Heart North Wales

Heart North Wales
City of license Wrexham
Broadcast area North and Mid Wales
Branding This is Heart
Slogan More Music Variety
Frequency FM:
88.0 MHz (Wrexham)
102.0–107.0 MHz (North Wales)
RDS: HEART
DAB: 10D
First air date 4 January 2011
Format Adult Contemporary
Audience share 1.8% (June 2014, )
Owner Communicorp
Sister stations Capital Cymru,
Capital North West and Wales
Website Heart North Wales

Heart North Wales is a local radio station owned by Communicorp and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North and Mid Wales from studios in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham.[1]

The new Heart North Wales station launched at 6am on Tuesday 6 May 2014, replacing the former Heart North West and Wales station. The rebrand coincided with the relaunch of Heart Wales - meaning a fully separate North and Mid Wales licence, effectively restoring a regional service to South and West Wales.[2]

History

In December 2008, GMG Media was awarded an FM licence to launch a new Real Radio station serving North and Mid Wales. Initially, the company pledged to produce separate local programming and news bulletins for the region in addition to off-peak pan-Wales output. Following an agreed format change request, the existing service covering south and west Wales was instead expanded to form a national service with no opt-outs. Real Radio Wales began broadcasting to the area at 8am on Tuesday 4 January 2011.[3]

On 6 February 2014, Global Radio reached an agreement to sell the Northern licence for Real Radio Wales and seven other stations across the UK to Communicorp.[4] The adjoining South and West Wales licence remains under Global's ownership. Under OFCOM rules, the sale required the then all-Wales station to be split into two with separate Heart stations launched under separate owners.[5][6]

The new Heart North Wales station launched at 6am on Tuesday 6 May 2014. The move coincided with the rebrand and relaunch of Heart's North West and Wales and Cymru stations as part of the Capital network.

Local programming is broadcast in weekday breakfast, drivetime and weekend afternoon timeslots with networked programming originating from London. The Heart and Capital stations share facilities at Global's Wrexham studios.[7]

Notable current presenters

Heart News

Heart North Wales broadcasts local news bulletins each day, including Heart Nightly News, produced for Communicorp by Global Radio's newsrooms in Wrexham and Cardiff. National news updates are from Global's London headquarters.

References

External links