powered by Bauer's own Workmoose service. (more)

Xfm completes daytime line-up
From Radio Today. Posted March 20 2008, 8.03am
It’s business as usual at Xfm London as former Key 103 and MTV presenter Jo Good is hired to host the afternoon show. Jo completes the new daytime line up of Alex Zane, Rick Shaw and Dave Berry and starts her new show on Tuesday. (more)

New Long Term Deals at Key 103
From Merry Media. Posted March 4 2008, 12.14pm
Mike Toolan, Chelsea Norris and Justin Moorhouse have signed new long term deals with Key 103 in Manchester. Toolan and Chelsea present the breakfast show and Justin presents the afternoon show on the station. . (more)

Former Key 103 boss joins Excel
From Radio Today. Posted February 14 2008, 7.58am
Gus McKenzie, the former managing director of Key 103 and Paisley's QFM has left the radio industry to take up the position of sales and operations director at Excel Publishing. Gus most recently worked on behalf of Absolute Radio to apply for the second Manchester licence as JACK fm. (more)

Proctor gets Key 103 drivetime
From Radio Today. Posted November 20 2007, 8.56pm
Darren Proctor is set to return to the show he hosted five years ago on Manchester's Key 103. He will replace Ditchy on drivetime, who is moving to Real Radio Yorkshire. (more)

Ditchy drops Key for Real
From Radio Today. Posted November 7 2007, 12.56pm
Key 103's drivetime presenter David Ditchfield is heading back to Leeds to takeover afternoons at Real Radio Yorkshire. Ditchy has previously broadcast to the area as host of Radio Aire's breakfast show, where he picked up a Sony in 2002. (more)

Key 103 looking for answers
From Radio Today. Posted September 11 2007, 9.02am
Key 103 will be asking listeners to help each other with their latest station-wide competition. Sell Me The Answer offers £10,000 every week for answering five questions correctly. If they don't know the answer, they can ask the audience who can barter for their share of the prize in return. (more)

Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards
From Radio Today. Posted July 2 2007, 3.46pm
UTV's national speech station talkSPORT is the toast of commercial radio after picking up 4 awards at this year's Arqivas. talkSPORT took the Gold Award - plus Station of the Year (over 1 million TSA), Programmer of the Year and the Technical Innovation Award. Presenter of the Year was Rock FM's Adam Caterall, whilst Manchester Emap station Key 103 picked up the News award. (more)

New Late Show for Key 103
From Radio Today. Posted June 21 2007, 10.13am
Emap station Key 103 is moving Late Night Nicksy forward 4 hours to host a new networked overnight show, whilst Magic 1152 breakfast boys Macdonald and Maguire take over the Key 103 late show. The Sunday to Thursday slot will now feature calls, competitions, celebrity guests, comedy and occasional live music. (more)

Local Radio DJs do a runner
From Radio Today. Posted May 18 2007, 10.15am
Several Northwest radio presenters and station staff are getting ready to go head to head against each other in this weekend's Great Manchester Run. Amongst those represented are Key 103, Galaxy, Smooth, Wire FM and XFM Manchester. Three former Century NW breakfast jocks will compete against each other too - Darren Proctor, Tony Horne and Andy Crane. (more)

Emap to network evening show
From Radio Today. Posted April 12 2007, 5.18pm
The cash-strapped Emap radio group is to a launch a new networked evening show across its 9 FM stations in the North of England from later this month. RadioToday.co.uk has learnt that Rich and Luce, who currently present evenings on Rock FM and Key 103, are to front the new "In Demand" show from April 23rd. (more)

Steve Penk joins GCap's Fox FM
From Radio Today. Posted March 1 2007, 3.50pm
GCap Media radio station Fox FM is set to sign-up former Capital Radio and Key 103 DJ Steve Penk, RadioToday.co.uk can exclusively reveal. Penk will host the breakfast show as competition for listeners in Oxfordshire steps up with the launch of JACK fm later this year. (more)

GMG Radio poach Emap Director
From Radio Today. Posted February 6 2007, 12.45pm
GMG Radio has appointed Alison Forshaw from Emap as Deputy Group Sales Director, after the group’s rapid expansion since acquiring the Century and Saga brands. Alison will leave her position as Sales Director at Key 103 Manchester in April 2007. (more)

Emap to network on FM
From Radio Today. Posted January 5 2007, 4.42pm
RadioToday.co.uk can reveal that two of Emap's North West radio stations, Key 103 and Rock FM, are to be networked in the evenings. "North West's Most Wanted" will also be broadcast on digital station The Hits and will be presented by Rich and Luce, who are joining from GCap's Trent FM. (more)

