Northants 96
Encyclopedia
Heart Northants was a local commercial radio station serving Northamptonshire
.
The station broadcasted on 96.6 FM from studios in Northampton
town centre, via the transmitter located in the Kingsthorpe area. As of August 2011 the station merged with Heart Dunstable
and Heart Bedford
to become Heart Four Counties and now has its studios from Central Milton Keynes
. It is owned and operated by Global Radio
as a part of the Heart Network
.
was the first Independent Local Radio franchise for the county, providing programmes for Northamptonshire
, Milton Keynes
and Rugby
from the 1 October 1984, using its former FM frequency of 102.8 MHz and 1557 kHz medium wave. The station launched at 01:00, while disc jockey John Warwick hosted its morning show, Hereward Daybreak the following morning.
Local radio frequencies on the FM band in the United Kingdom were expanded and re-organised to form 'sub-bands' (104-105 MHz were reserved for BBC Local Radio
, whereas 96.1-97.7 MHz were attributed to Independent Local Radio). This affected Northamptonshire as follows:
Shortly afterwards, due to general difficulties within the commercial radio industry at the time Hereward withdrew from Northamptonshire and continued in Peterborough. In 1985, the Independent Broadcasting Authority assigned the Independent Local Radio franchise to a new company, Northants Radio Ltd, owned by Chiltern Radio Group.
Northants 96 launched at 10.00am on November 30, 1986 with announcer Tony West
introducing the first regular programmes on the station. Following a synthesised alarm clock ticking saying: "Good Morning. 10am, Sunday 30th of November 1986, and this is the new sound of radio in Northamptonshire- Northants 96!" followed by a station identification jingle and a welcome message from the then Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire.
Notable disc jockeys on Northants included Northants' first breakfast show, future well-known hypnotist Paul McKenna
and David Prever, who would later move to Wiltshire's GWR FM
Its to be noted that Northants 96 and Northants Radio were interchangeable names for the station and relayed programmes on a mediumwave frequency - 1557 kHz, which opened on June 25, 1990.
and Bedford. Station directors had to tackle a major concern in the area; "how do you make this station appear more 'local' than the previous incumbent, while saving money at the same time?" The result was that programmes were syndicated from Chiltern headquarters in Dunstable during the day, consisting of popular middle of the road music whilst 'opting out' for hourly local news bulletins. Thus The Hot FM sustaining service was born.
The Chiltern Radio Group did this by making use of new technology whereby a disc-jockey interjects with an identification jingle during a networked/syndcated programme by pressing a button with the result that depending on where the listener was, either "Northants 96- The Hot FM" or "Chiltern Radio 97 - The Hot FM" was heard. This solved the problem of inexpensive local radio with the added benefit of totally opting out of the network for local emergencies, for example snow reports or flooding information.
In 1988 the Home Office
declared that the independent local radio industry was sufficient enough to support a permanent split in AM-FM broadcasting and enforce this rule through the IBA. All BBC and ILR stations were required to broadcast separate programming or lose their licences.
The Chiltern Radio Network responded to this by launching its second sustaining service, SuperGold
on July 15, 1990. SuperGold was a general golden oldies
station broadcasting to Herts
, Beds
, Bucks
and Cambridge
on the medium wave band with Northants Radio SuperGold following suit. Both the classic and contemporary FM and the oldies AM stations were rated very highly, consistently beating its local competitor BBC Radio Northampton.
in 1995 which was reluctantly accepted. This affected both FM and AM stations and networked programming- The Hot FM closed and associated stations were rebranded "The New______- A Better Music Mix" while SuperGold was absorbed into GWR Group's existing Classic Gold
network.
Northants Radio however was less affected by this major change than other stations in the enlarged group (Chiltern Radio for example) becoming The New Northants 96 whereas its AM station Northants Radio SuperGold became Classic Gold 1557. The significance of this takeover was more resources meant a more local service; up to 15 hours a day were broadcast locally on FM as opposed to a mere 4 under "The Hot FM" whilst Classic Gold retained 8 hours.
