Heart

[producerpinnell]

Phase 2 of the Heart Re-brand commences tomorrow. Stations including my local(s) Severn Sound and Fox FM are included in the re-brand.

 

Despite what other people on other forums think, I think Global Radio have done a good job. It's not easy re-branding stations, especially heritage stations which people know and love. However, with the re-brand, comes a lot of stick, from listeners to those stations, and of course, some people within the industry. Global Radio know exactly what the listeners of Heart, and if that's playing Take That and Leona Lewis 4 or 5 times a day, then that's what they'll do.

 

The main point of commercial radio is advertising, with many of the advertisements aimed at women (their target audience), who "have all the spending power" in relationships.

 

I'm not in Heart's demographic, in fact, I'm far from it, I should be listening to Radio 1, Kerrang!, and stations like that. But I don't. I like Heart, even though it's aimed at women aged 25-35 (Roughly). Although a lot of males do listen to Heart.

 

One of the biggest gripes to come out of the Heart re-brand (Alongside loosing local identities), is networking. Although what people don't realise is networking has been happening for years. Core Control, Graham Torrington, both networked, albeit in the evening. When GCap Media (Before they were taken over by Global), formed "The One Network" and introduced networking during daytime hours, there was a huge fuss about it. If people are going to complain about networking during the daytime on radio, you could argue the same about TV..., why not have local editions of To Buy or Not To Buy (As an example?)

 

The overall point of the Heart Re-Brand, and probably the point I'm trying to make here, is, there's really not much changing. The music is still the same, there is still a networked show during the daytime, and the local presenters on all re-branded stations are the same. The only thing that's changing is the name (And the imaging).

 

Overall, Global Radio know exactly what they're doing - they know their audience, and have marketed Heart really well in my opinion. What people who moan and criticize about Heart are forgetting is..., they don't have to listen to it. There are millions of stations out there. Not just one.

 

END.

 

Heart - http://www.heart.co.uk

Global Radio - http://www.thisisglobal.com/radio/

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I don't know my pure reason for writing all of that above. I don't work for Global Radio or Heart, and I am aware that not everyone on this form knows or cares about this kind of thing. But, I had to write it somewhere , and I hope I have enlightened you in some way.

[GKIye]

Hi Ian,

In fact I agree with you .. even I don't know the network ... however by reading the content I recognize similarities to what happened at Belgium

Untill January 4, 2009 We had at Belgium Radio Donna who was also profiled as "happy female radio" - however a general audience (male / female) was tuned in .. They are the commercial channel of the National broadcast compagny

During mid 2008 they've lost parts of their audience to the commercial channel Q-Music owned by the National "Privat" broadcast compagny

During the past 2 years Donna changed their ID pack at least twice "and" also their imaging .. what had to be better .. was getting worser

So they decide to start all over again, this Year 2009 on January 5 with a brandnew station called MNM - what's in a name ... Isn't ?

Both the brand, logo, ID pack etc are far from original .. except the voices ... almost all the best known hosts of Donna had to finish their job and has been replaced by "newbies" .. brrrr I hate that word ... + 1 male host, he is in fact also rather new in the business ... with rather new I mean 4 untill 5 years .. and its my idea that such a person isn't able to carry a radiostation brand just by hisself

Also the average target audience has changed ... so for a part all the listeners who where into that "happy female" part are currently still in or "just out" of the target audience because of "to old" to the format

At these links you can capture their stream :

MNM http://wm.streampower.be/vrt_mnmvideo?MSWMExt=.asf (video stream)

http://mp3.streampower.be/mnm-high.mp3 (MP3 audio stream)

Q-Music http://streaming.q-music.be/QBE_HI?.wma (audio stream)

copy and paste the link into your media player (WMP or WinAmp) ... if you click on the stream they don't gonna work properly

stream quality is to National radioprojects "not" what is known as "very good"

 

Thanks for sharing your story !