Personally consider the response from KMFM as unprofessional, opportunistic and somewhat hypercritical. It wasn’t too long ago that the Kent Messenger Group bought the likes of CTR, CTFM, TLR and Neptune before introducing name changes and at the time, perceived changes in the value of localness. How when services local to Maidstone, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks in the West come from studios in Rochester, and in the East services for Dover, Canterbury and Folkestone come from studios in Ashford do the presenters feel they have a right to criticise the fact Invicta/Heart will now be taking some programmes from studios in London? The networking at both stations comes outside Breakfast and Drivetime which means both can still provide local travel information at key times. The Kent listener now has a choice of networked Heart programmes from the likes of Toby Anstis, Emma Bunton and Jason Donavon in comparison to the likes of Louis Hurst or a pre-recorded Tony Blackburn. The “soulless national corporation” as KMFM presenter Adam Dowling (
http://twitter.com/AdamDowling/statuses/2276107004) puts it, currently has a reach 218,000 superior to KMFM and I can’t see this changing as the group has too many weak links, including Adam, despite the presence of former Invicta presenters Andy Walker and Neil Faraday.