Heart (Radio Network) - History

History

Heart began broadcasting on the 6 September 1994, as 100.7 Heart FM being the UK's third Independent Regional Radio station, five days after Century Radio 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, Simply Red and Tina Turner. Reflecting this, its early slogan described the station as being "100.7 degrees cooler".

Its programming format was modified in 1996, a year after Chrysalis launched Heart 106.2 in London. The new format saw the "soft" AC music replaced with a generally more neutral Hot AC music 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.

There are two theories of how the original Heart station was given its name. One is that it got its name from being based in the heart of Birmingham. The more commonly held theory is that it is taken from the phrase Heart of England which Birmingham and often the wider West Midlands region is often referred to as.

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 (which was latterly sold to Orion Media along with Heart 106), 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 due to the same competition concerns that had forced its earlier sale to Chrysalis, and as a result this was operated by Orion Media using the Heart name and content under licence, until 1 January 2011 when it split from the Heart network, becoming Gem 106. (As a result of this and other changes, including the creation of Capital East Midlands, Global Radio placed a relay of Heart 106.2 in place of Galaxy Digital on DAB in Leicester and Nottingham, such that listeners could continue to receive Heart network content in these areas.)

Between June and September 2010, Global Radio merged a vast majority of the Heart stations to create a smaller network of local & regional stations, in line with new OFCOM guidelines on local output requirements.