GWR FM was a

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of three

radio stations Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, 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 lan ...

in the south west of

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 ...

broadcasting to Bristol, Bath, Wiltshire and surrounding areas. All three stations were rebranded and joined the

Heart Network Heart is a network of thirteen independent adult contemporary radio stations in the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming, although only the stations in Scotland and Wales still have their own shows. Ten of the s ...

on 23 March 2009. The stations in the network were: *GWR FM Bristol, which was launched in 1981 as Radio West. It relaunched as GWR in 1985 *GWR FM Bath, first broadcast as GWR Radio Bath in 1987, becoming the third station in the network and sharing some programming with the Bristol station *GWR FM Wiltshire, which launched in 1982 as Wiltshire Radio. In 1985, Wiltshire Radio relaunched as GWR, to coincide with the re-launch of the Bristol station

History

The GWR Radio brand started life in 1985 when Swindon-based Wiltshire Radio joined with Bristol's Radio West.

The Mix Network

In 1992 a re-launch of the station saw The New GWR-FM become the hub of what was The Mix Network, a network of radio stations owned by the GWR Group (later GCap Media ) covering southern England and Wales. The radio station created a tightly formatted sound where popular Top 40 chart hits were blended with older hits. This led to its "Better Music Mix" format which was then utilised on other radio stations within the GWR Group, including Essex FM, Trent FM and Beacon Radio, creating a mini national network. Each station within the Mix Network played a centrally produced playlist. Songs were broadcast almost at the same time as neighbouring group stations and each station adopted the "Better Music Mix" tagline which was announced by local presenters in between the music. Following the introduction of the Mix Network some programming, such as Late Night Love and The Request Fest, was syndicated across the whole network from the GWR Bristol studios.

Notable presenters

Scott Mills Scott Robert Mills (born 28 March 1973) is an English radio DJ, television presenter and occasional actor. He is best known for presenting the '' Scott Mills'' show on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2022 and since then, on BBC Radio 2, where he has be ...

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 ...

*Dave Barrett *Keith Francis (Gooden) *Sandy Martin *

Charlie Wolf Stephen Linsky (born 12 April 1959), better known as Charlie Wolf, is a UK-based American radio talk show host, disc jockey and political commentator, and formerly the Communications Director of Republicans Abroad UK. Wolf previously presented ...

* Graham Torrington *

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820, and continued to be produced and bottled at the town's Hill Street plant, once the world's ...

References

Heart (radio network) Radio stations in England {{UK-radio-station-stub