Heart (radio network)

Last updated

Heart
The Heart Network logo.svg
Country
United Kingdom
Broadcast area
United Kingdom
Headquarters Leicester Square, London
BrandingThis Is Heart
Programming
Language(s)English
Format Hot adult contemporary
Ownership
Owner Global
Coverage
Stations See list
Links
Website www.heart.co.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Heart is a network of thirteen independent adult contemporary radio stations in the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming. Ten of the stations are owned and operated by Global, while the other three are owned and operated under separate franchise agreements. The national version of the network is widely available on Global Player, Freeview, Sky, Freesat, Virgin Media and Digital One DAB.

Contents

The Heart radio stations have a combined reach of 9.7 million listeners as of September 2024, making it the third most-popular radio network and the biggest commercial radio brand in the UK after BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4. The total reach for all Heart-branded stations is over 12.9 million. [1]

History

Launch

Heart began broadcasting in the West Midlands on 6 September 1994 as 100.7 Heart FM , becoming the UK's third Independent Regional Radio station, five days after Century Radio in North East England, and Jazz FM North West.

The first song to be played on 100.7 Heart FM was Something Got Me Started by Simply Red. Its original format of "soft adult contemporary" music included artists such as Lionel Richie and Tina Turner. Reflecting this, its early slogan was 100.7 Degrees Cooler!

Heart 106.2 began test transmissions in London in August 1995, prior to the station launch on 5 September. This included live broadcasts of WPLJ from New York City. [2]

In 1996 the station's original "soft AC" music format was replaced with a generally more neutral Hot AC playlist. Century 106 in the East Midlands became the third station of the Heart network in 2005 after GCap Media sold Century. Chrysalis' radio holdings were sold to Global Radio in 2007.

When GCap Media was taken over by Global Radio in 2008, it announced plans to dissolve the 41-station One Network, with one station (Power FM) becoming part of the Galaxy network, four stations (BRMB, Beacon Radio, Mercia FM and Wyvern FM) forming a West Midlands regional network, seven stations joining Capital FM to form The Hit Music Network and the remaining 29 stations forming the Heart Network.

Heart East Midlands was sold to Orion Media, along with the West Midlands network of local stations, due to the same competition concerns that had forced its earlier sale to Chrysalis.

Network restructuring

Between June and September 2010, Global Radio merged the majority of the 33 Heart stations to create a smaller network of 18 local and regional stations, in line with new OFCOM guidelines on local output requirements. [3] [4] Two Hit Music Network stations were also closed and merged with Heart stations.

Merged stationClosed stationsCity of licence
Heart Cambridgeshire Heart Peterborough
Heart Cambridge 		Peterborough later Cambridge
Heart South West
(later Heart West)		 Heart Exeter and Heart Torbay
Heart Plymouth
Heart South Devon
Heart North Devon 		Exeter
Heart East Anglia Heart Norwich
Heart Ipswich 		Norwich
Heart Essex Heart Chelmsford & Southend
Heart Colchester
Ten 17 (rebranded)		 Chelmsford
Heart Hertfordshire Rebranded from Hertfordshire's Mercury 96.6 Watford
Heart Four Counties Heart Northants
Heart Milton Keynes
Heart Dunstable
Heart Bedford 		Dunstable, later Milton Keynes
Heart North West and Wales Heart North Wales Coast
Heart Cheshire and North East Wales
Heart Wirral 		Wrexham
Heart South Coast Heart Dorset & New Forest
Heart Hampshire 		Fareham
Heart Sussex and Surrey Heart Sussex
Mercury FM (rebranded)
Brighton
Heart Thames Valley Heart Berkshire
Heart Oxfordshire 		Reading
Heart West Country Heart Bristol
Heart Somerset
Heart Bath 		Bristol

Stations in Gloucestershire, Kent, London, the West Midlands, the East Midlands and Wiltshire were unaffected by the changes. Heart Cymru, serving Gwynedd and Anglesey, moved its studios from Bangor to Wrexham but retained its extended local output of 10 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Heart North West and Wales retained an opt-out on 96.3FM (the North Wales Coast) for Welsh language programming.

On 1 January 2011, Orion Media, the owners of Heart East Midlands (one of the original three Heart stations) renamed and relaunched the station as 'Gem 106', ending a franchise agreement with Global Radio formed when Global purchased GCap – the agreement allowed Orion to use the Heart identity and carry networked programming from London. [5] The move saw Heart's networked programming replaced by local output from Nottingham.

