Century Radio for most of its life Century Radio was the first regional station for
North East England and also was the first to use the
Century brand, which followed a 'personality' format, mixing speech and music. The station was originally based beside the
Tyne Bridge in
Gateshead, before relocating to
Team Valley in 2008 to share a building with fellow
GMG Radio stations,
Smooth Radio and
Rock 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 by
Border Television, with
John Myers as
managing director and
John Simons as programme director. Myers presented the breakfast show under the
pseudonym 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 in
Stanley, County Durham was the most common location, but other events were held at the
Stadium of Light and the Dolphin Centre in
Darlington. Late-night
phone-in presenter
Mike '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 film
Billy 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" on
Benylin while trying to fight off a heavy cold. He was reemployed when Capital Radio took over the station. 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 joined
Smooth North East. Jeff Stephenson replaced Myers as managing director, and John Caine replaced Simons. Simons left the station for
Talksport, and Myers left Gateshead to concentrate on setting up
105.4 Century FM in Salford and relaunching
106 Century FM in Nottingham. Border sold the Century brand to
GCap Media, and Myers left the group to head
GMG Radio, where he set up the similar
Real Radio network. Simons rejoined Myers to establish the Real and
Smooth FM regional stations. In October 2006 GMG Radio acquired the Century brand from GCap.Wayback Machine
Paul Smith, a former BBC and commercial radio producer, then joined Century as Programme Controller, and Sales Director
Debbie Bowman was promoted to managing director. Smith left the company after the current Programme Director Kevin Howard joined the company in September 2007.
Real Radio On 18 December 2008 it was announced that Century Radio would be re-branded as
Real Radio from 30 March 2009. The station has previously broadcast extensively on
football, a passion in the north east, and had a particularly close relationship with both
Newcastle United and
Middlesbrough. The station began its association with the game with the 1994 launch of 'The Big Mal Football Phone-In' hosted by Teesside presenter
Dave Roberts and ex-manager
Malcolm Allison. The station then signed an exclusive radio rights deal with
Middlesbrough FC with Roberts and Allison joined by local BBC broadcaster
Ali Brownlee and the resultant 'Roberts & Brownlee Show' was born. Two famous ex-players for local sides,
Malcolm Macdonald, who played for Newcastle United and
Bernie Slaven, who played for
Middlesbrough, presented the
Legends Football Phone-In on weekday evenings, alongside ex-
Sunderland player
Eric Gates, and latterly,
FA Cup Final 1973 winner
Micky Horswill. Live match commentaries on Newcastle United and Sunderland matches aired until the end of the 2010–11 season. The
Legends Football Phone In was dropped following the end of the 2011–12 season. The phone-in later moved to
Star Radio North East and several community radio stations but was axed within a year.
Heart On 25 June 2012, it was announced
Global (the owner of stations such as
Capital and
Heart) had bought
GMG Radio. The former GMG stations, including Real Radio, were placed under a hold separate company known as Real and Smooth Limited. As of 5 November 2012, the station's local programming consisted of a daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows from
Newcastle upon Tyne with most non-peak output broadcast from Salford Quays. On 6 February 2014, Global announced it would be rebranding all Real Radio stations as Heart. 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. Around the time of the rebrand, the station's audience share was 3.8% (as of June 2014). Gary Philipson and
Lisa Shaw presented their final breakfast show in December 2014 after almost five years at the station. 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. In May 2015, Heart North East moved to new studios at new studios at Wellbar Central in Newcastle city centre, shared with sister station
Capital North East and Communicorp-owned
Smooth 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. Breakfast presenters Justin Lockwood and Kelly Scott, alongside drivetime presenter Tom Campbell left the station in May 2019, with the latter joining wrestling-centric YouTube channel Cultaholic. 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. As of 24 February 2025 all programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including
Heart Drive, presented each weekday by
JK and
Kelly Brook. ==News==