Heart Wiltshire (formerly GWR FM Wiltshire) was an

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2 ...

station owned and operated by

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysal ...

as part of the

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

network. It broadcast to north and west

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

. The station was rebranded to Heart in March 2009 in line with

's rebranding of most of the One Network, which the station was part of. Its local competitors were Sam FM, BBC Wiltshire and community radio station,

Swindon 105.5 Swindon 105.5 is a community non-for-profit radio station based in Swindon, England, launched in March 2008. The station manager is former BBC Wiltshire Sound, GWR FM and Swindon Viewpoint presenter, Shirley Ludford. Aside from Shirley being pa ...

. On 31 May 2019, it was merged into Heart West.

History

Heart Wiltshire launched on 12 October 1982 under its original name, Wiltshire Radio ''(shortened often to WR)''. Broadcasting from 'The Limekiln' in Wootton Bassett, they capitalised on the fact that

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

had bad reception in North Wiltshire and it was to be seven 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 The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

FM and 936 and 1161

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

AM (320 and 258 metres medium wave). Because there was a lack of

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

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 Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and newer pop. The station's Head of Programmes

Ralph Bernard Ralph Mitchell Bernard (born 11 February 1953) is a British journalist, and a former chief executive of commercial radio group GCap Media. Early life He attended Caterham High School in north-east London. Career He started his career as a journa ...

went on to become a very significant figure in British commercial radio as founder of Classic FM. Commercial radio in Britain struggled to make any money. 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 Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

in the west to

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

and

Hungerford Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, west of Newbury, east of Marlborough, and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The population of the parish at the 2021 census was 5,869. The Kennet and Avon Can ...

in the east. This merger was approved by the British Government and was completed in 1985.

Wiltshire Radio into GWR

In October 1985, Wiltshire Radio relaunched as GWR Radio, a 24-hour radio station (previously Wiltshire Radio closed overnight). However the sound did not change much as GWR Radio was essentially a revamp which coincided with the re-launch of its sister station in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Split services

GWR Radio began splitting frequencies as required by the British Government – which declared its desire to end

simulcasting Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

on both FM and AM. In November 1988, GWR Radio launched Brunel Radio, a golden oldies service (now part of the

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

) network whilst GWR FM launched an opt-out service for West Wiltshire as a more localised service, this was however dropped a few weeks later, citing "poor reception". A fill-in relay for Marlborough was opened on 14 October 1988 on 96.5 MHz FM. After the lifting on sanctions restricting the time spent playing music (so-called '

needle time Needle or Needles may refer to: Crafting * Crochet needle, a tool for making loops in thread or yarn * Knitting needle, a tool for knitting, not as sharp as a sewing needle * Sewing needle, a long slender tool with a pointed tip * Trussing needle ...

') in 1988, GWR FM became more and more music-led, playing Top 40 chart music during the daytime, and specialist music (big band music, rock, rap etc.) was over time eliminated. The local element of the station especially its news coverage had progressively become briefer and reduced in length, then moved onto Brunel Classic Gold, before being dropped altogether.

Football sponsorship

The station sponsored Swindon Town Football Club from 1989 until 1991, during the time that they won promotion to the First Division via the playoffs, but remained in the Second Division due to financial irregularities.

GWR FM – Reboot

In 1992 a re-launch of the station saw it rebranded as The New GWR FM, with a policy of reduced speech and the dropping of all R&B and

hip hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

from the station's output. This policy was gradually extended to other GWR Group stations, such as 2-Ten FM in Reading and

2CR FM CR or Cr may refer to: In business * Conversion rate, in marketing * Credit Record, in accounting * Crown Royal, a brand of Canadian whisky Organizations Religious organizations * Celtic Reconstructionism, a form of Polytheism * Congregation ...

in Bournemouth. The

GWR Group GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Inde ...

expanded from the late 1980s through to 2005, purchasing other stations throughout southern England, eventually becoming the largest radio company in the UK.

