[b]UPDATE 09/07/07[/b]: GCap Media is to overhaul its oldies network by ridding the station of popular presenters, and axing live local programmes. Breakfast and Drivetime will be networked, whilst a voice-tracked show willl air weekdays 12pm till 4pm. Classic Gold and Capital Gold will form part of a new national brand, launching August 6th.
As RadioToday.co.uk continues to await an official reply, unconfirmed reports sugest network presenters Paul Coyte, Keith Butler and Dean Martin as well as weekend presenters will finish at the station when their contracts end in August. David Jensen will remain at the station.
At present the six Capital Gold stations in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Kent and Hampshire broadcast a locally produced breakfast show and networked output at other times. Classic Gold's opt-out daily local show is currently afternoon drive. Last February, Ofcom agreed to a request from UBC for Classic Gold's 4 hours of local programming to be broadcast at any time of day.
A spokeswoman for GCap told RadioToday.co.uk that she couldn't confirm rumours local programming would be cut from the Gold services, but admitted that internal discussions were ongoing regarding the merging of the Capital Gold and Classic Gold brands and that an announcement would be made soon. If there are to be any personnel changes, she added that "where possible, any affected staff would be offered roles elsewhere within GCap".
GCap have spent the first half of this year making dramatic cuts to programming across its portfolio – including the axing of presenters on digital service Core and the closure of Capital Disney. Its Xfm stations also recently became presenter-less during daytime. The company has, however, invested in new digital service theJazz with a full line-up of presenters.
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