Heart North West is a regional

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

owned and operated by

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

as part of the

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

network. It broadcasts to North West England from studios in the

Spinningfields Spinningfields is an area of Manchester city centre, in North West England, developed in the 2000s between Deansgate and the River Irwell by Allied London Properties. The £1.5 billion project consists of twenty new buildings, totalling approxima ...

area of

Manchester city centre Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England situated within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way which collectively form an inner ring road. ...

Overview

Century Radio (1998–2009)

The station opened as Century Radio on 8 September 1998 as the second Century station in the country (the first being Gateshead-based

100-102 Century Radio Heart North East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North East England from studios in Newcastle. History Century Radio Century Radio was the first regional station for No ...

). Owned and operated by

Border Television ITV Border, previously Border Television and commonly referred to as simply Border, is the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 service provided by ITV (TV channel), ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Anglo-Scottish border, England/Scotland border region, ...

, Century was founded by managing director John Myers, who had also established the north east station four years earlier. Like the first station, Myers also presented the

breakfast show Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a lo ...

under the pseudonym John Morgan. The station's launch was the subject of an episode of a BBC Two fly-on-the-wall documentary ''

Trouble at the Top ''Trouble at the Top'' was a business-based BBC television fly on the wall documentary broadcast on BBC2. The series focussed on business failings or disputes between business people. Mainly the series depicted half-hour documentaries on large b ...

,'' mainly following Myers. The episode, entitled "Degsy Rides Again", showed Myers' attempts to train lunchtime

phone-in In broadcasting, a phone-in or call-in is a programme format in which viewers or listeners are invited to air their live comments by telephone, usually in respect of a specific topic selected for discussion on the day of the broadcast. On radio ( ...

host

Derek Hatton Derek Anthony Hatton (born 17 January 1948) is a British former politician, later a broadcaster, property developer and businessman. He gained national prominence as deputy leader of Liverpool City Council in the 1980s and was a member of the Tr ...

, a controversial local ex-politician who had never before presented on radio. Myers was not confident enough in Hatton for him to appear on pre-launch publicity, although his show "The Degsy Debate" performed well at the first

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

. Also amongst its launch presenters was controversial

shock jock A shock jock is a radio broadcaster or DJ who entertains listeners and attracts attention using humor and/or melodramatic exaggeration that may offend some portion of the listening audience. The term is used pejoratively to describe provocative o ...

Scottie McClue Colin Lamont (born 20 June 1956), better known by his shock jock on-air radio persona of Scottie McClue, is a broadcaster and former newscaster. Career Lamont was educated at Greenock Academy, the University of Glasgow, the Royal Scottish Acad ...

. The documentary also covered the station's acquisition of exclusive commentary rights for

Manchester United F.C. Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd), or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, ...

's games. They remained United's official radio partner for almost a decade until selling the rights to Xfm Manchester for the 2007–08 season. Myers left the group to head

GMG Radio GMG Radio, and for a short while Real and Smooth Limited, was a company that owned the Real Radio and Smooth Radio networks. As GMG Radio, the company was the radio division of the Guardian Media Group until it was bought in 2012 by Global Rad ...

, overseeing the launch of the similar

Real Radio Real Radio was a network of five regional radio stations broadcasting to North East England, North West England, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire. Each station broadcast a mix of local and networked programming. On Tuesday 6 May 2014, the statio ...

brand.

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...

bought the Century network, and was subsequently acquired by

GCap Media GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. O ...

. GMG Radio acquired the Century stations in October 2006, reuniting Myers and

John Simons John Simons (John Potts) is a British radio executive, former group programming director for GMG Radio now working as an International Radio Consultant, mainly in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Biography Simons began his career in 1979, ...

(programme director on the original Gateshead station) with the brand.

Real Radio (2009–2014)

Century was re-branded as

on Monday 30 March 2009. On 15 October 2012, Real Radio announced the station would increase its amount of networked programming. Weekday daytime shows, from 10am to 4pm and presented by Darren Parks and Debbie Mac, were networked across all Real Radio stations on Monday 5 November 2012 with further networked shows introduced at the weekend.

