Radio Forth is a group owning two radio stations based in Edinburgh. The stations broadcast to Edinburgh, The Lothians and Fife.
Radio Forth was launched on 22 January 1975 by current chairman Richard Findlay. His opening speech included "This, for the very first time is Radio Forth". The first DJ on air was Steve Hamilton who hosted the breakfast show.
In 1990, Forth was forced to create a new station on its AM frequency. Before this, Radio Forth was broadcast as a single station on both FM and AM frequencies. So to overcome this, Max AM launched. The FM station was renamed Radio Forth RFM and aimed at the younger age group, while Max AM was designed for the 35+ range. The FM station was later renamed Forth FM and then in the mid-late 90s Max AM was later renamed Forth AM to match its sister station.
In 2000, both stations were relaunched as 97.3 Forth One and 1548 FORTH2. Many changes occurred at this time including new presenters and a whole new jingle package. Forth 2 was redesigned as an adult contemporary music station while Forth One continued to play Top 40 songs for the 35s and under.
Radio Forth was owned by Scottish Radio Holdings until 3 June 2005 when British media group EMAP took over. Forth, however, continues to be local and mostly managed from Forth House in Edinburgh. Owners EMAP put their radio business up for sale in December 2007. At the end of January 2008, all EMAP owned radio stations in the UK were bought by the German-based Bauer Group, with EMAP Radio becoming Bauer Radio.