Heart South Wales is an regional radio station that broadcasts to

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

from studios in

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of ...

. The station is owned and operated by

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrys ...

and forms part of the expanded

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), 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 ca ...

radio network of stations.

Background

Real Radio

On 3 October 2000 the Real Radio brand was launched after GMG Group won its first broadcast licence, serving South and West Wales. Following an introduction by

Sir Tom Jones Sir Thomas Jones Woodward (born 7 June 1940), known professionally as Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer. His career began with a string of top-ten hits in the mid-1960s. He has toured regularly, with appearances in Las Vegas (1967–2011). Jones's ...

, the station's founding managing director John Myers introduced the song "A Star is Born". In December 2008, GMG Group was awarded the corresponding North and Mid Wales licence. Following an agreed format change request with

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

, the existing South and West Wales service was rolled out to the new coverage area. The station began broadcasting on its North and Mid Wales frequencies on 4 January 2011. Real Radio Wales was a music and speech station, playing an AC format of classic, contemporary and current music the past 25 years to the present day. The station also carried news bulletins every hour between the hours of 6am and 7pm weekdays and from 6am to 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays (including half-hour headlines at breakfast and drivetime) from Cardiff. Other bulletins were provided by

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the he ...

through IRN.

Heart

On 25 June 2012 it was announced

(the owner of stations such as

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

and

) had bought GMG Radio. The former GMG stations, including Real Radio, continued to operate separately until a regulatory review was carried out. On 6 February 2014, Global Radio reached an agreement to sell the North Wales licence for Real Radio and seven other stations to

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 ...

. The South Wales licence remains under Global's ownership. Up until April 2014, the station was available across the UK on digital satellite TV ( Sky Digital channel 0146), taking up the slot following the closure of Real Radio (Digital), but was replaced by The Arrow. Under OFCOM rules, the sale required the all-Wales Real Radio station to be split into two with separate stations, launched under separate owners. Both stations were rebranded and relaunched as Heart South Wales and Heart North and Mid Wales on Tuesday 6 May 2014. Around the time of the relaunch, the station's audience share had increased from 9.1% to 11.5% in the previous twelve months. In February 2019, following Ofcom's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Global announced it would replace Heart Wales' local breakfast and weekend shows with networked programming from London. As of 3 June 2019, the station's local output consists of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside local news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.

Programming

All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including ''Heart Breakfast'', presented each weekday by Jamie Theakston 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 Cardiff Bay studios from 4-7pm on weekdays,Public File - Wales
heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019 presented by Simon Jagger and Chris Wood.Heart Drivetime show presenters announced by Global
Radio Today, 20 May 2019

News

Global's Cardiff Bay newsroom broadcasts hourly regional news bulletins from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends with headlines on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows. National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times. The Cardiff Bay newsroom also produces bulletins for

Heart North Wales Heart North and Mid Wales is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North and Mid Wales from studios in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham.

(owned by Communicorp),

Smooth Wales Smooth Wales is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to the Cardiff area of South Wales and to the Wrexham area of North Wales, as well as parts of Cheshire in England. All programming content is now shared to both areas. It is the on ...

Capital North West and Wales Capital North West and Wales is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to Cheshire, the Wirral Peninsula & North Wales. The station broadcasts from its studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexha ...

and

Capital Cymru Capital Cymru is a local Welsh-language radio station owned and operated by Global. The station broadcasts to Gwynedd and Anglesey from studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham via the Arfon transmitting station. Previously, the station formed part of th ...

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Cardiff Radio stations in Cardiff Radio stations established in 2000