Heart West
Heart Westis a regionalradio stationowned and operated byGlobalas part of theHeartnetwork. It broadcasts inSouth West Englandfrom studios inBristol.
The station launched on 3 June 2019, following a merger of four Heart stations inBristol and Somerset,Devon and Cornwall,GloucestershireandWiltshire.
History
[edit]Under relaxedOFCOMrequirements for local content on commercial radio, Heart West is permitted to share all programmes between nine licences located in theITV West Countrybroadcast region (formerly consisting of separate areas for the West and the South West of England).[1]
Previously, these licences broadcast as separate stations:
- The firstIndependent Local Radiostation to launch in the region wasPlymouth Sound,which began broadcasting in May 1975 to the city and its surrounding areas.
- Severn Soundbegan broadcasting toGloucestershirein October 1980.
- Radio Westbegan broadcasting toBristol,Bath,Weston-super-Mareand surrounding areas in October 1981.
- Wiltshire Radiobegan broadcasting fromWootton Bassettin October 1982, servingWiltshire.
- Orchard FMbegan broadcasting fromTauntonin November 1989, servingSomerset.
- Lantern FMbegan broadcasting to North Devon in October 1992, initially from studios inBidefordbefore moving toBarnstaplein 2000.
- Gemini FMbegan broadcasting in January 1995, after taking over the licence for East Devon previously held byDevonAir.The twin station carried separate programming for theExeterandTorbayareas.
- South Hams Radiobegan broadcasting in December 1999, serving South Devon.
- Atlantic FMbegan broadcasting fromSt Agnesin July 2006, servingCornwall.
In 1985, after suffering heavy financial losses since its launch, Radio West was approached by the successful Wiltshire Radio for a merger - the first of its kind in commercial radio in the UK. This was approved by the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) and the two stations combined to form GWR in October 1985.
GWR continued to provide separate programming for the Bristol and Swindon areas, and in May 1987, a third opt-out service for Bath was launched. The station's owners, GWR Group plc, went onto become one of the major commercial radio operators in the UK.
Orchard FM in Somerset expanded its operations with Gemini FM winning the East Devon ILR licence from DevonAir and the acquisition of Lantern FM in North Devon.
The Orchard Radio Group was itself brought by GWR in 1999, but in November 2005, these stations - along with Plymouth Sound - were put up for sale by GCap Media as they were considered outside of the company's primary target area. In the event, the sale did not go ahead as all of the bids made fell short of expectations. In 2008, the group was taken over by Global, which eventually took ownership of South Hams Radio as a joint venture with theUKRD Group.
In March 2009, Global rebranded Gemini, Lantern FM, Orchard FM, Plymouth Sound, South Hams Radio, Severn Sound and the GWR stations as part of a rollout of the Heart network across 29 local radio stations. By this point, local programming had been reduced to ten hours on weekdays and four hours at weekends.
During the summer of 2010, Global merged seven of the stations to two:
- Heart Devon- formed from the Exeter & Torbay, Plymouth, South Devon and North Devon stations, broadcasting from Exeter
- Heart West Country- formed from the Bristol, Bath and Somerset stations, broadcasting from Bristol
Heart GloucestershireandHeart Wiltshireretained local programming, but the stations' newsgathering operations were moved to Bristol. Local programming was further cut to seven hours on weekdays, although localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising continued to air as opt-outs.
In March 2012, Global broughtAtlantic FMfrom joint owners Tindle Radio and Camel Media.[2]Two months later, the station merged with Heart Devon to formHeart South Westand moved its studios to Exeter. A separate Drivetime show for Cornwall was retained, and in 2014, an extended news programme,Heart Nightly News,was introduced.
On 26 February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Global announced it would merge the four South West stations into one.[3]
As of 3 June 2019, regional programming consists of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised opt-outs for news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.[4]Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London.
Global's studio centres inExeter,GloucesterandWootton Bassettwere closed, although local newsgathering and sales staff were retained.[3]Across the four stations, eighteen local presenters left the Heart network.[5]
Programming
[edit]All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, includingHeart Breakfast,presented each weekday byJamie TheakstonandAmanda Holden.
Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Global's Bristol studios from 4-7pm on weekdays, presented by Ben Atkinson.[5][6]
News
[edit]Heart West broadcasts hourly local news bulletins from 5am-6pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm on weekends.[6]Separate bulletins are produced for the licence areas previously served by Heart's stations in Bristol & Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.
In Cornwall, an extended local news programme,Heart Nightly News,previously aired at 6.45pm each weeknight as part of the weekday Drivetime show.[7]In March 2021, Global was given permission byOfcomto reduce speech content on several Heart licences, allowing Heart to drop theNightly Newsstrand from those stations in the network which had previously carried it. Global cited research which indicated that a large proportion of radio listeners in Cornwall were unaware of theNightly Newsbulletin.[8]
National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times.
References
[edit]- ^Heart Bristol & Bath - format change request,OFCOM, 4 December 2018
- ^Atlantic FM sold to Global to become Heart,RadioToday, 19 March 2012
- ^abGlobal to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows,RadioToday, 26 February 2019
- ^Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast,Radio Today, 29 April 2019
- ^abHeart Drivetime show presenters announced by Global,Radio Today, 20 May 2019
- ^abPublic File - Bath, Bristol and Somerset,heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019
- ^Public File - Cornwall,heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019
- ^"Global to drop Heart Nightly News programmes".2 March 2021.