Many more, of course, will be kicking their heels, and several of Global’s regional buildings are being shuttered. All the other Heart shows are national now, too, except for the drivetime slot (remember that three hours’ local output rule) there are 12 different regional Heart drivetime shows, and some of the old breakfast show presenters are moving there. Jamie and Amanda are replacing 21 different breakfast shows, and the trade website Radio Today estimates that around 70 presenters and producers are being moved from that slot. Is any of this important? Well, if you liked the old local breakfast presenters, then, yes, it is. Also, the most likely Bauer breakfast show to go national, Hits Manchester (which replaced Key 103), has not been a massive success, with the new breakfast show team of Gethin Jones, Dave Vitty and Gemma Atkinson being shunted aside after just one year’s broadcasting (though Atkinson will get a drivetime show, with Wes Butters, after her maternity leave). Bauer, which owns Hits, Kiss and Magic, is slightly behind, mostly because it’s been busy buying up loads of other radio stations. Wireless, which doesn’t own as many commercial local stations in the UK (it has a few in Ireland), has already made its big breakfast show move, by hiring Chris Evans to do Virgin’s breakfast: a success. Smooth Breakfast will go national before the end of the year, and there have been rumours that the presenting job was offered to Davina McCall (supposedly she wanted all school holidays off, so that was a no-no). Global has already done this on Capital, with Roman Kemp, Vick Hope and Sonny Jay (who presented Capital’s London breakfast show) going national on 8 April. Ooooh, thought the three main commercial radio brands – Global, Bauer and Wireless Group, since you ask – these new rules mean that we can give the same breakfast show to lots of our local radio stations, making it, effectively, a national radio show. After October, such a station only had to feature three hours of local output, and the breakfast show did not have to be included. Previously, these so-called “localness guidelines” insisted that any commercial local radio station had to feature at least seven hours of locally made output between 6am and 7pm, and this had to include the breakfast show. Last October, Ofcom, which is in charge of the UK’s radio (including the BBC), made a change to the rules that govern commercial local radio’s output. Wait! Come back! Like many things in this world, the story is interesting and boring at the same time. The deep breath is not because of any of this, but because Heart’s brand new national breakfast show means I have to talk about the current state of the UK’s commercial radio stations.
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