Global Radio is to launch UK-wide national breakfast shows on Capital, Heart and Smooth radio as part of a major operational restructure announced today.
The changes will create the three largest commercial radio breakfast shows in the UK, but it will mean a reduction in locally produced programmes, with scores of jobs at risk.
Global said the restructure was the result of changes in Ofcom’s localness guidelines last October, when the regulator relaxed its rules on how and where stations made their programmes.
The new national breakfast shows will start in April with Capital London’s breakfast show replacing 14 breakfast programmes on the Capital network in England, Scotland and Wales.
Capital will also move to nine drivetime shows – including Liverpool, North East and Yorkshire – instead of the current 14. Among them, Capital Manchester and Lancashire 2BR will merge to become Capital North West.
Later in the year, Heart will roll-out a single breakfast show across England, Scotland and Wales to replace its current 22 breakfast shows, while its 23 separate drivetime shows will reduce to 10.
And Smooth will create a new national breakfast show replacing breakfast programmes in places including the North West, Lake District and North East. Its drivetime shows will reduce to seven.
All remaining drivetime shows will continue to be made locally.
Global’s founder and Executive President, Ashley Tabor OBE, announced the move to staff this morning and described the changes as a “huge opportunity” as they would allow Global to “properly compete with BBC Radio 1 & 2”.
He also sought to reinforce Global’s commitment to local news, travel and its national news operation.
But the changes will inevitably lead to redundancy for a number of presenters and employees, although a Global spokesperson would not be drawn on numbers.
Tabor added: “Whilst the new deregulation will mean some significant changes at an operational level, these bold steps enable Global to lead the way in launching the UK’s 3 largest national commercial radio breakfast shows.
“We’re really excited to combine the best national talent with our unique ability to include great local content in network shows on Heart, Capital and Smooth.”
