Latest news about Heart FM

RAJAR Q2 2019: London and national brands round-up

Zoe Ball has lost more than three quarters of a million listeners to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, according to the latest audience research from RAJAR. The show’s reach is down 781,000 quarter-on-quarter to 8.266m for the three months survey period up to the 23rd June 2019. In Q1/19 she had 9.047m listeners; in Q2/2018 Chris Evans reached 9.038m. Radio 2’s audience at breakfast is now the lowest its been since Q3/2010, when Evans was fairly new in the job.

Jennifer Reoch joins Heart Scotland for Drive

STV presenter Jennifer Reoch is joining Heart Scotland to co-host Drive with Des Clarke. The former Miss Scotland is best known for hosting STV shows such as Live at Five, Scots In Paradise, Edinburgh Festival 2018 and the Scottish Children’s Lottery, and will be joining Des every weekday from 4pm-7pm. Speaking ahead of her first show on Monday, Jennifer told RadioToday: “This is an absolute dream job for me and I could think of no one better to work with than the legendary Des Clarke.

Ofcom throws out complaints about Heart’s format

Ofcom has decided not to investigate Heart staying within its format after a number of complaints were received. The seven complaints were assessed under the General Procedures for investigating breaches of broadcast licences at the regulator, but Ofcom decided not to pursue them. Because the reports were not investigated, we have no information on the details, only that they were all made between June 17th and June 30th 2019.

Heart’s Tom Evans returns to radio with BBC Sussex

Former Heart presenter Tom Evans, from the Tom, Nicola and Jack breakfast show on Heart Sussex, is joining BBC Sussex. Tom will cover a variety of programmes in the weeks ahead, including Breakfast and Afternoons.Mark Carter, Assistant Managing Editor at BBC Sussex told RadioToday about the signing: “Tom lives in Sussex and loves the county. He’s proved to be an extremely popular presenter with the local audience over the past few years, so I’m delighted to offer this opportunity of a return to the airwaves.”

Bauer gains approval to network breakfast shows

Ofcom has granted Bauer a number of Format changes to allow all of its stations to network all but three hours each weekday rather than the previous seven. UK commercial radio stations have been allowed to submit Format changes since the Localness Guidelines were amended last year, but Bauer has only just taken the steps required to allow this. Bauer can now share all programmes, with the exception of a three-hour show on weekdays (which doesn’t have to be breakfast), in the approved areas already suggested by Ofcom.

Mark Wright returns to weekends on Heart

Mark Wright is back in the UK and is returning to Global to host a weekend show on Heart from July 6th. He’ll be on-air across the network each Saturday afternoon from 4pm till 7pm. Mark left Heart in December 2017 and has been working in LA for the last 18 months. He originally joined in December 2012 to host Club Classics every Friday and Saturday night. James Rea, Managing Editor of Heart told RadioToday: “Mark is the perfect host for Saturday evenings on Heart"...

Global to launch Heart Dance with Toby Anstis on Breakfast

Heart Dance, a new service from Global, is launching on DAB digital radio across the UK this Friday 21st June. The Club Classics formatted station will have former Heart presenters Toby Anstis on the breakfast show, and Lucy Horobin on afternoon drive. Lucy will also be presenting a weekend show every Saturday from 10am – 1pm. Heart Dance will play club classics from the likes of Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk, Ne-Yo, Ultra Naté, Fatboy Slim and Armand Van Helden.

Heart drivetime show presenters announced by Global

Global has announced who will present each of the regional Heart drivetime shows when the brand starts a networked breakfast show on June 3rd. The number of regional afternoon programmes will be halved, with a number of breakfast presenters making the move to drivetime, whilst some current weekend and local drivetime presenters will transfer.

Heart presenters start saying goodbye to listeners

Presenters at a number of Heart stations are starting to tell listeners they are leaving their radio shows at the end of May. They are tweeting farewell messages as each local or regional breakfast show is about to go networked, and some drive presenters replaced. In a bold move never undertaken at this scale before, Global is about to change every breakfast show and almost every drive show on its large network of Heart stations outside London.

RAJAR Q1 2019: Regional and local radio facts and figures

Whilst the national news is all about new radio stations and breakfast shows, the main headlines in the regions are about one of Bauer’s latest brands. The first results for Greatest Hits Radio in England show a mainly downward trend following the rebrand from City 2 stations last quarter.