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Heart West
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Heart West
Heart West is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts in South West England.
The station launched on 3 June 2019, following a merger of four Heart stations in Bristol and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.
Under relaxed OFCOM requirements for local content on commercial radio, Heart West is permitted to share all programmes between nine licences located in the ITV West Country broadcast region (formerly consisting of separate areas for the West and the South West of England).
Previously, these licences broadcast as separate stations:
In 1985, after suffering heavy financial losses since its launch, Radio West was approached by the successful Wiltshire Radio for a merger - the first of its kind in commercial radio in the UK. This was approved by the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) and the two stations combined to form GWR in October 1985.
GWR continued to provide separate programming for the Bristol and Swindon areas, and in May 1987, a third opt-out service for Bath was launched. The station's owners, GWR Group plc, went onto become one of the major commercial radio operators in the UK.
Orchard FM in Somerset expanded its operations with Gemini FM winning the East Devon ILR licence from DevonAir and the acquisition of Lantern FM in North Devon.
The Orchard Radio Group was itself brought by GWR in 1999, but in November 2005, these stations - along with Plymouth Sound - were put up for sale by GCap Media as they were considered outside of the company's primary target area. In the event, the sale did not go ahead as all of the bids made fell short of expectations. In 2008, the group was taken over by Global, which eventually took ownership of South Hams Radio as a joint venture with the UKRD Group.
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Heart West
Heart West is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts in South West England.
The station launched on 3 June 2019, following a merger of four Heart stations in Bristol and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.
Under relaxed OFCOM requirements for local content on commercial radio, Heart West is permitted to share all programmes between nine licences located in the ITV West Country broadcast region (formerly consisting of separate areas for the West and the South West of England).
Previously, these licences broadcast as separate stations:
In 1985, after suffering heavy financial losses since its launch, Radio West was approached by the successful Wiltshire Radio for a merger - the first of its kind in commercial radio in the UK. This was approved by the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) and the two stations combined to form GWR in October 1985.
GWR continued to provide separate programming for the Bristol and Swindon areas, and in May 1987, a third opt-out service for Bath was launched. The station's owners, GWR Group plc, went onto become one of the major commercial radio operators in the UK.
Orchard FM in Somerset expanded its operations with Gemini FM winning the East Devon ILR licence from DevonAir and the acquisition of Lantern FM in North Devon.
The Orchard Radio Group was itself brought by GWR in 1999, but in November 2005, these stations - along with Plymouth Sound - were put up for sale by GCap Media as they were considered outside of the company's primary target area. In the event, the sale did not go ahead as all of the bids made fell short of expectations. In 2008, the group was taken over by Global, which eventually took ownership of South Hams Radio as a joint venture with the UKRD Group.
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