kingdom branding this is heart slogan more music variety frequency 88mhz 108mhz rds heart varies first air date 1994 heart west midlands format rhythmic ac & hot ac language s english audience share 6.4 % june 2014 2014 06 rajar power digital analog owner global radio sister stations capital fm classic fm smooth radio capital xtra radio x lbc gold website www.heart.co.uk heart is a radio network of 21 adult contemporary local radio stations operated by global radio in the united kingdom broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming . eighteen of the heart stations are owned by global while the other three are operated under franchise agreements . contents 1 history 1.1 launching 1.2 network restructuring 1.3 network expansion 2 list of stations 3 programming and presenters 3.1 notable current presenters 3.2 notable syndicated and cover presenters 3.3 heart news 3.4 network presentation 4 criticisms 5 hall of fame 6 references 7 external links history edit launching edit heart began broadcasting on 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 was 100.7 degrees cooler . heart 106.2 began test transmissions in london in august 1995 prior to the station launch on 5 september . the test transmissions included live broadcasts of wplj from new york city . 1 the heart programming format was modified in 1996 . 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 . 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 . network restructuring edit 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 . 2 3 two hit music network stations were also closed and merged with heart stations . merged station closed stations studios heart cambridgeshire heart peterborough heart cambridge peterborough later cambridge heart devon later heart south west heart exeter and heart torbay heart plymouth heart south devon heart north devon exeter heart east anglia heart norwich heart ipswich norwich heart essex heart chelmsford & southend heart colchester ten 17 rebranded chelmsford heart hertfordshire rebranded from hertfordshire s mercury 96.6 watford heart four counties heart northants heart milton keynes heart dunstable heart bedford dunstable later milton keynes heart north west and wales heart north wales coast heart cheshire and north east wales heart wirral wrexham heart south coast heart dorset & new forest heart hampshire fareham heart sussex and surrey heart sussex mercury fm rebranded brighton heart thames valley heart berkshire heart oxfordshire reading heart west country heart bristol heart somerset heart bath bristol 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 96.3 fm 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 . 4 the move saw heart s networked programming replaced by local output from nottingham . network expansion edit on 19 march 2012 global radio announced it had brought the cornwall ilr station atlantic fm from joint owners tindle radio and camel media . 5 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 . 6 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 . 7 global radio extended the heart network to the real radio network of regional stations from tuesday 6 may 2014 . 8 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 . list of stations edit as of 6 may 2014 the heart network comprises 21 stations 9 heart cambridgeshire heart east anglia heart essex heart four counties heart gloucestershire heart hertfordshire franchise owned by adventure radio heart kent heart london heart north east heart north wales franchise owned by communicorp heart north west heart scotland heart solent heart south west heart sussex and surrey heart thames valley heart wales heart west country heart west midlands heart wiltshire heart yorkshire franchise owned by communicorp programming and presenters edit the majority of programming is broadcast live from heart s network studios in leicester square london however some weekend output is voice tracked . 10 local programming is produced and broadcast live from the originating heart station s studios and is broadcast from 6 10am and 4 7pm on weekdays 1 5pm on saturdays and 12pm 4pm on sundays . however some news content is produced from neighbouring stations . for example news bulletins for the network s west country gloucestershire and wiltshire stations are all produced from bristol . notable current presenters edit toby anstis simon beale emma bunton jason donovan jenni falconer zoe hardman lucy horobin jason king stephen mulhern matt wilkinson neil roberto williams emma willis mark wright notable syndicated and cover presenters edit margherita taylor rich clarke marvin humes kat shoob olly murs christmas show only heart news edit all 21 heart stations broadcast local news bulletins each day updates air hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 6am to 12pm at weekends . in accordance with ofcom speech requirements stations in the north east and north west of england south and west yorkshire central and southern scotland north and mid wales south and mid wales and cornwall also produce an extended ten minute news programme heart nightly news at 6.45 pm on weeknights . on all heart stations short national news updates from global s london headquarters air every hour at all other times except during the vodafone big top 40 . network presentation edit as of 2014 the network uses jingles and themes produced by reelworld europe based in salford . 11 previously heart used a jingle package composed by the seattle based music production company iq beats 12 which also supplied packages for global s capital fm network 13 lbc 14 and continues to produce imaging for gold . 15 criticisms edit in august 2010 listeners in bedfordshire and crawley west sussex complained about the merger of heart stations and called for a boycott of the station . 16 there have been numerous criticisms made by listeners of the repetitive nature of heart radio stations playlist in various outlets . a public complaint to the regulator ofcom in 2012 that the more music variety slogan was materially misleading was not pursued as ofcom deemed that it did not warrant further investigation . 17 ofcom stated that we did not consider listeners were materially misled by this slogan . 18 hall of fame edit at the end of 2012 the station polled their listeners and compiled a list of the top 500 songs of all time . 19 adele make you feel my love take that never forget michael bubl home george michael careless whisper maroon 5 moves like jagger robbie williams angels adele rolling in the deep whitney houston i have nothing bill medley and jennifer warnes i ve had the time of my life take that greatest day references edit wplj before heart 106.2 . digital spy . retrieved 21 october 2014 . heart slims but strengthens . radio today . retrieved 13 october 2012 . plunkett john 21 june 2010 . global radio to halve number of local heart stations . mediaguardian.co.uk . london . gem to replace heart east mids . radio today . retrieved 13 october 2012 . atlantic fm sold to global to become heart radiotoday 19 march 2012 ukrd responds to atlantic s heart switch radiotoday 19 march 2012 martin roy 2014 02 06 . communicorp buys 8 global stations . radiotoday . retrieved 2014 02 06 . global confirms heart expansion details radio today 14 april 2014 official website featuring map showing heart stations public file heart north wales heart 6 may 2014 heart gets new jingles and themes from reelworld radiotoday 9 september 2015 iq beats heart jingles iq beats capital fm jingles iq beats lbc jingles iq beats gold jingles plunkett john 11 august 2010 . global radio faces heart cuts protest . london guardian media group . retrieved 13 october 2012 . complaints assessed not investigated pdf . ofcom broadcast bulletin 205 . ofcom . 8 may 2012 . p. 32 . retrieved 16 july 2013 . being misleading ofcom says heart slogan isn t misleading radio today 8 may 2012 heart s hall of fame the 500 greatest songs of all time . heart . 1 january 2013 . external links edit heart v t e heart regions cambridgeshire east anglia essex four counties hertfordshire london west midlands north east north west yorkshire scotland kent solent sussex and surrey thames valley gloucestershire south west west country wiltshire north wales south wales related topics atlantic fm gem 106 orion media heart digital marcher radio group the one network real radio list of global group stations v t e global radio corporate directors lord allen chairman ashley tabor group ceo richard park executive director stephen miron ceo mark evans cfo owen mcgartol director radio stations the arrow capital capital xtra chill classic fm gold heart lbc lbc london news smooth radio x television channels capital tv heart tv related articles list of global group stations capital digital gcap media capital life capital disney core the storm thejazz century digital jazz fm planet rock real and smooth classic fm tv leicester square thisisglobal.com radio retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title heart radio network & oldid 744552676 categories british radio networksheart radio network hidden categories use dmy dates from june 2016use british english from june 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create 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