Tomorrow morning at 6am marks the official start of Heart Essex - the new name for the station formerly known as Essex FM, and Essex Radio before it.

It's not just Essex FM that is disappearing. Local stations up and down the country are receiving the re-brand treatment. For many, it's already happened. For the remaining few, the transition is completed tomorrow morning. As an example, other stations include Invicta FM, Ocean FM, Southern FM, 2CR, Buzz 97.1, Champion 103, Coast 96.3 and Marcher Sound.

This means that 33 stations now carry the well known brand. 33 stations will carry more networked programming and have decreased local output. According to The Guardian there will be 14 hours per day of networked content.

I will mourn the loss of the once local brands, but not too much. It's been a long time since Essex FM at least was a truly local station. Many times, when driving around England, have I tuned through the car radio and received the same programmes throughout the journey. Now, thanks to this re-brand, it will feel almost like one of the national stations.

The saving grace for localness comes in the form of breakfast shows and local programming between 1pm and 7pm. News is suffering though, with local opt-outs only between the hours of 6am-9am and 4pm-6pm.

I hope that local radio will be revived in the coming years as the switch to digital radio gathers pace. With the plan for major FM stations to broadcast solely on DAB around 2015, the vacated FM space will hopefully encourage new local and community stations.

So, although the brand Essex FM has already disappeared from the airwaves* I say now goodbye to the station that captured my interest in broadcast radio.


* There is now no official name - just a mention that Heart is coming. Tomorrow morning, from 6.

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Tags: broadcasting, radio