[Spencer]

I wonder if Hits Radio will refresh their jingles for the new rollout. Although I’ve noticed on their promos for Hits Radio they are playing their current jingle but as ‘Hits Radio’ so quite possibly not, to be fair it still sounds pretty fresh from when they rolled it out at the end of 2022.

Given the stations which are about to rebrand are already using matching imaging and jingles, I’m sure they’ll want to keep them the same to make the changeover as smooth as possible, so despite the name change, everything else will sound familiar.

[DJ Dave]

I wonder if they will drop the "Radio City" sung bits etc next week and start using the "Hits Radio" jingle instead, Century Radio used "Real Radio" old jingles on the buildup to the name change and then on the actual day had a whole new jingle package from Music4.

[CATV]

I know you have probably guessed already but as I heard it earlier I can confirm Signal 1 becomes Hits Radio on the 17th April.

[lookoutwales]

The last local shows under the heritage names have come and gone - Big John on Hallam had some fun playing old jingles this morning.

Don't know if other stations said goodbye to their brands (less so Free Radio - which wasn't even popular with the presenters) but the City-Rock stopgap offered up nothing (to be honest, it sounds a little too much like a City show going out on Rock)

Pirate FM is getting a proper farewell, though - and by the sounds of it, there'll be a special tribute show going out later ahead of the split at 10pm.

[Jonny]

Nothing similar on Metro/TFM, every link was "soon to be Hits Radio North East".

Final song played was "You'll always be my baby" - Mariah Carey, which may have been intended as an oblique farewell.

A sad but by no means unexpected end to 49 years of brand heritage.

[mrarg1393]

Nothing similar on Metro/TFM, every link was "soon to be Hits Radio North East".

Final song played was "You'll always be my baby" - Mariah Carey, which may have been intended as an oblique farewell.

A sad but by no means unexpected end to 49 years of brand heritage.

I think the problem is Metro & TFM are linked and Steve & Karen never say the station names anyway so would be a bit difficult to do any sort of tribute. It would sound odd for people listening on TFM as Metro has a much bigger audience and more well known heritage brand out of the two in the North East so they would probably most likely only talk about Metro.

[Jonny]

I think the problem is Metro & TFM are linked and Steve & Karen never say the station names anyway so would be a bit difficult to do any sort of tribute. It would sound odd for people listening on TFM as Metro has a much bigger audience and more well known heritage brand out of the two in the North East so they would probably most likely only talk about Metro.

Agreed. It will certainly make their lives easier being able to say the name of the station live.

As mentioned earlier, I'm not a regular listener and I was surprised a few weeks ago how many voice tracked references to "Metro" were included in links. Was this unusual on the breakfast show?

A shame they couldn't have dropped the ridiculous pretence for the last day and given each name a brief send off, even if voice tracked, but as I say not unexpected. The brands have been zombie names for a long time now.

[CATV]

I noticed the Signal 1 website now redirects to the new local Hits Radio website. Social media seems to changed name to Hits radio but usernames have not been updated as of yet.

[what]

The apps have updated as well.

Here in Swansea, our local station is apparently called Hits Radio S'Wales, as opposed to Hits Radio South Wales.

I understand why they've done that on the app icon, but it still looks a bit odd.

[London Lite]

Pirate however is still on until 2200 with a tribute show.