The Mix Network

The harmonisation of playlists across the GWR Group led to the creation of The Mix Network in 1997, with GWR Wiltshire at the hub. The radio station's (and the group's) long held philosophy of heavily researching the average person's listening habits and tastes led by Group chairman

created a tightly formatted sound where popular Top 40 chart hits and ex-Top 40 songs are blended in with older hits. This format, with the strapline "Better Music Mix", was then subsequently adopted by all stations within the GWR Group, including Essex FM, Trent FM and

Beacon Radio Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, formerly Free Radio Black Country & Shropshire, is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Shropshir ...

creating a mini national network. The practice for the Mix Network stations were each station played a centrally produced playlist (from GWR FM itself), songs were broadcast on or almost at the same time as neighbouring group stations and each station adopted the "Better Music Mix" tagline, to be said by local disc jockeys in between each song. Fans of the previous guises of some stations bought by the GWR Group, notably Essex FM and Beacon Radio criticised the sudden re-branding of the station's taglines and playlists, accusing the new management of reducing local content such as news reports and cancelling local shows in place of programming from the Mix Network, such as Late Night Love and The Request Fest, which originated from the Bristol studios.

Now Digital

In 2003, Now Digital, a subsidiary of

launched local DAB services for Wiltshire and Swindon. In Swindon GWR FM went digital along with sister station

Classic Gold Classic Gold was a network of three "Gold" music formatted stations which broadcast on AM in Bradford, Hull and Sheffield. They were the sister stations of Pennine Radio, Viking Radio and Radio Hallam respectively and they were part of the ...

, BBC Radio Swindon,

Swindon FM Swindon FM (formerly Swindon 107FM) was a local DAB radio station broadcasting to the English town of Swindon between 2003 and 2006, after making two trial FM broadcasts in 2001 and 2002. The station stopped broadcasting in May 2006. Towards t ...

and

XFM Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102, before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station b ...

amongst others. In West Wiltshire and

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

GWR FM Bath and

BBC Radio Wiltshire BBC Radio Wiltshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the English county of Wiltshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Prospect Place in Swindon. According to RAJAR, the station had a weekly au ...

aired in place of GWR Swindon and Radio Swindon respectively.

The One Network

On 9 May 2005, GWR Group merged with Capital Radio Group to form

GCap Media GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index ...

. The programming format of GWR was essentially unchanged by the merger, with The Mix Network being rebranded as

The One Network The One Network was the collective name for thirty-eight regional Independent Local Radio licences operated by GCap Media in the United Kingdom. It was formed from the combination of GWR Group's 'The Mix Network' and Capital Radio Group's 'The ...

Global Radio takeover

In 2008, GCap Media was taken over by

, who subsequently announced that GWR Wiltshire, in common with many other of the other One Network stations, would be rebranded

, by 2010. GWR subsequently relaunched as ''Heart Wiltshire'' on 23 March 2009. GWR's oldies service was originally called Brunel Radio, after the Great Western Railway's founding father

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...

Closure

On 26 February 2019, Global announced Heart Wiltshire would be merged with three sister stations in Bristol and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall and

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

.Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows
RadioToday, 26 February 2019 Since 3 June 2019, local output has consisted of a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast
Radio Today, 29 April 2019 Heart Wiltshire's studios in Swindon closed with operations moving to

– the station ceased local programming on 31 May 2019. Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London. Heart West began broadcasting regional programming on 3 June 2019.

Notable former presenters

Myleene Klass Myleene Angela Klass (born 6 April 1978) is an English musician, singer, television presenter and model. She was a member of the pop group Hear'Say, and later released two solo classical crossover albums in 2003 and 2007. More recently, Klass ...

* Scott Mills * Vic Morgan *

Kirsten O'Brien Kirsten Lindsey O'Brien (born 23 February 1972) is an English television, radio presenter and actress. She is best known for her work presenting for the BBC, including the popular CBBC art programme ''SMart'' from 1999 to 2009, the CBeebies pr ...

* Peter Rowell * Tim Smith * Graham Torrington * Charlie Wolf