Network expansion

On 19 March 2012, Global Radio announced it had bought the Cornwall ILR station Atlantic FM from joint owners Tindle Radio and Camel Media. [6] Atlantic FM became part of the Heart Network and merged with Heart Devon on Monday 7 May 2012 to form Heart South West, which is based in Exeter. [7]

On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be rebranding all Real Radio stations as Heart and would be selling Real Radio Yorkshire and the Northern licence for Real Radio Wales to Communicorp. The Communicorp-owned stations use Heart's network programming and branding under a franchise agreement with Global. [8]

Global Radio extended the Heart network to the Real Radio network of regional stations from Tuesday 6 May 2014. [9] The two stations based in Wrexham – Heart North West and Wales and Heart Cymru – became part of the Capital FM Network on the same date.

On 20 November 2017, CN Group announced The Bay would be sold to Global along with sister station Lakeland Radio – the sale was finalised by 1 December 2017. [10] The Bay was rebranded as Heart, with Lakeland Radio becoming Smooth on 4 March 2018. [11]

Music from the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s was removed from the original FM station after Christmas 2017.[ citation needed ]

Consolidation

In February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, it was announced Heart would replace its local breakfast and weekend shows with additional networked programming from London by the end of the year. This reduced total weekly hours of local programming on each station from 43 to 15 and led to dozens of job losses. [12]

Drivetime output were reduced from 23 localised shows to 10 programmes covering enlarged areas, formed from the merger of Heart stations. Ten studios producing local programming were closed. [12] Localised news, traffic updates and advertising was retained across all licence areas. [13]

In April 2019, it was reported the local Heart Breakfast shows would be replaced by a national Heart Breakfast show from London on 3 June 2019, presented by Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden. [14] The merging stations ceased local output on 31 May 2019.

In Hertfordshire, a further change saw Heart Hertfordshire, based in Watford, merged with BOB fm – following its acquisition by Communicorp – to form a single countywide service.

Stations in the North East of England, Wales, central and southern Scotland, the West Midlands and Yorkshire continue to serve their single licence areas as before.

Merged stationClosed stationsCity of licence
Heart East Heart Cambridgeshire
Heart East Anglia
Heart Essex
Heart Four Counties (studios retained)		 Milton Keynes
Heart Hertfordshire BOB fm
Heart Hertfordshire (studios retained)		 Watford
Heart North West Heart North Lancashire & Cumbria
Heart North West (studios retained)		 Manchester
Heart South Heart Kent
Heart Solent (studios retained)
Heart Sussex and Surrey
Heart Thames Valley 		Fareham
Heart West Heart Gloucestershire
Heart South West
Heart West Country (studios retained)
Heart Wiltshire 		Bristol

In April 2023, it was announced Heart Scotland would reintroduce local breakfast, daytime and weekend programming from 2 May 2023, as part of a major expansion of Global's Scottish radio operations. [15] [16]

List of stations

Regional

As of May 2019, Heart's regional network consists of twelve stations: [17]

YearsHeart stationStudios
2019–present Heart East Milton Keynes
2010–present Heart Hertfordshire (franchise, owned by Communicorp) Watford
1995–present Heart London London
2014–present Heart North East Newcastle
2014–present Heart North and Mid Wales (franchise, owned by Communicorp) Wrexham
2014–present Heart North West Spinningfields
2014–present Heart Scotland Glasgow
2019–present Heart South Fareham
2014–present Heart South Wales Cardiff
2019–present Heart West Bristol
1994–present Heart West Midlands Birmingham
2014–present Heart Yorkshire (franchise, owned by Communicorp) Leeds

National

As of 12 September 2024, Heart's national spin-offs consist of ten stations, broadcast from Global's London headquarters:

YearsHeart stationNotes
2019–present Heart 70s
2017–present Heart 80s
2019–present Heart 90s
2022–present Heart 00s Replaced Capital Xtra Reloaded on national DAB+.
2024–present Heart 10s
2019–present Heart Dance Weekend evening "Club Classics" programmes simulcast with Heart
2024–presentHeart Love
2024–presentHeart Musicals
2016– Heart UK Originally Heart extra with automated daytime between 10am to 4pm Weekdays, relaunched 2020. Simulcasts Heart network programming
2020–Heart Xmasusually available from September to January, however this varies each year

Programming and presenters

Heart's network programming is produced and broadcast from the headquarters of Global at Leicester Square in central London. Most of the network's output is broadcast live, although some weekend shows are voicetracked. [18]

As of 21 June 2019, Heart's Club Classics is simulcast with sister station Heart Dance. [19] The EE Official Big Top 40 From Global on Sunday afternoons is simulcast with Heart's sister network, Capital.

Networked presenters

Source: [20]

Regional presenters

  • Jagger and Woody (Heart Drivetime in South Wales) [25]
  • Hannah Clarkson (Heart Drivetime in the East of England)

Former presenters

News

All Heart stations broadcast local news bulletins each day – updates air hourly from 5am to 7pm on weekdays and from 6am to 12pm at weekends, similar to how Capital broadcasts news updates.

