Global Radio axes all regional/local breakfast shows

I'm not sure having Heat competing with Heart would be a good idea, purely because of the similarity of their names which would be a recipe for people ticking the wrong boxes in Rajar.

But I totally agree that they've got enough strong brands not to have needed to create any more. Rolling out Kiss and Magic across the country would make a lot more sense than Hits Radio and GHR (assuming that's their plan). And Hits Radio is such a bland, forgettable, generic name for a radio station - it's like something a soap would come up with for a fictional station.

Heat has been taken off DAB, it's now online only with no presenters, so it's clear what the strategy for that station is.

Funny thing is prior to 2015, Bauer did use Magic at local level. For all the legacy stations it was the brand used for the Gold/MW services, such as Piccadilly Gold in Manchester. They then chose to make the London version of Magic nationally available when it hadn’t been previously, and the City 2 network was born which has now become GHR.

Whilst I get why Bauer are launching Scala I’m not sure where GHR is meant to fit alongside Magic and the Absoloute spin offs. The way it’s going is that City 1 will probably become Hits Radio everywhere bar Scotland, and the Wireless/Celador/Lincs will probably become GHR pending overlaps.

At least Global, in a Carlton style manner have done it in one fell swoop, Bauer, acting more like Granada seem to be taking their time with things.

Gem would be the ideal Hot AC brand to take national then I imagine? Though they also have Signal and Wave to use now too?

The big difference between Global and Bauer is that Global got into the networking game a lot earlier. This latest set of changes is the culmination of a process that started when the Chiltern and GWR stations started to network and provide a common product. They merged and then merged with Capital who was doing a similar thing, and the networks got bigger. Whereas Emap as was remained smaller and left their stations to do their own thing.

So now they've been left behind somewhat, although they have some great national brands and formats and some strong local stations they're not that cohesive.

Personally I think Greatest Hits Radio is a good format that could do well. It's got a very broad appeal as the music is just all classic songs that everyone knows. Their issue is that how do they roll it out? Their geographic spread isn't great, unlike Global they don't have 2 stations in lots of areas, and the two network formats aren't as mature as Heart or Capital. But then Kiss or Magic aren't broad enough to replace existing 'heritage' ILRs. There are Kiss FMs outside London already of course


They did that in the Midlands when GHR launched on FM, the MW stations started to relay Absolute Classic Rock, effectively replacing the rock license they had on FM

No, they have too many brands and some aren't unique enough. Gem only really exists as the previous owners had to replace Heart with something. Signal and Wave are local brands, they'll be gone.

I do wonder what their strategy is, the recent local purchases make sense assuming they work out how to network them. But they've been buying so many small national radio brands they can't focus - Planet Rock and Absolute have some cross over and then there's Jazz FM and Scala which might too.

Maybe it's a scatter gun method, just flood the market

I do like GHR but I liked Radio City 2 better as it had more local feel and they had a bit of banter. I have a feeling great brands like Radio City will become Hits Radio in name (already is in sound tbh). I don't know who made the logos for GHR and Hits, but they are awful.

This is why I think they need to look at the existing brands, and in a couple of cases, make some harsh decisions; Planet Rock could go for example. I still think Hits needs to migrate into Kiss and GHR into Magic. With Global you've got a really clear picture of what is what, but with Bauer even I don't know the ins and outs of it all.

Then they have to ask themselves the Scottish question. Do they full on treat it as a special case with separate networking and branding etc. or bite the bullet and integrate them into the English networks?

The one presenter they kept from Radio City 2, who's on Breakfast is absolutely awful. I assume he was given more free reign there

If they get rid of the Radio City name I wonder what they’ll call Radio City Talk? Probably just go back to being City Talk like when it launched.

It will just take one of the national brands. City Talk would be an oddity that wouldn't fit in with the wider network.

At least they're laughing about things in Glasgow:

.@stevenmill took on Flat Earthers this morning...

Is there anyone in Scotland who disagrees with him?

🌍 or ❌#FlatEarth #flatearthsociety @des_clarke pic.twitter.com/yXK7ihIK4z

— Capital Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@CapitalScotland) February 28, 2019