Heart (2014–)

On 25 June 2012 it was announced

(the owner of stations such as Capital and

) had bought

. The former GMG stations, including Real Radio, continued to operate separately as 'Real and Smooth Limited' until 1 April 2014. On 6 February 2014, Global announced it would be rebranding all Real Radio stations as Heart. Real Radio North West began a gradual transition to the Heart branding on 24 March 2014 and phased out the Real Radio branding on Sunday 20 April 2014. On 1 May 2014, local programming moved from Laser House in Salford to nearby Exchange Quay, sharing facilities with sister stations

Capital Manchester Capital Manchester was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Capital radio network. The station broadcast from their studios at Global's Manchester HQ in the XYZ Building in Spinningfields, Manchester. In Apri ...

and XFM Manchester. The full relaunch as Heart North West took place at 6am on Tuesday 6 May 2014. On 12 June 2017, local programming moved from Salford to new studios at the XYZ building in the Spinningfields district of Manchester City Centre. Heart North West shares facilities with its sister station

and two

Communicorp Bauer Media Audio Ireland (formerly Communicorp Group) is a media holding company based in Ireland, owned by Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia ...

-owned stations,

Smooth North West Smooth North West is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global as part of the Smooth network. The station broadcasts to the North West of England from studios at Spinningfields in Manchester. History GMG Radio ...

and

XS Manchester XS Manchester is an Independent Local Radio station serving Greater Manchester, broadcasting a mix of indie and alternative rock music, speech and news output. The station is owned and operated by Communicorp UK and broadcasts from studios at ...

Consolidation (2019–)

On 26 February 2019, Global announced sister station

Heart North Lancashire & Cumbria Heart North Lancashire & Cumbria (formerly The Bay) was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to north Lancashire and south Cumbria from studios in Lancaster. History The Bay The st ...

would close and merge with Heart North West.Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows
RadioToday, 26 February 2019 On 3 June 2019, following further deregulation, local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London.Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast
Radio Today, 29 April 2019 Regional output was reduced to a three-hour drivetime show on weekdays,Heart Drivetime show presenters announced by Global
Radio Today, 20 May 2019 plus localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising. All four of Heart North West's presenters, including breakfast presenters

Joel Ross Joel Ross (born Joel Hogg 31 May 1977) is a multi award winning British radio DJ and television presenter. He has worked with a co-host Jason King (known on-air as JK). He currently presents the Rock FM Breakfast Show. Career Best known ...

and Lorna Bancroft and weekend presenter Faye Bamford, left the station.

Programming

All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including ''Heart Breakfast'', presented each weekday by

Jamie Theakston James Paul Theakston (born 21 December 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, and actor. He co-presented the former Saturday morning BBC One children's show ''Live & Kicking'', alongside Zoe Ball between 1996 and 1999. He co-hosted ...

and

Amanda Holden Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English actress, media personality, and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition ''Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the ''Heart Brea ...

. Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Global's Manchester studios from 4-7pm on weekdays, presented by Adam Weighell.Public File - North West
heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019

News

Global's Manchester newsroom broadcasts hourly localised news bulletins from 0600–1900 on weekdays and from 0600–1200 at weekends, with headlines on the half hour during breakfast and drivetime shows. Separate bulletins are produced for the North West of England and the licence area previously served by

.Public File - North Lancashire & Cumbria
heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019

Notable former presenters

Wes Butters Wesley Paul Butters (born 4 May 1979, in Salford), is a radio broadcaster, formerly of BBC Radio 1, and writer. Early life Butters attended Buile Hill High School in Pendleton, Salford, and studied at the University of Salford between 1995 a ...

* Rob Charles * Rich Clarke *

* Lorna Bancroft * Russ Morris * Ryan Seacrest *

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, taking over from Shaun Pollock. He held t ...

Kate Thornton Kate Thornton (born 7 February 1973) is an English journalist and broadcaster, best known as the first presenter of ''The X Factor'' (2004–2006) and for presenting daytime shows including ''Loose Women'' (2009–2011) and '' This Morning'' (20 ...

References

External links

Heart North Lancashire & CumbriaHeart North West
{{Coord, 53.480543, N, 2.253398, W, region:GB-MAN, display=title Mass media in Salford Radio stations in Lancashire Radio stations in Manchester Radio stations established in 1998

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...