Could it be because the Heart website has been having problems for a while with many tracks missing from the Now Playing data.

http://www.heart.co.uk/london/on-air/last-10-songs/ currently shows Heart London only played 5 tracks between 6pm-7pm when it would have actually been much more.

I wouldn't say the ratio of older songs has increased. All that's happened is that local hours (ex gcap) play more songs from further back on the older end of the spectrum to match the network hours and this has been the case for months at least the whole of this year probably before.

They do seem to of streamlined the playlist so it's the exactly the same now matter whether you listen on a local show or networked.

I've defintely noticed a difference in the last month, like been said especially in the happy hour a few rarer tracks played.

Same goes for the time tunnel, a while back I was moaning about the same songs been played on there all the time, and guessing year straight away, but recently they have been adding 1 maybe 2 unusual or rarer track, this morning for example the year was 2004 and jo jo leave (get out was played, nice little tune, and never heard on heart before.

Same goes on the 5 at 5 on the way home from work, heard a few good tunes on that.

Agreed catchy little tune and not sure I've heard it since 2004, nice to hear something different on Heart

I didn't realise that Mel Everett who covers local shows on the various Heart South West stations is the same Mel who did the networked "Hot 30 with Mel and Rob" on GWR stations about 15 years ago.

Can Smartprogrammer confirm any details re the playlist and the apparent huge increase in the variety gauge ?

There really isn't anything to confirm other than what has already been said: there's an error in Compare My Radio's records for the past 30 days.

It's screamingly obvious just by looking at the page for Heart and the 'Tracks Played' graph that there was a problem at the start of the month - seemingly at CMR's end, since other stations have the same problem - where it is flatlined. Hence 700-odd unique tracks over under 3000 played tracks, which gives a variety figure in the twenties, as opposed to 700-odd unique tracks over what should more realistically be 6000 or so played tracks, which would be just over 10% as usual.

There's no conspiracy

I just wanted some official confirmation as some people seemed to think that comparemyradio was correct as they thought they had noticed a significant difference in the output.

Conspiracy

I didn't think it was correct as that sort of jump would of been blatantly obvious when listening.

I still don't understand why you need "official confirmation" on something you can see is broken with your own eyes and, as you correctly state, would have been blatantly obvious from listening. As soon as Gavin_D posted the 22% figure you smelt a rat and suggested it was wrong; Sarahsaurus gave the exact reason why. Then you asked again if anyone could shed any light, and omnidirectional offered another potential reason. Then apparently neither of these explanations were good enough for you so you call out SmartProgrammer - I just don't get what exactly you're expecting in a response when you know full well what the issue is.

Unless we want to believe that no station played any tracks whatsoever for the first two weeks of August, it is pretty obvious that CMR has had a problem; all variety gauges are going to be roughly double what they should be for the reasons explained in my last post; and in a couple of week's time, all stations - including Heart - will be back to their usual variety % figure.

Yes I didn't believe it but then a couple of forum members (Yorkstar and digiwigi) seemed to think it was correct and that the output was different, so it put doubt in my mind that's all.

No one had come out and said yes CMR was definitely incorrect so I thought, maybe I misunderstood ? ok maybe I didn't read your last post properly. Nothing was meant by it, no offence etc

Margherita Taylor is in for Matt Wilkinson this Saturday heart London (1pm to 5pm) and all next week on the heart network (1pm to 4pm)

You and occy should get together and have a good old chinwag about the jocks covering, as, on a station where it is impossible to express yourself as a presenter, no one cares..........not even Thelma and Thicko!!

Heart's money in the music starts next Monday with Heart artists Ed Sheeran, Madonna & Take That

When they play one, you can win £100
When they play two together, you can win £1000
And when they play all three together, you can win £10,000

The format change to mainstream popular music has now been approved for all the Heart stations:

http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-...tes/update0815

Also the specialist hours requirement for Smooth appears to have been dropped.

From a quick look it looks like the same (specialist) for Capital Xtra and the Capitals who are ex-Galaxy (although Birmingham keeps the requirement for programmes for those of African and Afro-Caribbean origin)

I think it's just the Global owned Capital, Heart and Smooths that have had the change so far, can't see any of the Communicorp franchises listed.

Global’s “Good News” breaches Broadcast Code

http://radiotoday.co.uk/2015/09/glob...roadcast-code/

On Compare My Radio,Heart's variety gauge is now up to thirty percent.

The top played record is on only forty plays a month. Most of the top ten most played records are down to only one play a day.

Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do is apparently down to only eleven plays in the last thirty days.

Of course all these numbers are obviously completely wrong.

Which is a pity.

Especially the Ellie Goulding one.

I'd be quite happy if I never heard that record on Heart again.

I think it will be a while till we get a slightly more accurate figure as they still have this issue with the last songs played

http://www.heart.co.uk/london/on-air...=45&find_song=

Last night at about 2.45am they played Little Mix Black Magic,but we were lucky if we got two minutes of it before it was cut and some Robbie Williams came on. They might as well have not bothered playing it.

I'm not just talking about cutting off the ending,it was barely half way through. And it's not as if it's a particularly long record,about three and a half minutes maybe.

Unlike that Ed Sheeran Photograph thing which seems to go on for ages,but I've never heard them cut that. More's the pity.

Hearts 21st birthday today it began broadcasting on 6th September 1994

I wonder if the playlist back then was any more interesting than it is now. I never listened to Heart back then. It's hard to believe it could be less interesting.

That week Kylie had gone in at No2 with Confide In Me. Were they playing that back in 1994?

They certainly never play it now,not even on the Time Tunnel.

Weren't they more 80s soft rock back then so more Dire Straits than Kylie?

Well as I said I never listened to it back then.

It would be interesting to see a playlist from 1994 and see how many of the records have survived and are still being played. I certainly can't remember hearing a Dire Straits record on Heart recently.

I had a look at the top 100 selling singles of 1994 and there are very few there that still get played. Take That,Everything Changes. Baby D Let Me Be Your Fantasy gets played on Club Classics but there's not much else. A lot of them I don't even remember.

From the top of my head Big Mountain - Baby I Love Your Way was 1994 which I think gets played a bit.

There's airchecks of Heart West Midands on the below link:

http://aircheckdownloads.com/HeartWestMidlands.htm

Try the 1994 and 1995 links for an example of early Heart.

Big Mountain was the 15th Best Selling single in 1994,although it only got to No2,like Kylie,it missed out on No1 because of the Wets' Love is All Around,which was No1 for about four months.

The 9th Best Selling single in 1994,unbelievably,was the Man Utd football squad with Come On You Reds.