 | |
| Broadcast area | North East England andNorth Yorkshire |
|---|---|
| Frequency | FM:
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| Branding | This is Heart |
| Programming | |
| Format | Hot Adult Contemporary |
| Network |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | Global |
| History | |
First air date |
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| Links | |
| Webcast | Global Player |
| Website | www |
Heart North East is a regionalradio station owned and operated byGlobal as part of theHeart network. It broadcasts toNorth East England.
Century Radio was the first regional station forNorth East England and also was the first to use theCentury brand, which followed a 'personality' format, mixing speech and music. The station was originally based beside theTyne Bridge inGateshead, before relocating toTeam Valley in 2008 to share a building with fellowGMG Radio stations,Smooth Radio andRock Radio. The station was originally called Century Radio, before changing its name to Century FM then reverting to the original name in 2008.
The station was set up byBorder Television, withJohn Myers asmanaging director andJohn Simons as programme director. Myers presented the breakfast show under thepseudonym of John Morgan. The first song played on air was "A Star is Born".
A 'listener's club' was formed, with parties at locations around the region attended by the station's presenters. The Jingling Gate inStanley, County Durham was the most common location, but other events were held at theStadium of Light and the Dolphin Centre inDarlington.
Late-nightphone-in presenterMike 'The Mouth' Elliott once caused controversy by walking out during his show. Elliot took an extended break after this controversy, during which time he appeared in the filmBilly Elliot as boxing coach George Watson. He was also fired in January 2000 when bosses claimed that he was intoxicated on air. However, Elliott claims that he was "stoned out of his tree" onBenylin while trying to fight off a heavy cold. He was reemployed when Capital Radio took over the station.[1]
Ex-Metro Radio presenter Steve Colman's highly marketed introduction to the breakfast show was very unpopular, and he was sacked after just three weeks in August 1996. It was revealed that audiences had decreased rapidly, and businesses had threatened to pull their advertising. Colman later joinedSmooth North East.
Jeff Stephenson replaced Myers as managing director, and John Caine replaced Simons. Simons left the station forTalksport, and Myers left Gateshead to concentrate on setting up105.4 Century FM in Salford and relaunching106 Century FM in Nottingham.
Border sold the Century brand toGCap Media, and Myers left the group to headGMG Radio, where he set up the similarReal Radio network. Simons rejoined Myers to establish the Real andSmooth FM regional stations. In October 2006 GMG Radio acquired the Century brand from GCap.Wayback MachinePaul Smith, a former BBC and commercial radio producer, then joined Century as Programme Controller, and Sales DirectorDebbie Bowman was promoted to managing director. Smith left the company after the current Programme Director Kevin Howard joined the company in September 2007.
On 18 December 2008 it was announced that Century Radio would be re-branded asReal Radio from 30 March 2009.[2]
The station has previously broadcast extensively onfootball, a passion in the north east, and had a particularly close relationship with bothNewcastle United andMiddlesbrough.[citation needed] The station began its association with the game with the 1994 launch of 'The Big Mal Football Phone-In' hosted by Teesside presenterDave Roberts and ex-managerMalcolm Allison. The station then signed an exclusive radio rights deal withMiddlesbrough FC with Roberts and Allison joined by local BBC broadcasterAli Brownlee and the resultant 'Roberts & Brownlee Show' was born.[citation needed]
Two famous ex-players for local sides,Malcolm Macdonald, who played for Newcastle United andBernie Slaven, who played forMiddlesbrough, presented theLegends Football Phone-In on weekday evenings, alongside ex-Sunderland playerEric Gates, and latterly,FA Cup Final 1973 winnerMicky Horswill. Live match commentaries on Newcastle United and Sunderland matches aired until the end of the 2010–11 season.[3] TheLegends Football Phone In was dropped following the end of the 2011–12 season.[4] The phone-in later moved toStar Radio North East and several community radio stations but was axed within a year.[5]
On 25 June 2012, it was announcedGlobal (the owner of stations such asCapital andHeart) had boughtGMG Radio. The former GMG stations, including Real Radio, were placed under a hold separate company known as Real and Smooth Limited.[6][7]
As of 5 November 2012, the station's local programming consisted of a daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows fromNewcastle upon Tyne with most non-peak output broadcast from Salford Quays.[citation needed]
On 6 February 2014, Global announced it would be rebranding all Real Radio stations as Heart.[8] Real Radio North East began a gradual transition to the Heart branding on 24 March 2014. The Real Radio branding was phased out a month later ahead of a full relaunch as Heart North East on 6 May 2014.[9] Around the time of the rebrand, the station's audience share was 3.8% (as of June 2014).
Gary Philipson andLisa Shaw presented their final breakfast show in December 2014 after almost five years at the station.[10] Justin Lockwood and Kelly Scott were promoted from the drivetime show and replaced the duo.Heart Gloucestershire presenter Tom Campbell joined inturn to takeover from Lockwood and Scott.[11]
In May 2015, Heart North East moved to new studios at new studios at Wellbar Central in Newcastle city centre,[12] shared with sister stationCapital North East and Communicorp-ownedSmooth North East.
In February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Global announced it would replace Heart North East's local breakfast and weekend shows with networked programming from London.[13]
Breakfast presenters Justin Lockwood and Kelly Scott,[14][15] alongside drivetime presenter Tom Campbell left the station in May 2019, with the latter joining wrestling-centric YouTube channel Cultaholic.[16]
From 3 June 2019, the station's regional output consisted of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside regional news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.[17]
As of 24 February 2025 all programming originates from Global's London headquarters, includingHeart Drive, presented each weekday byJK andKelly Brook.[18][19][20]
Journalists within North East England produce hourly regional news bulletins from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 6 a.m. to midday at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during weekday breakfast.[21]
After 15 years in the North East, and a decade in the North West of England, Century Radio is to be re-branded as Real Radio, to match sister stations in Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland.
News of the station axing the Legends appeared online this evening. One of the Legends, Bernie, has written on his website that the station has been struggling to make the show pay since it started 12 months ago. The show had previously been on Real Radio (Century) for 13 years.
Stations in the Real network are now using Heart's voice over and identifying as "The Heart of" followed by the TSA.
Heart North East's Breakfast presenter Gary Philipson and Lisa Shaw are leaving the station at the end of this month, RadioToday can reveal.
Heart North East is moving Justin Lockwood and Kelly Scott from drivetime to the breakfast show, as replacement for Gary and Lisa.
The new facilities are on the 7th floor of Wellbar Central on Gallowgate in Newcastle city centre, just next to the St James' Park football ground.
Heart will get a single breakfast show across England, Scotland and Wales on all stations owned by Global and Communicorp in the coming months – putting an end to the current line-up of 22 breakfast shows and their teams. And instead of 23 separate drivetime shows, there will be 10 covering the enlarged areas.
Jamie and Amanda will replace 21 breakfast shows on stations from Exeter to Edinburgh – meaning around 70 presenters and producers being taken away from the slot. Amanda is a replacement for Emma Bunton who left the show last year. Some breakfast presenters will be leaving the network, and some will move to drivetime, replacing the current drivetime shows.