Heartland FM is attracting a worldwide audience through live streaming on the web. The Community radio station upped its game in the summer, when programmes started to be available to listeners everywhere through home computers and smart-phones. Now texts from fans are coming in from such far flung places as California and Hong Kong.
Bruce Patterson, Heartland’s Station Manager and Breakfast presenter says he’s had emails from New Zealand, France and Canada. “We’re able to offer varied music programming and the positive feedback has surprised us, people are regularly tuning into Heartland even though they live in another time zone.”
This week alone, texts have come into the Pitlochry studio from Bonn in Germany and Buenos Aires, the Argentinian capital. Abbie in Buenos Aires texted a message into John Dare’s Lunchtime Live. “I’m listening to your show on my BlackBerry while I’m going to work. I’m loving it. I’m planning on visiting Scotland in May-June, so I’m getting familiarized with the accent.”
Until recently the station’s reach was limited by analogue transmitters, meaning people living in Perthshire’s glens and hilly areas were unable to pick up the radio signal, even though Heartland was their local station. The new global possibilities will be a boost for advertisers hoping to see their investment pay off.
Bruce Patterson is upbeat about the stations expanding horizons. “We’re adding two new drivetime shows, covering Monday and Friday afternoons and another three hours on Saturdays. From the end of the month, Heartland will average in excess of ten hours of live broadcasting a day.”