Launch Heart began broadcasting in the
West Midlands on 6 September 1994 as
100.7 Heart FM, becoming the UK's third
Independent Regional Radio station, five days after
Century Radio in
North East England, and
Jazz FM North West. The first song to be played on 100.7 Heart FM was
Something Got Me Started by
Simply Red. Its original format of "
soft adult contemporary" music included artists such as
Lionel Richie and
Tina Turner. Reflecting this, its early slogan was
100.7 Degrees Cooler! Heart 106.2 began test transmissions in
London in August 1995, prior to the station launch on 5 September. This included live broadcasts of
WPLJ from
New York City. In 1996 the station's original "soft AC" music format was replaced with a generally more neutral Hot AC playlist.
Century 106 in the
East Midlands became the third station of the Heart network in 2005 after
GCap Media sold Century. Chrysalis' radio holdings were sold to Global Radio in 2007. When GCap Media was taken over by Global Radio in 2008, it announced plans to dissolve the 41-station
One Network, with one station (
Power FM) becoming part of the
Galaxy network, four stations (
BRMB,
Beacon Radio,
Mercia FM and
Wyvern FM) forming a
West Midlands regional network, seven stations joining
Capital FM to form
The Hit Music Network and the remaining 29 stations forming the Heart Network.
Heart East Midlands was sold to Orion Media, along with the West Midlands network of local stations, due to the same competition concerns that had forced its earlier sale to Chrysalis.
Network restructuring Between June and September 2010, Global Radio merged the majority of the 33 Heart stations to create a smaller network of 18 local and regional stations, in line with new
OFCOM guidelines on local output requirements. Two Hit Music Network stations were also closed and merged with Heart stations. Stations in
Gloucestershire,
Kent,
London, the
West Midlands, the
East Midlands and
Wiltshire were unaffected by the changes.
Heart Cymru, serving Gwynedd and Anglesey, moved its studios from Bangor to Wrexham but retained its extended local output of 10 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
Heart North West and Wales retained an opt-out on 96.3FM (the North Wales Coast) for Welsh language programming. On 1 January 2011, Orion Media, the owners of Heart East Midlands (one of the original three Heart stations) renamed and relaunched the station as '
Gem 106', ending a franchise agreement with Global Radio formed when Global purchased GCap – the agreement allowed Orion to use the Heart identity and carry networked programming from London. The move saw Heart's networked programming replaced by local output from Nottingham.
Network expansion On 19 March 2012, Global Radio announced it had bought the Cornwall ILR station
Atlantic FM from joint owners Tindle Radio and Camel Media. Atlantic FM became part of the Heart Network and merged with Heart Devon on Monday 7 May 2012 to form
Heart South West, which is based in Exeter. On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be rebranding all
Real Radio stations as Heart and would be selling
Real Radio Yorkshire and the Northern licence for
Real Radio Wales to
Communicorp. The Communicorp-owned stations use Heart's network programming and branding under a franchise agreement with Global. Global Radio extended the Heart network to the Real Radio network of regional stations from Tuesday 6 May 2014. The two stations based in Wrexham –
Heart North West and Wales and
Heart Cymru – became part of the
Capital FM Network on the same date. On 20 November 2017, CN Group announced
The Bay would be sold to
Global along with sister station
Lakeland Radio – the sale was finalised by 1 December 2017. The Bay was rebranded as Heart, with Lakeland Radio becoming
Smooth on 4 March 2018. Music from the
1960s,
1970s &
1980s was removed from the original FM station after Christmas 2017.
Consolidation In February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, it was announced Heart would replace its local breakfast and weekend shows with additional networked programming from London by the end of the year. This reduced total weekly hours of local programming on each station from 43 to 15 and led to dozens of job losses. Drivetime output were reduced from 23 localised shows to 10 programmes covering enlarged areas, formed from the merger of Heart stations. Ten studios producing local programming were closed. In April 2019, it was reported the local
Heart Breakfast shows would be replaced by a national
Heart Breakfast show from London on 3 June 2019, presented by
Jamie Theakston and
Amanda Holden. The merging stations ceased local output on 31 May 2019. In Hertfordshire, a further change saw
Heart Hertfordshire, based in Watford, merged with
BOB fm – following its acquisition by Communicorp – to form a single countywide service. Stations in the North East of England, Wales, central and southern Scotland, the West Midlands and Yorkshire continue to serve their single licence areas as before.
Heart Scotland re-introduces local programming In April 2023, it was announced
Heart Scotland would reintroduce local breakfast, daytime and weekend programming from 2 May 2023, as part of a major expansion of Global's Scottish radio operations.
The end of local and regional programming in England Heart stations in England ended local and regional programming on 21 February 2025, but retaining local news bulletins and advertising. Scotland and Wales will retain their respective local programming. == List of stations ==