Global Radio

Global Radio are the British equivalent of Clear Channel. A consolidation of GWR and Capital Radio, Chrysalis bought them out in mid-2008.

They are disliked on the Internet, to say the least.

Two main brands exist, Heart - "More Music Variety" as its slogan, and disco-lite music, or Capital, with "hit music", i.e. Katy Perry etc.

Their schedules run as follows:

Heart weekdays Saturday
 * 1am - 4am Club Classics (presenterless)
 * 4am - 6am Nicola Bonn
 * 6am - 10am Heart Breakfast
 * 10am - 1pm Toby Anstis
 * 1pm-4pm Nick Snaith
 * 4pm-7pm Drivetime
 * 7pm - 10pm Simon Dale
 * 10pm-1am Simon Beale (Heart Late Show)
 * 12am - 2am Club Classics
 * 2am - 6am Vanessa Elms
 * 6am - 8am Matt Wilkinson
 * 8am - 12pm Local breakfast
 * 12pm - 4pm Nick Snaith
 * 4pm - 7pm Emma Bunton (voice-tracked)
 * 7pm - 12am Club Classics

Sunday
 * 12am - 2am Club Classics
 * 2am - 6am Vanessa Elms
 * 6am - 8am Matt Wilkinson
 * 8am - 12pm Local breakfast
 * 12pm - 4pm Jason Donovan
 * 4pm - 7pm The Big Top 40 show
 * 7pm - 10pm Chris Skinner
 * 10pm - 1am Simon Beale

Capital Weekdays
 * 3am - 6am Will Cozens
 * 6am - 10am Local breakfast
 * 10am - 1pm Neil Williams (under the name of Roberto)
 * 1pm - 4pm James Bassam (aka "The Bassman")
 * 4pm - 7pm Local Drivetime
 * 7pm - 11pm Richard Clarke
 * 11pm - 3am James Barr

Global Radio also own XFM (rock music, like American classic rock stations) and Gold (60s to today).

Criticism is directed towards the following areas:


 * The presenters hardly talk and personality-laden presentation is not permitted. (many complaints were leveraged at Heart towards Tim Lichfield, Chris Skinner, Lucy Ellis for not being allowed to be "edgy" or even fun, just dry "that was, this is,", "this is Heart... more music variety" links.
 * Fans wanted more of Lucy Ellis, Tim Lichfield and Richard Straffon on the network but they did not even get a show networked (on both Heart and Capital)
 * The heritage names disappeared (Invicta, Power FM, Red Dragon FM etc.) and listener loyalty sank like a stone. Criticism on social networking abounded, leading to Keep Circulating the Tapes of old radio airchecks and jingles.
 * The websites were found to be clunky and hard-to-use compared to the old First Media Works ones (stationname.fimc.net, aka http://www.yourstation.co.uk), with dull designs.
 * The stations didn't sound as good, as, say, the Lincs FM Group, or Jack FM.
 * The daytime shows were completely voicetracked outside London.
 * Fans started making their own parody pages of the sites (an Invictus FM site existed for a few weeks on a free web host, but the site owner pulled it for Copyright reasons).
 * Many jobs were lost - but not due to the economic climate, leading to many people being (not by choice) out of radio.
 * Lucy Ellis was considered to be the Ms. Fanservice of the group. But people were still fed-up that she didn't get enough promotion on a national scale (and now, incidentally, a campaign to get her on Radio 1 to replace the marmite Fearne Cotton is under way).
 * Locality and personality was lost - compare a presenter link from 2002-2006 and a link from now and you will see the difference.

Now, fans hope the good days of radio will return, with personality-laden, American-style, as it was in The Nineties.

According to one radio forum (whose name shall not be mentioned), apparently they want to syndicate their Jamie Theakston & Harriet Scott (Jamie & Harriet) across the Heart network, but fans are not satisfied, to say the least.