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48-590: Heart is a network of thirteen independent adult contemporary radio stations in the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming. Ten of the stations are owned and operated by Global , while the other three are owned and operated under separate franchise agreements. The national version of the network is widely available on Global Player, Freeview , Sky , Freesat , Virgin Media and Digital One DAB . The Heart radio stations have

96-543: A Post Office licence. Manx Radio is funded by a mixture of commercial advertising and a yearly £860,000 Manx Government subvention. Gem 106 As of September 2024, the station has a weekly audience of 157,000 listeners according to RAJAR . Radio 106 launched at 6   am on Tuesday 23 September 1997 as the East Midlands’ Independent Regional Radio station. Billed as Radio for Grown Ups , with an advertising campaign on Central TV for

144-731: A combined reach of 9.7 million listeners as of September 2024, making it the third most-popular radio network and the biggest commercial radio brand in the UK after BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 . The total reach for all Heart-branded stations is over 12.9 million. Heart began broadcasting in the West Midlands on 6 September 1994 as 100.7 Heart FM , becoming the UK's third Independent Regional Radio station, five days after Century Radio in North East England , and Jazz FM North West . The first song to be played on 100.7 Heart FM

192-648: A franchise agreement with Global. Global Radio extended the Heart network to the Real Radio network of regional stations from Tuesday 6 May 2014. The two stations based in Wrexham – Heart North West and Wales and Heart Cymru – became part of the Capital FM Network on the same date. On 20 November 2017, CN Group announced The Bay would be sold to Global along with sister station Lakeland Radio –

240-460: A nightly 3-hour phone-in. Specialist music output featured country, soul and motown at weekends. The station's launch team included Kevin Fernihough, Mark Keen, Willie Morgan, Kenny Hague, Jake Yapp, Peter King and Sarah Graham. Against competition from established BBC Local Radio and GWR -owned commercial stations, Radio 106 recorded poor listening figures, so within seven months of launch,

288-514: A result of the relaunch. According to RAJAR figures up to June 2016, the station was listened to by 503,000 people (out of a possible 2,384,000 listeners) per week, with each listener tuning in for an average of 7.1 hours over the course of 7 days. All networked programming originates from Bauer's Manchester studios. Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Bauer's Nottingham studios from 6-10am on weekdays. Bauer's Birmingham and Nottingham newsrooms broadcast regional news bulletins on

336-585: A second tranche of contracts were awarded. All stations were awarded an AM and an FM frequency, on which they broadcast the same service. In July 1981, the Home Secretary approved proposals for the creation of Independent Local Radio services in 25 more areas. However some of these areas were not licensed during the IBA's time as the regulator and did not receive a commercial station until after its successor, The Radio Authority, came into being in 1991. In

384-447: A specific section of the community or for smaller areas than ILR stations cover. 22 stations went on air, most of which were eventually acquired by the large radio groups and absorbed into their networks. As of 2024 only a few remain independently owned and operated. The regulatory model these stations were under was a precursor to commercial radio stations licensed by the incoming Radio Authority. The Broadcasting Act 1990 provided for

432-558: A year – and to reduce the criteria for a "viable service area" with the introduction of Small Scale Local Licences (SALLIES) for villages, special interest groups and small communities. By this time the medium wave band had become unpopular with radio groups and the majority of new stations were awarded an FM licence only, even when an AM licence was jointly available. In 1994 the Radio Authority introduced regional stations (Independent Regional Radio, again usually grouped under

480-603: Is aligned with the Hits Radio network, using its generic on-air imaging package. The station retained its own regional programming throughout the day. In July 2019, Gem began taking overnight programming from the Hits Radio Network in Manchester on Sunday - Thursday nights before gradually expanding to evening and off-peak output. As of May 2022, Gem broadcasts a regional breakfast show on weekdays from

528-402: Is possible that Heath's victory was partly due to younger voters upset by the UK government closing down the popular pirate radio stations. The new Minister of Post and Telecommunications and former ITN newscaster, Christopher Chataway , announced a bill to allow for the introduction of commercial radio in the United Kingdom. This service would be planned and regulated in a similar manner to

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576-841: Is produced and broadcast from the headquarters of Global at Leicester Square in central London. Most of the network's output is broadcast live, although some weekend shows are voicetracked . As of 21 June 2019, Heart's Club Classics is simulcast with sister station Heart Dance . The Sky VIP Official Big Top 40 on Sunday afternoons is simulcast with Heart's sister network, Capital . Source: All Heart stations broadcast local news bulletins each day – updates air hourly from 5am to 7pm on weekdays and from 6am to 12pm at weekends, similar to how Capital broadcasts news updates. In accordance with OFCOM speech requirements, some Heart stations produce separate localised bulletins. For example, Heart West produces bulletins for Bristol and Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall. As of 2014,

