Heart North Wales

Heart North Wales
City Wrexham
Broadcast area North and Mid Wales
Branding This is Heart
Slogan Turn up the Feel Good!
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
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. The Heart and Capital stations share facilities at Global's studios in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham.[7]

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from Heart's Wrexham studios from 6-10am and 4-7pm on weekdays, 6-10am 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 are Oli Kemp and Lois Cernyw (Heart Breakfast), Rachael Howarth (weekday drivetime) and Paris Munro (weekends).

News

Heart North Wales broadcasts hourly regional news bulletins from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends - including two ten-minute weekday programmes, Heart Morning News at 6am and Heart Nightly News at 6.45pm - and headlines on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows.[8]

National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times. Regional bulletins are jointly produced from Global's newsrooms in Wrexham and Cardiff Bay.

References

  1. ↑ Global confirms Heart expansion details Radio Today, 14 April 2014
  2. ↑ Global confirms Heart expansion details, Radio Today, 14 April 2014
  3. ↑ http://radiotoday.co.uk/2010/11/real-covers-wales-in-january/
  4. ↑ Sandle, Paul (6 February 2014). "Denis O'Brien buys eight UK radio stations from Global Radio". Reuters. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  5. ↑ http://radiotoday.co.uk/2014/04/global-confirms-heart-expansion-details/
  6. ↑ http://www.dailypost.co.uk/business/business-news/real-radio-sold-part-30m-6685535
  7. ↑ Global confirms Heart expansion details, Radio Today, 14 April 2014
  8. ↑ Heart North Wales public file

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