The multi-million pound extension of the Heart brand has officially started today with the abolishing of nine heritage local radio stations and re-branding them to Heart.
The Heartification of SGR Colchester and Ipswich, Horizon Radio, Chiltern Radio Bedford and Dunstable, Hereward FM, Radio Broadland, Q103 and Northants 96 happened at 6am.
All stations will take network programming for the majority of the day, with local breakfast 6am till 10am and afternoon shows between 1pm and 7pm. The schedule, which will eventually roll out to 28 stations in total, looks like this:
1am – 6am NETWORK OVERNIGHTS WITH GARETH JOHN
6am – 10am LOCAL BREAKFAST TEAMS
10am – 1pm NETWORK MID MORNING WITH TOBY ANSTIS
1pm – 7pm LOCAL AFTERNOON PROGRAMMING
7pm – 10pm NETWORK EVENING SHOW WITH MATT WILKINSON
10pm – 1am NETWORK HEARTBREAKERS WITH SIMON BEALE
Local news is also restricted to local programming, with a national feed between 10am and 4pm (non inclusive). Local journalists will, however, have the power to report on major local stories if necessary, and update station websites.
The Heart name was first used in 1994 as one of a number of new UK regional radio stations, along with Jazz FM in the North West and Century Radio in the North East of England. 100.7 Heart FM, now part of the enlarged network, launched on September 6th 1994 as a soft adult contemporary format. It was joined two years later by Heart 106.2 in London and now shares all but 10 hours a day of programming with the Heart network.
Listen to one of the launches (Heart Bedfordshire) by clicking [link=https://radiotoday.co.uk/request.php?73]here[/link]. A new homepage at Heart.co.uk has also been created to demonstrate the growing brand:
[link=http://www.heart.co.uk][center] [img]{e_IMAGE}newspost_images/470heartwebsites.jpg[/img] [/center][/link]