Programming-wise Northants Radio underwent a subtle shift towards more upbeat contemporary and chart hits and less in the way of talk. A past slogan voiced by Eddy Temple-Morris
claimed that "other radio stations talked over the end of songs, whilst we didn't- That's the Northants 96 difference". This over time evolved into the Better Music Mix of the 80s 90s and today and Today's Best Mix for Northamptonshire.
Shortly after Northants' former owner GWR Group mergerd with Capital Radio plc to form GCap Media
in 2005, Northants 96 adopted the slogan "More music variety". In 2008 GCap Media's radio and music assets were purchased by Global Radio.
and other Global-owned stations in the East of England
. Heart Northamptonshire reduced its weekday local output from 12 hours to seven.
On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to close Heart Northants and merge the station with Heart Milton Keynes, Heart Dunstable
and Heart Bedford
as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The new station, Heart Home Counties
(later Heart Four Counties), began broadcasting from Dunstable on 16 July 2010.. Networked and local programming on the merged station are now similar, except for commercial breaks, which are still split locally. Heart's Northampton base in the city centre were closed as early as March 2011, with the station expected to be broadcast from new premises in Milton Keynes
..
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
.
The station broadcasted on 96.6 FM from studios in Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
town centre, via the transmitter located in the Kingsthorpe area. As of August 2011 the station merged with Heart Dunstable
Heart Dunstable
Heart Dunstable was an Independent Local Radio station based in Chiltern Road in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.-History:...
and Heart Bedford
Heart Bedford
Heart Bedford was an Independent Local Radio station based in the Priory Business Park in Bedford, Bedfordshire.-History:...
to become Heart Four Counties and now has its studios from Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right.The district is approximately 2.5 km long by 1 km wide and occupies some of the highest land in Milton Keynes...
. It is owned and operated by Global Radio
Global Radio
Global Radio UK Ltd. is a British commercial radio company, the largest in the country following acquisitions of Chrysalis Radio and GCap Media.The company's Chief Executive Officer is Stephen Miron, while the Group Chairman is Charles Allen...
as a part of the Heart Network
Heart Network
Heart is a radio network of 17 adult contemporary independent local radio stations in central & southern England and north Wales. Each station broadcasts local breakfast and drive time shows and simulcasts network programming at all other times...
.
The start of commercial local radio in Northamptonshire
Hereward RadioHereward FM
102.7 Heart Peterborough was an Independent Local Radio station for Peterborough, Boston, King's Lynn, Cambridgeshire, south Lincolnshire and west Norfolk...
was the first Independent Local Radio franchise for the county, providing programmes for Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
and Rugby
Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988 making it the second largest town in the county...
from the 1 October 1984, using its former FM frequency of 102.8 MHz and 1557 kHz medium wave. The station launched at 01:00, while disc jockey John Warwick hosted its morning show, Hereward Daybreak the following morning.
Local radio frequencies on the FM band in the United Kingdom were expanded and re-organised to form 'sub-bands' (104-105 MHz were reserved for BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio is the BBC's regional radio service for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 40 stations. They cover a variety of areas with some serving a city and surrounding areas, for example BBC Radio Manchester; a county, for example BBC Radio Norfolk; an administrative region for...
, whereas 96.1-97.7 MHz were attributed to Independent Local Radio). This affected Northamptonshire as follows:
- BBC Radio NorthamptonBBC Radio NorthamptonBBC Radio Northampton is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Northamptonshire. It broadcasts from its studios in Broadcasting House, Northampton on 104.2 and 103.6 FM. The station also has two studios in Daventry and Corby...
(96.6 FM) moved to 104.2 FM and 103.6 FM - Northamptonshire ILR (102.8 FM) moved to 96.6 FM.
Shortly afterwards, due to general difficulties within the commercial radio industry at the time Hereward withdrew from Northamptonshire and continued in Peterborough. In 1985, the Independent Broadcasting Authority assigned the Independent Local Radio franchise to a new company, Northants Radio Ltd, owned by Chiltern Radio Group.
Northants 96 launched at 10.00am on November 30, 1986 with announcer Tony West
Tony West
Anthony Shaun West is an English professional darts player who competes in British Darts Organisation tournaments.-Wins:...
introducing the first regular programmes on the station. Following a synthesised alarm clock ticking saying: "Good Morning. 10am, Sunday 30th of November 1986, and this is the new sound of radio in Northamptonshire- Northants 96!" followed by a station identification jingle and a welcome message from the then Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire.
