Heart Scotland

Heart Scotland

City of license	Glasgow
Broadcast area	Central and Southern Scotland
Branding	This is Scotland's Heart
Slogan	More Music Variety
Frequency	100.3 MHz (Glasgow) 101.1 MHz (Edinburgh) / DAB: 11D (Switch Digital Scotland)
First air date	16 September 1994 (Scot FM) 8 January 2002 (Real Radio) 6 May 2014 (Heart)
Format	Adult Contemporary
Audience share	5.0% (September 2015, )
Owner	Global Radio
Sister stations	Capital Scotland XFM Scotland
Website	Heart Scotland

Heart Scotland is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. The station relaunched as Heart on Tuesday 6 May 2014,^[1][2] serving Central and Southern Scotland from studios at Ballieston in the east end of Glasgow.

Heart Scotland originally broadcast as Scot FM until 2001, when Guardian Media Group bought the station, leading to a relaunch as Real Radio Scotland. Global Radio acquired GMG Radio on 25 June 2012, but operated Real Radio in a "hold separate" situation known as Real and Smooth Ltd, which ended on 1 April 2014.^[3]

History

Scot FM

In September 1994, Scot FM began broadcasting a regional 24-hour service to Central Scotland from studios in the Leith district of Edinburgh. Originally billed pre-launch as a relatively highbrow and primarily speech-based station, the station went through numerous format changes, financial difficulties and mixed ratings fortunes. In June 2001, the Guardian Media Group acquired Scot FM from previous owners, the Wireless Group, for £25.5 million.

Real Radio

Original Real Radio logo

Shortly afterwards, a major overhaul of the station was announced including an on-air rebrand, a move to new studios at Ballieston near Glasgow, a revamped programming line-up and a strengthened round-the-clock news service.^[4] Real Radio Scotland began broadcasting at 8am on Tuesday 8 January 2002 with breakfast presenter Robin Galloway introducing the first song to be played, A Star is Born.^[5]

Within a year of its launch, the station reached a record weekly audience of 614,000 listeners, and by 2004, further increased its audience to 688,000,^[6] placing Real Radio as the most listened to station in Scotland.^[7][8] By 2007, the station's audience share reached a record 31% ^[9] - but fell by around 10% a year later.^[10]

Under the Real Radio brand, the station held various charity events and campaigns since its launch, including a reality challenge called The Real Sleeopver,^[11] and the annual Bring £1 to Work Day, both in aid of the Children's Hospice Association Scotland.^[12][13]

In 2006, Real Radio Scotland attempted to increase its coverage area by applying^[14] for the new FM licence for Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire, but lost out to Original 106. During the summer of 2008, the station introduced networked programming^[15] including evening & overnight output from Manchester and a Saturday morning show hosted by Chris Tarrant.^[16] Listeners' complaints led to the return of local night time output a few months later. The networked output was reintroduced during the summer of 2011.

From August 2006 to June 2009, the Irish-based sports broadcaster Setanta Sports simulcast Real Radio's weeknight football phone-in live twice a week on Setanta Sports 1.^[17] The station also carried live commentaries for some of the Scottish national team's matches^[18] and eight SPL games during the season,^[19][20] alongside broadcast a Scottish football phone-in on weekday evenings and Saturday afternoons, until sports coverage outside news bulletins was dropped at the end of the 2011-12 season.^[21][22]

Robin Galloway left Real Radio in November 2010, shortly after an incident in which his producer ran in the nude past Labour Party leader Ed Miliband while he was being interviewed.^[23] After RAJAR reported a decline in listenership figirues, Galloway commented the halcyon days for the brand are very much in the past now.^[24]

By March 2014, the station's audience share had dropped further to 7.7%, down sharply from an 11.3% share recorded in December 2010.^[25] Around the time of the rebrand to Heart, the share had slipped to 6% with an audience of 421,000 listeners - at the time, the station's all-time lowest RAJAR figures. The station has managed to recover slightly, increasing it share back to 7.4%.

Global Radio

On 25 June 2012, it was announced Global Radio (the owner of stations such as Capital and Heart) had bought GMG Radio. The former GMG stations, including Real Radio, were placed under a hold separate company known as Real and Smooth Limited.^[26][27]

As of 5 November 2012, Real Radio's local programming has consisted of daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows from Glasgow, with most non-peak output broadcast from Salford Quays.^[28][29][30]

On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be rebranding all Real Radio stations as Heart.^[31] Real Radio Scotland began a gradual transition to the Heart branding on 24 March 2014 and phased out the Real Radio branding on Sunday 20 April 2014. The full relaunch as Heart Scotland took place on Tuesday 6 May 2014.^[1][32]

Although the station managed to increase its audience towards the end of 2014, By March 2015, share had dropped even further to 5.9%^[33] before dropping even further to the station's all-time lowest RAJAR figures of 4.8%.^[34]

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from Heart's Glasgow studios from 6-10am and 4-7pm on weekdays, 1-5pm on Saturdays and 12pm-4pm on Sundays. All networked programming originates from Global Radio's London headquarters, including the syndicated Vodafone Big Top 40 on Sunday afternoons.

The station's local presenters include Robin Galloway and Adele Cunningham (Heart Breakfast), Paul Harper (weekday drivetime) and Yasmin Zemmoura (weekend afternoons).

Heart News

Heart Scotland broadcasts hourly regional news bulletins from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends, including the ten-minute Heart Nightly News at 6.45pm on weeknights and headlines on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows.

National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times. The Glasgow newsroom also produces bulletins for Smooth Glasgow and XFM Scotland in Renfrewshire.

Notable former presenters

References

External links

• Heart Scotland

Coordinates: 55°51′37″N 4°06′56″W / 55.8602°N 4.1156°W / 55.8602; -4.1156