Gary Stein joins Key 103
From Radio Today. Posted August 3 2006, 6.00pm
Gary Stein is the new PD of Manchester's Key 103, replacing Anthony Gay who joins Rock FM. And Radiojam can reveal that Emap is planning a complete makeover of the Preston station, including a new station sound, a new 'younger' playlist, new schedules and a possible name change. Gay replaces Brian Paige, who had been at Rock FM and Magic 999 for three years. (more)

Anthony Gay joins Rock FM
From Radio Today. Posted August 1 2006, 11.15am
Former Programme Director of Key 103 and Magic 1152 in Manchester Anthony Gay is joining sister stations Rock FM and Magic 999 in Preston. He replaces Brian Paige who has been PD at St Paul's Square for over three years. The news comes just weeks after Managing Director Paul Jordan also left the building. Emap told us: "This will be a new challenge for Ant. His role will primarily focus on driving the programming strategy forward and this position will also allow him to take on extra management responsibility within the station." (more)

James H Reeve exits Key 103
From Radio Today. Posted July 20 2006, 4.30pm
Late-night phone in presenter James H Reeve is to leave Key 103 at the end of the month after his contract was not renewed, the Manchester Evening News reports. (more)

Paul Jordan exits Rock FM
From Radio Today. Posted July 20 2006, 9.15am
Emap has regionalised station management in the North West, after managing director Paul Jordan was sacked from Emap's Rock FM in Preston last week. He will be replaced by Michelle Surrell, who will now manage both Rock FM and Key 103 in Manchester. Surrell has worked at Emap Radio for almost 20 years, having started with the sales team at TFM. Most recently she has been appointed MD of Key 103 in Manchester as well as overseeing the web and interactive strategies for Emap's stations across the North of England and Scotland. (more)

Emap launch Manchester awards
From Radio Today. Posted June 26 2006, 2.45am
Key 103 and the Manchester Evening News, in conjunction with Out There Events, have announced a new awards ceremony for Manchester. The ‘MCR10 Awards’ will celebrate the best of Manchester over the past 10 years. All elements of Manchester life from people to architecture, events to retail will be recognised. The 20 strong award categories will celebrate the amazing transformation the city has seen over the last decade, and will be voted for by the public through the Key 103 website and Manchester Online. (more)

Key 103 launch Manchester awards
From Radio Today. Posted June 23 2006, 10.15am
Key 103 and the Manchester Evening News, in conjunction with Out There Events, have announced a new awards ceremony for Manchester. The ‘MCR10 Awards’ will celebrate the best of Manchester over the past 10 years. All elements of Manchester life from people to architecture, events to retail will be recognised. The 20 strong award categories will celebrate the amazing transformation the city has seen over the last decade, and will be voted for by the public through the Key 103 website and Manchester Online. (more)

Emap claim digital success
From Radio Today. Posted May 11 2006, 6.00pm
It's all smiles at Emap's radio division after RAJAR results show that Magic 105.4 is London's biggest radio station with a reach extending 2% ahead of rivals including the recently re-launched Capital Radio and Heart 106.2. But the results also confirm a less talked about national success. The Hits, based alongside Key 103 in Manchester, have given a strong performance with 970,000 listeners nationwide - making it the nation's biggest digital-only station - ahead its nearest rival, GCap-owned Core with 110,000 listeners, as well as the Sony Radio Academy Awards' digital terrestrial station of the year, Planet Rock, which reaches 461,000 listeners weekly. (more)

Jingle Deal-a-Day for Reelworld
From Radio Today. Posted May 1 2006, 7.45pm
Seattle-based jingle company Reelworld have today launched their Deal-a-Day-in-May promotion. The idea is based around giving radio stations the chance to pick up special offers before the end of each day (5pm PST), as long as they order before the daily deadline. The promotion will cover all aspects of the Reelworld jingle empire and ranges from huge discounts to free packages. It's the biggest ever promotion for the company, who have already made their mark in the Uk market airing on stations such as Key 103 and Kiss 100. (more)

Gus Mackenzie leaves Key 103
From Radio Today. Posted March 29 2006, 2.30pm
Managing Director of Emap-owned Manchester station Key 103 Gus Mackenzie is leaving the company for pastures new. Mackenzie has been with Emap radio for four years. (more)

John Dash joins UTV as Group PD
From Radio Today. Posted January 16 2006, 11.46am
John Dash will join UTV Radio this month as ILR Group Programme Director with responsibility for programming across UTV’s 17 local radio stations in the UK. With more than 25 years experience in commercial radio, John is one of the industry’s most experienced programmers. A graduate of Bradford University, John was formerly programme director at Red Dragon in Cardiff, Key 103 in Manchester, Galaxy 101 in Bristol and most recently at Wave 105 on the south coast which won the accolade of ‘Commercial Station of the Year’ in 2004. (more)