Heart Scotland

Heart Scotland is a regional radio station that is owned and run by Global as part of the Heart network. It serves central and southern areas of Scotland and its studios are located in the city centre of Glasgow. The station changed its name to Heart on 6 May 2014.

Before becoming Heart Scotland, the station was known as Scot FM until the year 2001. At that time, the Guardian Media Group purchased the station, and it was renamed Real Radio Scotland. Later, on 25 June 2012, Global Radio bought GMG Radio. The station continued as Real Radio until 1 April 2014, when it became part of the Heart network.

History

Scot FM

Main article: Scot FM

In September 1994, Scot FM started broadcasting to Central Scotland from studios in Edinburgh. The station changed its style many times and faced money problems. In June 2001, the Guardian Media Group bought Scot FM from the Wireless Group for £25.5 million.

Real Radio

Soon after, the station was completely changed. It moved to new studios near Glasgow and started a new schedule. Real Radio Scotland began broadcasting on Tuesday 8 January 2002 with breakfast presenter Robin Galloway playing the first song, "A Star Is Born".

Within a year, the station reached 614,000 weekly listeners, and by 2004, it grew to 688,000, becoming Scotland's most popular station. By 2007, its audience share reached 31%, but it dropped to around 21% by 2008.

The station held charity events and campaigns, such as The Real Sleeopver and Bring £1 to Work Day, to support the Children's Hospice Association Scotland.

In 2006, Real Radio tried to expand to Aberdeen but lost to Original 106. In summer 2008, it added programming from Manchester, but listeners asked for local shows to return, so they brought back local night time shows a few months later.

From August 2006 to June 2009, Setanta Sports showed Real Radio's football phone-in live twice a week. The station also provided live commentaries for the Scottish national team’s matches and eight SPL games each season, plus a football phone-in on weekday evenings and Saturday afternoons, until sports coverage ended after the 2011-12 season.

By March 2014, the station's audience share had dropped to 7.7%, down from 11.3% in December 2010. When it changed to Heart, the share was 6% with 421,000 listeners, its lowest point at the time. It later recovered slightly to 7.4%.^{[citation needed]}

Global Radio

On 25 June 2012, Global Radio bought GMG Radio, which owned Real Radio. The former GMG stations, including Real Radio, were placed under a company called Real and Smooth Limited.

From 5 November 2012, Real Radio’s local shows were only the daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows from Glasgow, with most other times showing programs from Salford Quays.

On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would change all Real Radio stations to Heart. Real Radio Scotland started using the Heart name on 24 March 2014 and fully became Heart Scotland on Tuesday 6 May 2014.

Although the station grew its audience by the end of 2014, its share dropped to 5.9% by March the next year, then to 4.8%—its lowest point at the time. By September 2016, it recovered to 6.7%, but fell back to 4.8% a year later. In December 2018, the share reached an all-time low of 4.5%.

In November 2016, Heart Scotland and its sister station Smooth Scotland moved from Ballieston to Global’s new headquarters at 1 West Regent Street in Glasgow.

In February 2019, Global said it would replace Heart Scotland’s local breakfast and weekend shows with programs from London because rules changed.

As of 3 June 2019, the station only had a three-hour drivetime show on weekdays, with local news, traffic updates, and ads. Four local presenters left, including Robin Galloway, Adele Cunningham, Lynne Hoggan and Paul Harper.

On 11 April 2023, Heart Scotland planned to bring back local breakfast, daytime, and weekend shows. Current drivetime presenters Des Clarke and Jennifer Reoch would move to Breakfast. Sister station Capital Scotland (run by Communicorp) also brought back local shows.

Analogue (FM)

Programming

Heart Scotland creates its regional shows from its studios in Glasgow. These local shows air from 6:30am to 7pm on weekdays and from 12pm to 4pm on weekends. All other shows come from Global's main office in London.

The station shares news reports made in Glasgow. These news updates happen every hour from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 6am to 12pm on weekends. Glasgow also makes news for other stations, like Capital Scotland and Smooth Scotland. During other times, national news comes from London.

Notable former presenters