624-558: Is used for Independent Local Radio in Ireland . Until the early 1970s, the BBC had a legal monopoly on radio broadcasting in the UK. Despite competition from the commercial Radio Luxembourg and, for a period in the mid-1960s, the off-shore " pirate " broadcasters, it had remained the policy of both major political parties that radio was to remain under the BBC. Upon the election of Edward Heath 's government in 1970, this policy changed. It

672-548: The Communications Act 2003 , most commercial stations are now neither independent (although they remain independent from the BBC ) nor local with all of the frequencies now used by Bauer or Global , and almost all of them are now relays of one of either company's national brands, with all remaining locality reduced to a weekday regional programme and localised news, weather and peak-time travel information. The same name

720-680: The Galaxy network, four stations ( BRMB , Beacon Radio , Mercia FM and Wyvern FM ) forming a West Midlands regional network, seven stations joining Capital FM to form The Hit Music Network and the remaining 29 stations forming the Heart Network. Heart East Midlands was sold to Orion Media, along with the West Midlands network of local stations, due to the same competition concerns that had forced its earlier sale to Chrysalis. Between June and September 2010, Global Radio merged

768-605: The Home Office sanctioned in principle the idea that different services could be broadcast on each station's FM and AM frequency and six experiments of split programming on Independent Local Radio of up to ten hours a week took place, although the first experimental part-time split service had taken place two years earlier when Radio Forth created Festival City Radio for the duration of the Edinburgh Festival . The first station to permanently split their frequencies

816-699: The Cornwall ILR station Atlantic FM from joint owners Tindle Radio and Camel Media. Atlantic FM became part of the Heart Network and merged with Heart Devon on Monday 7 May 2012 to form Heart South West , which is based in Exeter. On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be rebranding all Real Radio stations as Heart and would be selling Real Radio Yorkshire and the Northern licence for Real Radio Wales to Communicorp . The Communicorp-owned stations use Heart's network programming and branding under

864-640: The North East of England, Wales, central and southern Scotland, the West Midlands and Yorkshire continue to serve their single licence areas as before. In April 2023, it was announced Heart Scotland would reintroduce local breakfast, daytime and weekend programming from 2 May 2023, as part of a major expansion of Global's Scottish radio operations. As of May 2019, Heart's regional network consists of twelve stations: As of 12 September 2024, Heart's national spin-offs consist of ten stations, broadcast from Global's London headquarters: Heart's network programming

912-534: The Nottingham studios, alongside hourly news bulletins seven days a week and traffic updates at peak times. All other programming output comes from the Hits Radio Network. On 29 August 2023, Bauer announced that from 2 October 2023, Gem will be available only on DAB and online, while its FM frequency, 106 MHz will be switched to Greatest Hits Radio, stating that 'there are so many FM frequencies in

960-457: The Office of Fair Trading again ordered Global to sell off Heart and four other Midlands stations - BRMB , Mercia FM , Wyvern FM and Beacon Radio . In May 2009, the stations were sold to Orion Media , a company backed by Lloyds Development Capital and Phil Riley . On 9 November 2010, Orion Media announced that Heart 106 would be relaunched and renamed as 'Gem 106' on 1 January 2011. Under

1008-701: The West Midlands as the area matched that of the ITV Central region and would make it more attractive to advertisers. Heart 106 was launched on 29 August 2005. A further, more subtle rebrand was applied in September 2006 which saw the dropping of the frequencies from station names across the Heart Network . On 25 June 2007, Chrysalis announced the sale of Heart, along with its sister stations The Arrow , LBC and Galaxy , for £170 million to Global Radio . Following Global's takeover of GCap Media ,

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1056-960: The abolition of the IBA and its replacement by the Independent Television Commission . The IBA continued to regulate radio under the new name of the Radio Authority, but with a different remit. As a "light-touch" regulator (although heavier than the ITC), the Radio Authority was to issue licences to the highest bidder and promote the development of commercial radio choice. This led to the awarding of three national contracts, known as Independent National Radio to Classic FM , Virgin 1215 (later Virgin Radio and then rebranded Absolute Radio ) and Talk Radio (later Talksport ). The Radio Authority also began to license Restricted Service Licence (RSL) stations – low-power temporary radio stations for special events, operating for up to 28 days

1104-561: The area it was not possible for both stations to be on FM at once'. At 10:00pm on 1 October 2023, Gem ceased FM transmissions. The station's FM frequency, 106 MHz FM, was switched to Greatest Hits Radio East Midlands . On 10 January 2024, station owners Bauer announced Gem would be rebranded as Hits Radio East Midlands from 17th April 2024, as part of a network-wide relaunch involving 17 local radio stations in England and Wales. The station's regional programming will not be affected as

