History
Heart Wiltshire launched on 12 October 1982 under its original name, Wiltshire Radio (shortened often to WR). Broadcasting from 'The Limekiln' in Wooton Bassett, they capitalised on the fact that BBC Radio 1 had bad reception in North Wiltshire and it was to be nine years before BBC Local Radio launched in the county. The station began a full service commercial radio station on 96.4 and 97.4 MHz FM and 936 and 1161 kHz AM (320 and 258 metres medium wave).
Because there was no BBC radio for Wiltshire and therefore no competition, Wiltshire Radio found it relatively easy to build a very loyal listenership and only a few months into broadcasting became very profitable. Early programmes started out with a general diet of local news, community information, talk and middle-of-the-road pop music, then eventually became more and more formatted, saving its 4 hour 'needle time' daily music quota for the evening show to play rock and newer pop. The station's Head of Programmes Ralph Bernard went on to become a very significant figure in British commercial radio as founder of Classic FM.
Financially commercial radio in Britain struggled to make any money as the 1980s economy in Britain was hampered by vast union strikes- however Wiltshire Radio grew as a company, capitalising on its dominance in the local radio market. WR made tentative plans for growth as it set to acquire struggling Bristol station Radio West. Radio West never made a penny since it started and looked set to close when WR made an official approach to merge the two stations, creating a station covering from Weston-super-Mare in the west to Swindon and Hungerford in the east. This merger was approved by the British Government and was completed in 1985.
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