Heart Scotland

Heart Scotland is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. The station relaunched as Heart on 6 May 2014,[1][2] serving Central and Southern Scotland from studios in Glasgow city centre.

Heart Scotland
CityGlasgow
Broadcast areaCentral and Southern Scotland
Frequency
BrandingScotland's Heart
SloganTurn up the feel good!
Programming
FormatHot Adult Contemporary
Ownership
OwnerGlobal
Sister stations
History
First air date6 May 2014 (2014-05-06)
Links
Websitewww.heart.co.uk/scotland/

Heart Scotland originally broadcast as Scot FM until 2001, when Guardian Media Group bought the station, leading to a relaunch as Real Radio Scotland. Global Radio acquired GMG Radio on 25 June 2012, but operated Real Radio in a "hold separate" situation known as Real and Smooth Ltd, which ended on 1 April 2014.[3] Presenters of Heart Scotland include Des Clarke; former presenters include Robin Galloway.

History

Scot FM
Main article: Scot FM

In September 1994, Scot FM began broadcasting a regional 24-hour service to Central Scotland from studios in the Leith district of Edinburgh. Originally billed pre-launch as a relatively highbrow and primarily speech-based station, the station went through numerous format changes, financial difficulties and mixed ratings fortunes. In June 2001, the Guardian Media Group acquired Scot FM from previous owners, the Wireless Group for £25.5 million.

Real Radio
Original Real Radio logo

Shortly afterwards, a major overhaul of the station was announced including an on-air rebrand, a move to new studios at Ballieston near Glasgow, a revamped programming line-up and a strengthened round-the-clock news service.[4] Real Radio Scotland began broadcasting at 8am on Tuesday 8 January 2002 with breakfast presenter Robin Galloway introducing the first song to be played, A Star is Born.[5]

Within a year of its launch, the station reached a record weekly audience of 614,000 listeners, and by 2004, further increased its audience to 688,000,[6] placing Real Radio as the most listened to station in Scotland.[7][8] By 2007, the station's audience share reached a record 31% [9] - but fell by around 10% a year later.[10]

Under the Real Radio brand, the station held various charity events and campaigns since its launch, including a reality challenge called The Real Sleeopver,[11] and the annual Bring £1 to Work Day, both in aid of the Children's Hospice Association Scotland.[12][13]

In 2006, Real Radio Scotland attempted to increase its coverage area by applying[14] for the new FM licence for Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire, but lost out to Original 106. During the summer of 2008, the station introduced networked programming[15] including evening & overnight output from Manchester and a Saturday morning show hosted by Chris Tarrant.[16] Listeners' complaints led to the return of local night time output a few months later. The networked output was reintroduced during the summer of 2011.

From August 2006 to June 2009, the Irish-based sports broadcaster Setanta Sports simulcast Real Radio's weeknight football phone-in live twice a week on Setanta Sports 1.[17] The station also carried live commentaries for some of the Scottish national team's matches and eight SPL games during the season,[18][19] alongside broadcast a Scottish football phone-in on weekday evenings and Saturday afternoons, until sports coverage outside news bulletins was dropped at the end of the 2011-12 season.[20][21]

Robin Galloway left Real Radio in November 2010, shortly after an incident in which his producer ran in the nude past Labour Party leader Ed Miliband while he was being interviewed - despite Miliband defending them.[22] After RAJAR reported a decline in listenership figirues, Galloway commented the halcyon days for the brand are very much in the past now.[23]

By March 2014, the station's audience share had dropped further to 7.7%, down sharply from an 11.3% share recorded in December 2010.[24] Around the time of the rebrand to Heart, the share had slipped to 6% with an audience of 421,000 listeners - at the time, the station's all-time lowest RAJAR figures. The station has managed to recover slightly, increasing it share back to 7.4%.

Global Radio

On 25 June 2012, it was announced Global Radio (the owner of stations such as Capital, Smooth Radio and Heart) had bought GMG Radio. The former GMG stations, including Real Radio, were placed under a hold separate company known as Real and Smooth Limited.[25][26]

As of 5 November 2012, Real Radio's local programming has consisted of daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows from Glasgow, with most non-peak output broadcast from Salford Quays.[27][28][29]

On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be rebranding all Real Radio stations as Heart.[30] Real Radio Scotland began a gradual transition to the Heart branding on 24 March 2014 and phased out the Real Radio branding on Sunday 20 April 2014. The full relaunch as Heart Scotland took place on Tuesday 6 May 2014 in line with most other Heart rebranded stations.[1][31]

Although the station managed to increase its audience towards the end of 2014, its share had dropped even further to 5.9% by the following March[32] before dropping to the station's all-time lowest RAJAR figures (at the time) of 4.8%.[33] By September 2016, its audience share had recovered to 6.7%, but fell back to 4.8% a year later.[34] In December 2018 the audience share reached an all time low with 4.5% [35]

In November 2016, Heart Scotland and its sister station Smooth Glasgow moved from its former studios at Ballieston in the east end of Glasgow to Global's new Scottish headquarters at West Regent Street in the city centre.[36]

In February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Global announced it would replace Heart Scotland's local breakfast and weekend shows with networked programming from London.[37]

As of 3 June 2019, the station's local output consists of a three-hour drivetime show on weekdays, alongside local news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.[38] Four of the station's local presenters, including breakfast presenters Robin Galloway and Adele Cunningham left the station.[39]

Programming

All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including Heart Breakfast, presented each weekday by Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden.

Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Heart's Glasgow studios from 4-7pm on weekdays,[40] presented by Des Clarke.[39] and Jennifer Reoch.[41]

News

Heart Scotland broadcasts hourly regional news bulletins, produced by Global's Scottish newsroom in Glasgow, from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends - including a six-minute bulletin, Heart Morning News, at 6am and a 12-minute programme, Heart Nightly News, at 6.45pm - and headlines on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows.[40]

National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times. The Glasgow newsroom also produces bulletins for Capital Scotland (owned by Communicorp) and Smooth Glasgow.

Notable former presenters
gollark: You can use codegen to generate code for repetitive tasks of some sort if they don't need to generalize much or go outside your project, but it's much better to just... not have to do those repetitive tasks, or have the compiler/macros handle them.
gollark: Also, you end up with a mess of fragile infrastructure which operates on stringy representations of the code.
gollark: I can either:- use `interface{}` - lose type safety and performance- codegen a different `Tree` type for every use of it - now I can't really put it in its own library and it's generally inelegant and unpleasant
gollark: Consider what happens if I want to implement a generic `Tree` type.
gollark: For one thing, it doesn't really work in many cases.

References
  1. "- - Heart Radio". Heart Scotland.
  2. Global Radio. "Global Updates". thisisglobal.com. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014.
  3. "GMG / Global Radio's Hold Separate ends". RadioToday. 31 March 2014.
  4. Lorna Martin (9 January 2002). "Real Radio launches big bold challenge to rivals". Sport | SPL | Aberdeen. Herald Scotland. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  5. agnes stevenson (8 January 2002). "A new station joins the air wars". Sport | SPL | Aberdeen. Herald Scotland. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  6. Radio stations vie for listeners in ratings war, Herald Scotland, 30 July 2004
  7. New radio station winning ratings war: Celebrity-free Real doubles audience over three years, Herald Scotland, 31 May 2003
  8. Moyles rules the waves with record breakfast figures: Real Radio is now Scotland's most listened-to point on the dial, Herald Scotland, 28 October 2005
  9. Real Radio passes 30 per cent, Radio Today, 25 October 2007/
  10. Real contrast for GMG, Radio Today, 1 May 2008
  11. Real Radio sleepover: how will they cope?, Herald Scotland, 1 October 2003
  12. "- - Heart Radio". Heart Scotland.
  13. Real fears at Real Radio, Radio Today, 7 May 2008
  14. Real Radio application for FM ILR licence for Aberdeen
  15. Galloway to replace Davis for Real, Radio Today, 27 June 2008
  16. Clyde and Real Radio face challenge from rebranded dance music station, Herald Scotland, 30 August 2008
  17. Real Radio scores with Setanta, 7 August 2006
  18. Real Scotland gets SPL deal, Radio Today, 8 August 2010
  19. Our partners, Scottish Premier League official website
  20. Sports programme changes, Real Radio Scotland, 23 July 2012
  21. "Real Radio's football phone-in axed". allmediascotland.com.
  22. https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/ed-miliband-defends-naked-prank-dj-1-1370106
  23. Real Radio Scotland's 'Best Days Behind it', claims Interview with Former Presenter, Robin Galloway, Allmediascotland, 17 February 2011
  24. "RAJAR". rajar.co.uk.
  25. GMG Radio sold to Global for £50m Mark Sweeney, The Guardian, 25 June 2012
  26. Global Radio seals £50m purchase of GMG Radio Maisie McCabe, Media Week, 25 June 2012
  27. "Future uncertain for Real Radio presenters following networking announcement". allmediascotland.com.
  28. "Radio in the world - contacts, people and jobs". media.info.
  29. Rick Fulton (3 November 2012). "Real Radio could be off the air by spring of 2013". Daily Record.
  30. Martin, Roy (6 February 2014). "Communicorp buys 8 Global stations". RadioToday. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  31. Real Radio starts Heart transformation, RadioToday, 24 March 2014/
  32. Q1 figures 2015
  33. Q2 figures 2015
  34. Q3 figures 2017
  35. https://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/2018_12/2018_Q4_Quarterly_Summary_Figures.pdf
  36. Heart Scotland and Smooth FM move into new city centre office broadcasting live from the heart of Glasgow, Glasgow Live, 12 November 2016
  37. Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows, RadioToday, 26 February 2019
  38. Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast, Radio Today, 29 April 2019
  39. Heart Drivetime show presenters announced by Global, Radio Today, 20 May 2019
  40. Public File - Scotland, heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019
  41. Jennifer Reoch joins Heart Scotland for Drive, Radio Today, 12 July 2019
  42. "Robin Galloway to leave Bauer for Heart". RadioToday. 20 October 2014.
  43. Pamela Tulloch. "STV Edinburgh to launch The Fountainbridge Show in January - STV Edinburgh - Edinburgh". STV Edinburgh.

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