In accordance with OFCOM speech requirements, some Heart stations produce separate localised bulletins. For example, Heart West produces bulletins for Bristol and Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall.

Network presentation

As of 2014, the network uses jingles and themes produced by ReelWorld Europe, based in Salford. [36]

Previously, Heart used a jingle package, composed by the Seattle-based music production company IQ Beats. [37]

Criticisms

In August 2010, listeners in Bedfordshire and Crawley, West Sussex, complained about the merger of Heart stations and called for a boycott of the station. [38]

Some listeners have complained about what they regard as the repetitive nature of Heart's playlist. A public complaint to the regulator Ofcom in 2012 that the "More Music Variety" slogan was materially misleading was not pursued as Ofcom deemed that it did not warrant further investigation. [39] Ofcom stated that "We did not consider listeners were materially misled by this slogan." [40]

Further complaints were made to the station in 2019, largely regarding the merger of some Heart stations and the reduction in local programming, following the relaxation of local content guidelines by OFCOM. [41]

Networked slogans

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References

  1. ↑ "RAJAR". www.rajar.co.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  2. ↑ "wplj before Heart 106.2". Digital Spy. 10 December 2006. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Heart slims but strengthens". Radio Today. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  4. ↑ Plunkett, John (21 June 2010). "Global Radio to halve number of local Heart stations". mediaguardian.co.uk. London.
  5. ↑ "Gem to replace Heart East Mids". Radio Today. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  6. ↑ Atlantic FM sold to Global to become Heart, RadioToday, 19 March 2012
  7. ↑ UKRD responds to Atlantic's Heart switch, RadioToday, 19 March 2012
  8. ↑ Martin, Roy (6 February 2014). "Communicorp buys 8 Global stations". RadioToday. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  9. ↑ Global confirms Heart expansion details, Radio Today, 14 April 2014
  10. ↑ The Bay Radio Sold To Global Entertainment Group, The Bay, 20 November 2017
  11. ↑ Plans announced for The Bay and Lakeland Radio – RadioToday, Radio Today, 8 January 2018
  12. 1 2 Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows, RadioToday, 26 February 2019
  13. ↑ Public File, heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019
  14. ↑ Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast, Radio Today, 29 April 2019
  15. ↑ Global makes major investment in Glasgow broadcast centre, Radio Today, 11 April 2023
  16. ↑ Fresh new line-ups revealed for Heart Scotland and Capital Scotland, Global, 11 April 2023
  17. ↑ "Official website featuring map showing Heart stations". Archived from the original on 25 September 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
  18. ↑ Public File – Heart North Wales Archived 12 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine Heart, 6 May 2014
  19. ↑ Global to launch Heart Dance with Toby Anstis on Breakfast, Radio Today, 17 June 2019
  20. 1 2 "Shows & Presenters". Heart. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  21. ↑ "Drive - Shows & Presenters - Heart Scotland" . Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  22. ↑ "Drive - Shows & Presenters - Heart Dorset" . Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  23. ↑ "Drive - Shows & Presenters - Heart West Midlands" . Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  24. ↑ "Dixie and Emma on Heart" . Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  25. ↑ "Jagger and Woody on Heart" . Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  26. ↑ RadioToday, 2023-08-16
  27. ↑ "Sian Welby joins Roman and Sonny on Capital Breakfast". RadioToday. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  28. ↑ "Jenni Falconer moves from Heart to Smooth Radio". RadioToday. 3 January 2020.
  29. ↑ "Schedule changes at Heart as James Stewart replaces Jenni Falconer". RadioToday. 16 December 2019.
  30. ↑ "Rochelle Humes takes a break from Heart radio show". RadioToday. 13 December 2019.
  31. ↑ "Jason Donovan and Mark Wright leave Heart". RadioToday. 1 December 2017.
  32. ↑ "Heart break for Stephen Mulhern & Emma Willis". RadioToday. 4 July 2018.
  33. ↑ "Roberto on Heart 80s Breakfast". Heart. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  34. ↑ "Margherita Taylor - Shows & Presenters - Radio - Smooth West Midlands" . Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  35. ↑ "Breakfast & Drive changes for Heart London". RadioToday. 19 November 2012.
  36. ↑ Heart gets new jingles and themes from ReelWorld, RadioToday, 9 September 2015
  37. ↑ "HEART Network".
  38. ↑ Plunkett, John (11 August 2010). "Global Radio faces Heart cuts protest". London: Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  39. ↑ "Complaints Assessed, not Investigated" (PDF). Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin 205. Ofcom. 8 May 2012. p. 32. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  40. ↑ being misleading OFCOM says Heart slogan isn't misleading, Radio Today, 8 May 2012
  41. ↑ "Ofcom will now allow networked breakfast shows". RadioToday. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2019.

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