Heart South Wales is an regional radio station that broadcasts to South 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. The station is owned and operated by Global Radio and forms part of the expanded

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 ...

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 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 through IRN.

Heart

On 25 June 2012 it was announced Global Radio (the owner of stations such as Capital and

) had bought

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 ...

. 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 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.< ...

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 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 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