Heart North West

Heart North West is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. The station broadcasts to North West England from studios at Exchange Quay, Salford.

Originally known as Century Radio and Century FM, and from 2009 Real Radio North West, the station relaunched as Heart North West on Tuesday 6 May 2014.

Overview

Century Radio

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). Owned and operated by Border Television, Century was founded by managing director John Myers, who had also established the north east station. Like the first station, Myers also presented the breakfast show 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, mainly following Myers. The episode, entitled "Degsy Rides Again", showed Myers' attempts to train lunchtime phone-in host Derek Hatton, 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. Also amongst its launch presenters was controversial shock jock Scottie McClue.

Heart North East

Heart North East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North East England from studios in Newcastle.

History

Century Radio

Conceived as the second regional station for North East England, it was also the first to use the Century brand, which followed a 'personality' format, mixing speech and music. The station was originally based beside the Tyne Bridge in Gateshead, before relocating to Team Valley in 2008 to share a building with GMG stations Smooth Radio and Rock Radio. The station was originally called Century Radio, before changing its name to Century FM and finally reverting to the original moniker in 2008.

The station was set up by Border Television, with John Myers as managing director and John Simons as programme director. Myers presented the breakfast show under the pseudonym of John Morgan. The first song played on air was "A Star is Born" (also used to launch the North West's Century FM).

Real Radio

Real Radio was a network of five regional radio stations broadcasting to Northern England, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire. Each station broadcast a mix of local and networked programming. On Tuesday 6 May 2014, the stations were merged with the Heart network.

History

Sir Robert Phillis, the former GMG chief executive, enlisted John Myers to establish GMG Radio. Myers became the company's managing director in 1999, and won GMG its first licence in South Wales in April 2000.Real Radio (Wales) launched on Tuesday 3 October 2000. Initially serving south and west Wales, the station expanded to north and mid Wales in January 2011, over two years after winning a second licence.

In June 2001, Scot FM was acquired from the Wireless Group for £25.5 million. Scot FM would become Real Radio's second station at 8am on Tuesday 8 January 2002. A bid to expand the service to Aberdeenshire in 2006 proved unsuccessful, losing out to Original 106.

Real Yorkshire, the third station, launched on 25 March 2002 and broadcast to South & West Yorkshire.

Heart Scotland

Heart Scotland is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. The station relaunched as Heart on Tuesday 6 May 2014, serving Central and Southern Scotland from studios at Ballieston in the east end of Glasgow.

Heart Scotland originally broadcast as Scot FM until 2001, when Guardian Media Group bought the station, leading to a relaunch as Real Radio Scotland. Global Radio acquired GMG Radio on 25 June 2012, but operated Real Radio in a "hold separate" situation known as Real and Smooth Ltd, which ended on 1 April 2014.

History

Scot FM

In September 1994, Scot FM began broadcasting a regional 24-hour service to Central Scotland from studios in the Leith district of Edinburgh. Originally billed pre-launch as a relatively highbrow and primarily speech-based station, the station went through numerous format changes, financial difficulties and mixed ratings fortunes. In June 2001, the Guardian Media Group acquired Scot FM from previous owners, the Wireless Group, for £25.5 million.

Radio Scotland

Radio Scotland was an offshore pirate radio station broadcasting on 1241 kHz mediumwave (242 metres), created by Tommy Shields in 1965. The station was on the former lightship L.V. Comet, which was anchored at locations off Scotland, usually outside territorial waters.

The station began on 31 December 1965 and featured DJs including Paul Young, Richard Park, Stuart Henry and Jack McLaughlin with a céilidh programme that promised to tickle the "tartan tonsils." Its headquarters, Radio Scotland House, was a building at Cranworth Street, Hillhead in Glasgow. Cranworth Street also made taped programmes - using 1/4" magnetic tape - taken to the ship by tender.

The Comet was initially off Dunbar on the east coast and had strong coverage of Edinburgh, but not as clearly in Glasgow. Shields moved the ship in April 1966 to Troon off Arran on the west coast, but it had no engine so it had to be towed. Adding to expense was that the station remained on air, meaning a longer route outside territorial waters.

Scotland

Scotland (/ˈskɒt.lənd/; Scots: [ˈskɔt.lənd]; Scottish Gaelic: Alba [ˈal̪ˠapə]) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Edinburgh, the country's capital and second-largest city, was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual, and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.

Burnside Avenue

Burnside Avenue is a main thoroughfare connecting East Hartford, Connecticut's Main Street to Manchester, Connecticut. The road is part of U.S. Route 44. It runs through a low income portion of East Hartford and is home to a significant population of Hispanics and African Americans. East Hartford Middle school is located near the center of the avenue and is next to the main campus of Goodwin College. The eastern portion of Burnside Avenue has little housing, but is significantly developed with strip malls and restaurants. The Avenue is home to two important parks in East Hartford. Martin Park in the west has a swimming pool and a skating park along with access to many of East Hartford's bike trails. The east of the avenue has an entrance to Wickham Park, a large private park containing an aviary, bike trails, hiking trails, picnic grounds, and a view of Hartford's skyline.

Before the turn of the 20th century, Burnside was colloquially considered a separate village from the rest of East Hartford. Its rough terrain and proximity to the Hockanum river led to early artifice, so that even before the industrial revolution, it was dominated by paper mills. By 1900, Burnside was developing as a streetcar suburb. Its development prior to Pratt and Whitney (1929) explains its high density relative to the post-war housing so prevalent in the remainder of the town.