Scots radio presenters on Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast to be replaced with nationwide shows

Scots who tune in to three major radio stations in the mornings will be waking up to new voices from later this year.

Global, who own Capital, Heart and Smooth, have announced that they will be axing locally-based breakfast shows in favour of nationwide broadcasts.

The move will create the UK’s three largest commercial radio breakfast shows with millions of listeners tuning in to each.

It is thought that around 100 jobs are at risk due to the proposals, which follow a change in Ofcom guidelines for local radio.

Capital Breakfast is currently presented by Des Clarke, alongside Steven Mill and Amy Irons.

The show will be replaced in April by Capital’s London breakfast show, currently presented by Vick Hope and Roman Kemp.

Later in the year, the 22 current Heart breakfast shows, including the Scottish output with Robin Galloway and Adele Cunningham, will be cut to one.

Smooth will also have a new nationwide breakfast show, replacing John McCauley’s current show.

While drivetime shows won’t be networked across the whole country, the numbers are due to be cut.

According to the BBC, Global founder Ashley Tabor told staff the news at a meeting on Tuesday.

He said the “huge opportunity would mean change”, adding that it would give the company “the ability to lead the commercial radio sector’s next huge step, and to properly compete with BBC Radio 1 and 2 at breakfast time”.

Global says local news and travel information “will continue to air on a local licence level as per legislation requirements”.

The move by Global was labelled a ‘travesty’ by shadow culture secretary Tom Watson.

He said: “Replacing local voices with London-based presenters will be a terrible loss to communities across the country. Radio has unique reach, providing listeners with national and a local news and friendly company. This announcement is a terrible blow.”