1152-689: The banner "ILR" by most commentators) and began to license the commercial Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) multiplexes in October 1998. The Radio Authority was replaced by the Office of Communications ( Ofcom ) in 2004, which also replaced the ITC, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Radio Communications Agency and the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel). Ofcom has stated that they plan to continue

1200-850: The development of Independent Local Radio, with an emphasis on digital broadcasting, and to "ensure the character" of local stations, following the mergers and loss of local identities that followed the 1990 Act. In 2005, there were 217 licensed analogue ILR and IRR services in England; 16 in Wales; 34 in Scotland; eight in Northern Ireland; and two in the Channel Islands . These are licences rather than franchises . Some licences are grouped nationally, regionally or by format to provide one service; other licences cover two or more services. There were three national analogue services. There

1248-436: The end of the year. This reduced total weekly hours of local programming on each station from 43 to 15 and led to dozens of job losses. Drivetime output were reduced from 23 localised shows to 10 programmes covering enlarged areas, formed from the merger of Heart stations. Ten studios producing local programming were closed. Localised news, traffic updates and advertising was retained across all licence areas. In April 2019, it

1296-975: The existing ITV service and would compete with the recently developed BBC Local Radio services (rather than the four national BBC services). The Sound Broadcasting Act received royal assent on 12 July 1972 and the Independent Television Authority (ITA) accordingly changed its name to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) that same day. The IBA immediately began to plan the new service, placing advertisements encouraging interested groups to apply for medium-term contracts to provide programmes in given areas. The first major areas to be advertised were London and Glasgow , with two contracts available in London, one for "news and information", one for "general and entertainment". The London news contract

1344-401: The hour from 6am-7pm on weekdays, from 7am-1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half hour during weekday breakfast with updates every 20 minutes during weekday drivetime. National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried hourly at all other times, apart from Sunday afternoons. Since August 2015, Gem's weekday breakfast show has been simulcast live on Notts TV with

1392-673: The late 1980s, the expansion of ILR continued at a similar rate. Under the Broadcasting Acts, the IBA had a duty to ensure that any area it licensed for radio could support a station with the available advertising revenue. Therefore, many areas were not included in the IBA's ILR plans as it was felt that they were not viable. This did not prevent Radio West in Bristol getting into financial trouble and having to merge with Wiltshire Radio on 1 October 1985; nor did it prevent Centre Radio going into receivership on 6 October 1983. In 1986

1440-425: The launch, and an episode of Central TV's '24 hours' in 1998 documented the launch and the relaunch of the station, the station was launched by ex-Radio Trent managing director Ron Coles with former Centre Radio MD Ken Warburton as programming controller. The first presenter on air was Dickie Dodd. Radio 106's launch schedule included a heavy emphasis on speech content, including daily guests on mid-morning shows and

1488-916: The majority of the 33 Heart stations to create a smaller network of 18 local and regional stations, in line with new OFCOM guidelines on local output requirements. Two Hit Music Network stations were also closed and merged with Heart stations. Stations in Gloucestershire , Kent , London , the West Midlands , the East Midlands and Wiltshire were unaffected by the changes. Heart Cymru , serving Gwynedd and Anglesey, moved its studios from Bangor to Wrexham but retained its extended local output of 10 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Heart North West and Wales retained an opt-out on 96.3FM (the North Wales Coast) for Welsh language programming. On 1 January 2011, Orion Media,

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1536-589: The network uses jingles and themes produced by ReelWorld Europe, based in Salford. Previously, Heart used a jingle package, composed by the Seattle-based music production company IQ Beats. In August 2010, listeners in Bedfordshire and Crawley, West Sussex , complained about the merger of Heart stations and called for a boycott of the station. Some listeners have complained about what they regard as

1584-451: The owners of Heart East Midlands (one of the original three Heart stations) renamed and relaunched the station as ' Gem 106 ', ending a franchise agreement with Global Radio formed when Global purchased GCap – the agreement allowed Orion to use the Heart identity and carry networked programming from London. The move saw Heart's networked programming replaced by local output from Nottingham. On 19 March 2012, Global Radio announced it had bought

1632-461: The presenting line-up. Other additions to the team included Steve Jordan (breakfast) and Bernie Keith (afternoons). In May 2000, Century 106, along with the other Century stations in the North East and North West, were sold to Capital Radio . David Lloyd left the station to join Galaxy 105 in Leeds while presenter Adrian Allen walked out mid-show in protest. The sale to Capital brought an increase in

1680-535: The rebrand, the station ended its franchise agreement with Global Radio which allowed it to use the Heart identity and carry networked programming from London. Gem 106 was launched at midnight on Saturday 1 January 2011 with a special programme presented by Orion's director of programming and marketing David Lloyd . The GEM name stands for 'Great East Midlands', the name created and used from 1988 onwards for GEM-AM (later Classic Gold GEM) an AM (medium wave), 'solid gold' secondary service of Radio Trent. The majority of

