Goodbye GWR, Fox, Essex...

Details of Global Radio's plan to re-brand most of the One Network to Heart are emerging. Big heritage stations names such as Invicta, Fox, GWR and Essex FM will all be consigned to radio history.

Stations surviving the re-brand include Mercury, Red Dragon, Ram, Ten-17, Trent, Leicester Sound and Capital 95.8, which become the Hit Music network.

According to Global, the decision over whether to keep these stations was made based on whether they were in a major urban area (Capital, Red Dragon) or completely fall under an existing Heart TSA.

The Heart Network currently comprises the three Heart stations in London, West Midlands and East Midlands. All of the other One Network stations that are not to become part of the Hit Music or Galaxy networks, will be re-branded as Heart over the next 12 to 18 months

Global Radio is referring to seven brands that will be sold to advertisers as "pillars", these being LBC, Galaxy, Classic FM, Gold, Xfm, Heart and the new Hit Music Network.