[Jonny]

At least the presenters won't have to record all the individual radio station names in different tones of voice to insert at the start of their chat, which sounds true & realistic. That, is pretty clever, making the ordinary punter off the street, think they are listening to their local presenter from their local studios, when they're not.

Yes, I always wondered what the behind the scenes of that clever but extraordinarily disingenuous undertaking was like. I can only imagine utterly tedious.

It's surely preferable to pour all your energy and marketing resource into a real, living brand than propping up zombie names.

The gradual actions taken over the last 10 years - managed removal of any local distinctiveness, to the extent the majority public response to this story is an apathetic shrug - to get to an obvious endpoint which could have come about much sooner, don't suggest total confidence in the Hits brand and format.

In that scenario, listener apathy and inertia is preferable to outrage and revolt - they're not lying when they say regular listeners from the last 5 years will not notice any difference.