Heartless? Radio mogul snubs BBC’s charity single

HEART radio station is not living up to its cuddly name when it comes to Britain’s best-loved children’s charity appeal.

The broadcaster has barred the official BBC Children In Need single by singer Jess Glynne (below) from its top playlists, following instructions from Heart’s multi-millionaire boss, Ashley Tabor (right).

According to a record industry source, Tabor told his director of broadcasting, Richard Park, to downplay the Jess Glynne track, Take Me Home, because the charity tune is an initiative from the rival BBC.

The snub has appalled industry bosses, who are horrified that Heart’s parent company, Global Radio, is putting its commercial interests ahead of helping underprivileged children in the run-up to Christmas.

Global was founded by Ashley in 2007 and is backed by his father, horse- racing tycoon Michael Tabor, who is said to be worth £600 million.

Ashley, a single gay man, became a father earlier this year when his son, Leo, was born by surrogate. But he’s still not keen to help promote the charity single supported by the BBC, which donates a minimum of 30p from each sale to Children In Need.

Since its release on November 3, Take Me Home has peaked at No 6, according to the Official Charts Company. Despite this, Take Me Home is not on the Heart playlist on its website, or that of its sister station, Capital FM. Nor is the tune among the 40 mostplayed songs on either Heart or Capital over the past 30 days, according to an industry monitor.

Oddly, Global is giving generous airtime to Jess Glynne’s older song, Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself. That track has been played 345 times on Capital over the past month, and 49 times on Heart, despite being released back in August, three months before Glynne was announced as the official Children In Need chanteuse.

A spokesman for Global says: ‘ We never comment on individual playlists.’ But at the very least, it seems Tabor hasn’t intervened to give the single more airtime — and it wouldn’t be the first time he’s taken against an artiste on his airwaves. In 2012, he bumped One Direction down the Capital FM playlist, after the boyband mistakenly thanked the BBC’s Radio 1 for an award sponsored by Capital at the Brit Awards. He who pays the piper, calls the tune.