Global Radio to launch “super stations” following Heart restructure

Global Radio is set to cut local Heart stations, replacing them with 15 “super stations”.

The radio group’s restructure will see the formation of 15 Heart super stations to replace the 33 local stations that are currently run by Global.  Two other local Global stations will also be moved under the Heart umbrella.

As a result, the company expects to make up to 200 redundancies, of both full-time staff and freelancers, according to reports.

The 15 super stations will each have their own breakfast and drivetime shows, along with local daytime news bulletins, which will be increased from 30 seconds to one minute every hour.  However, all other programmes will be networked out of London.

The group’s management team is expected to decide which 15 breakfast and drivetime show formats it will keep across the new network within the next few weeks.

Global plans to spend £7 million on the “restructuring of personnel and investment” in the changes, which will start next month.

The move follows Ofcom’s decision to relax regulations over the output of local radio, which “enables commercial radio to organise itself more efficiently and take advantage of new technology to enable our people to work smarter,” according to Ashley Tabor, the Global Radio founder and Global Group chief executive.

“Although this has meant some brave decisions for our business, these changes considerably strengthen our company by providing listeners with higher quality programming and our customers with a far superior service,” he added.