Heart radio launches with the backing of 34 brands

Heart 106.2 launched in London yesterday (Tuesday) with more than 34 advertisers signed up for September and 1m of business booked for its first year.

The adult contemporary music station launched by Chrysalis targets 25 to 44-year-olds. It is promising a weekly reach of nine per cent of London adults – a weekly audience of 900,000 – within its first six months.

Littlewoods, Time Out, Mercury, EMI, BSkyB, Nissan, Rover and Admiral Insurance will advertise this month. The first ad was for Carphone Warehouse, following Heart’s launch yesterday.

Heart has a strict policy to boost the impact and effectiveness of its ad breaks, says sales director Don Thompson. “We are limiting the numbers to no more than 12 ads or promotions and no more than three commercial breaks broadcast in every hour,” he says.

Incentives are also being offered to encourage advertisers to produce longer commercials. He says: “For a 60-second ad we will only charge 45 per cent more than for a 30-second spot; the industry average is 80 per cent more.”

Premier, the London Christian radio station, has won audiences mainly from Radio 4, Radio 2 and Classic FM, according to research conducted for the station by Continental Research. Forty-six per cent of committed Premier listeners claim they now listen to less Radio 4.