Heart Thames Valley was a local

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

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

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, north

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

and parts of west

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

from studios in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The station was formed as a result of a merger between Heart Oxfordshire (formerly Fox FM) and Heart Berkshire (formerly 2-Ten FM).

History

The station originally broadcast as two separate stations. Fox FM served Oxfordshire and West Buckinghamshire and was latterly owned by

Capital Radio Capital London is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment as part of its national Capital (radio network), Capital Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Bri ...

. Radio 210, later 2-Ten FM, served Berkshire and North Hampshire and was eventually acquired by 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 ...

forming part of GWR's Mix Network. This later merged with Capital's equivalent Capital FM network (comprising the former Invicta FM, the former Southern FM, BRMB, Red Dragon FM and the former Power FM) to form

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 ...

, after the GWR Group plc and Capital Radio Group plc merged in May 2005.

acquired

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 ...

in 2008 and rebranded most of the One Network stations to Heart, in phases by area, from January 2009. On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced it would merge the Oxford and Reading stations as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The new station began broadcasting from Reading on Friday 9 July 2010, leading to the closure of studios in Oxford. The stations still carried local advertising and travel bulletins, and accordingly were sub-branded as "Heart Thames Valley for Oxfordshire" and "Heart Thames Valley for Berkshire and NW Hampshire".

Station merger

On 26 February 2019, Global announced Heart Thames Valley would be merged with three sister stations in Hampshire and Dorset,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and Sussex and Surrey.Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows
RadioToday, 26 February 2019 From 3 June 2019, local output will consist 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 Thames Valley ceased local programming on 31 May 2019, although the station's Reading studios were retained as offices for newsgathering and sales. Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London. Heart South began broadcasting regional programming on 3 June 2019.

References

External links

Heart Thames Valley

Map of the coverage area of Heart Thames Valley
as approved by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

{{coord, 51.4422, -1.0372, display=title, region:GB_scale:5000

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an area in South East England that extends along the River Thames west of London towards Oxford. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub on the M4 corridor, with a high concentration of technology companies ...

Radio stations in Berkshire Radio stations in Hampshire Radio stations in Oxfordshire Radio stations established in 2010 Radio stations disestablished in 2019 Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Culture in Reading, Berkshire