1728-468: The reduction in local programming, following the relaxation of local content guidelines by OFCOM . Official website [REDACTED] Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990 , and deregulation resulting from

1776-436: The repetitive nature of Heart's playlist. A public complaint to the regulator Ofcom in 2012 that the "More Music Variety" slogan was materially misleading was not pursued as Ofcom deemed that it did not warrant further investigation. Ofcom stated that "We did not consider listeners were materially misled by this slogan." Further complaints were made to the station in 2019, largely regarding the merger of some Heart stations and

1824-473: The sale was finalised by 1 December 2017. The Bay was rebranded as Heart, with Lakeland Radio becoming Smooth on 4 March 2018. Music from the 1960s , 1970s & 1980s was removed from the original FM station after Christmas 2017. In February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, it was announced Heart would replace its local breakfast and weekend shows with additional networked programming from London by

1872-456: The station's original "soft AC" music format was replaced with a generally more neutral Hot AC playlist. Century 106 in the East Midlands became the third station of the Heart network in 2005 after GCap Media sold Century. Chrysalis' radio holdings were sold to Global Radio in 2007. When GCap Media was taken over by Global Radio in 2008, it announced plans to dissolve the 41-station One Network , with one station ( Power FM ) becoming part of

1920-469: The station's owners Border Radio Holdings opted for a complete relaunch. In April 1998, John Myers took control of the station, which was rebranded as "Century 106" and relaunched with a new team of presenters, including Adrian Allen and Chris Ashley. Former Radio Trent presenter David Lloyd became the station's Managing Director and Programme Controller with ex-Trent colleagues including Tony Lyman, Craig Strong, Gary Burton and Andy Marriott joining

1968-412: The station's programming is locally produced and broadcast from Nottingham. As of March 2016, Gem refreshed their imaging and jingle package using a custom package from Wisebuddah, at which point the '106' was dropped from the name. On 6 May 2016, the station's owners, Orion, announced they had been bought by Bauer for an undisclosed fee, reportedly between £40 and £50 million. As of August 2016, Gem

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2016-477: The station's sports coverage - as emphasised in the slogan music, fun and football . More new presenters joined Century, including Ian Skye, Jason King, Stuart Ellis, Sam Pinkham and Paula White. When Capital later merged with GWR, the Office of Fair Trading ordered Century to be sold off. Chrysalis bought Century 106 for £29.5m and planned to rebrand the station as Heart 106 , to go with 100.7 Heart FM in

2064-518: Was Something Got Me Started by Simply Red . Its original format of " soft adult contemporary " music included artists such as Lionel Richie and Tina Turner . Reflecting this, its early slogan was 100.7 Degrees Cooler! Heart 106.2 began test transmissions in London in August 1995, prior to the station launch on 5 September. This included live broadcasts of WPLJ from New York City . In 1996

2112-503: Was Guildford's County Sound who rebranded the FM output as Premier Radio and turned the AM output into a new golden oldies station, County Sound Gold in 1988. By 1988, the government had decided that the practice of splitting was beneficial and a quick way to increase choice for listeners. The IBA then began encouraging ILR stations to split their services and most soon complied. The usual format

2160-489: Was awarded to London Broadcasting Company (LBC) and they began broadcasting on 8 October 1973. The London general contract went to Capital Radio , who began broadcasting on 16 October 1973. In total, 19 contracts were awarded between 1973 and 1976. Due to government limits on capital expenditure and turbulence in the broadcasting field (mainly due to the Annan Report ), no further contracts were awarded until 1980, when

2208-537: Was one national DAB multiplex (Digital One) and 47 regional DAB multiplexes, owned by 10 and operated by nine companies (each multiplex carrying multiple services). The first licensed commercial radio station in the United Kingdom is often stated to be Manx Radio , which launched in June 1964. However, since the Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom, Manx Radio is not considered to be an ILR station and launched with

2256-492: Was reported the local Heart Breakfast shows would be replaced by a national Heart Breakfast show from London on 3 June 2019, presented by Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden . The merging stations ceased local output on 31 May 2019. In Hertfordshire, a further change saw Heart Hertfordshire , based in Watford, merged with BOB fm – following its acquisition by Communicorp – to form a single countywide service. Stations in

2304-582: Was to have a "gold" (oldies) service on AM and pop music on FM, although Radio City tried "City Talk" on AM before abandoning the format. By the start of the 1990s, most stations had done 'the splits' with the final stations ending waveband simulcasting by the mid-1990s. Incremental Radio was a new type of radio licence given out by the IBA between 1989 and 1990. These were additional radio services introduced into areas already served by an Independent Local Radio station and most had to offer output not already available on ILR, such as specialist music, programmes for

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