Big news this morning in the world of local radio here in the UK – Global Radio, Europe’s largest commercial radio group, is to network its Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows, according to an article in Radio Today.

Essex’s main commercial station, Heart Essex, has had a long heritage of independent broadcasting, launching as Essex Radio in 1981 and rebranding as Essex FM in 1993 before another change of name to Heart Essex in 2009.

Heart will get a single breakfast show across Great Britain on all stations owned by Global and Communicorp in the coming months, according to the Radio Today story. This puts 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.

Merging the stations means fewer broadcast facilities are required, and Heart will be closing 10 studios across the UK, including the Essex studio at Chelmsford.

It’s sad that Global are looking to end local radio across the county – but great news that community stations like Phoenix FM will always be available to give listeners a truly local radio service covering news, events, travel news and entertainment from your own part of town.