Real Radio stations in the north-east, Scotland and Wales are dropping their popular football phone-in programmes after a decade on-air.
The weekday regional shows, broadcast after 6pm, will be replaced by starting the networked evening music show earlier in those regions (except Wales where Drive will continue till 7pm).
Real Radio is now owned by Global Radio, but is being operated in a Hold Separate situation until the Competition Commission investigate the purchase.
Should the takeover be approved, it is thought most Real Radio stations will be rebranded to Heart, which typically doesn’t run any speech programming.
A spokesperson for Real and Smooth Ltd, the new trading name of GMG Radio, said: “The changes weve introduced form part of our on-going strategy to provide consistent music programming which appeals to the majority of our audience throughout the day. The changes bring our stations in Scotland, Wales and the North East into line with Real stations in the North West and Yorkshire.
“We are replacing our evening sports shows with music programming mixed with travel, news, and weather, key to the drivetime audience . Our news service will continue to deliver relevant sports news throughout the day.
The programmes affected are The Real Radio Legends in the north-east, The Real Football Phone-In in Scotland and The Real Radio Sports Phone-In across Wales.
Three years ago Real Radio (Century Radio) in the north-west and Yorkshire dropped their football programmes in favour of a later drive-time or earlier evening show.
Posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 at 11:51 am by RadioToday UK