Notable disc jockeys on Northants included Northants' first breakfast show, future well-known hypnotist Paul McKenna
Paul McKenna
Paul McKenna is an English hypnotist and self-improvement author.McKenna has written and produced books and multimedia products, hosted self-improvement television shows and presents seminars in hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, weight loss and motivation.-Career:Paul McKenna started in...
and David Prever, who would later move to Wiltshire's GWR FM
Its to be noted that Northants 96 and Northants Radio were interchangeable names for the station and relayed programmes on a mediumwave frequency - 1557 kHz, which opened on June 25, 1990.
The Hot FM and SuperGold
Northants 96 was essentially part of a regional collective of commercial stations which included Chiltern Radio, based in DunstableDunstable
Dunstable is a market town and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.-Etymology:In...
and Bedford. Station directors had to tackle a major concern in the area; "how do you make this station appear more 'local' than the previous incumbent, while saving money at the same time?" The result was that programmes were syndicated from Chiltern headquarters in Dunstable during the day, consisting of popular middle of the road music whilst 'opting out' for hourly local news bulletins. Thus The Hot FM sustaining service was born.
The Chiltern Radio Group did this by making use of new technology whereby a disc-jockey interjects with an identification jingle during a networked/syndcated programme by pressing a button with the result that depending on where the listener was, either "Northants 96- The Hot FM" or "Chiltern Radio 97 - The Hot FM" was heard. This solved the problem of inexpensive local radio with the added benefit of totally opting out of the network for local emergencies, for example snow reports or flooding information.
In 1988 the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
declared that the independent local radio industry was sufficient enough to support a permanent split in AM-FM broadcasting and enforce this rule through the IBA. All BBC and ILR stations were required to broadcast separate programming or lose their licences.
The Chiltern Radio Network responded to this by launching its second sustaining service, SuperGold
Supergold
Supergold was a oldies radio sustaining service operated by Chiltern Radio Group in the United Kingdom.-History:The Supergold service was launched at 10am on Sunday 24 June 1990, following requests from the Radio Authority for radio stations to split frequencies into separate AM and FM services or...
on July 15, 1990. SuperGold was a general golden oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
station broadcasting to Herts
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, Beds
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
, Bucks
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
and Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
on the medium wave band with Northants Radio SuperGold following suit. Both the classic and contemporary FM and the oldies AM stations were rated very highly, consistently beating its local competitor BBC Radio Northampton.
A better music mix, a hostile takeover
The Chiltern Radio Group, then a plc received a hostile takeover bid from GWR Group plcGCap 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 in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. On 31 March 2008 the company agreed a takeover by...
in 1995 which was reluctantly accepted. This affected both FM and AM stations and networked programming- The Hot FM closed and associated stations were rebranded "The New______- A Better Music Mix" while SuperGold was absorbed into GWR Group's existing Classic Gold
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 Pennine Radio, Viking Radio and Radio Hallam's medium wave franchises...
network.
Northants Radio however was less affected by this major change than other stations in the enlarged group (Chiltern Radio for example) becoming The New Northants 96 whereas its AM station Northants Radio SuperGold became Classic Gold 1557. The significance of this takeover was more resources meant a more local service; up to 15 hours a day were broadcast locally on FM as opposed to a mere 4 under "The Hot FM" whilst Classic Gold retained 8 hours.
Programming-wise Northants Radio underwent a subtle shift towards more upbeat contemporary and chart hits and less in the way of talk. A past slogan voiced by Eddy Temple-Morris
Eddy Temple-Morris
The Honourable Edward Temple-Morris is a British DJ, record producer and TV presenter.-Biography:Eddy Temple-Morris hosts XFM's specialist show The Remix. Before joining XFM, he was the main presenter on the MTV show Up for It Live, presented shows for Atlantic 252 & BBC Hereford & Worcester,...
claimed that "other radio stations talked over the end of songs, whilst we didn't- That's the Northants 96 difference". This over time evolved into the Better Music Mix of the 80s 90s and today and Today's Best Mix for Northamptonshire.
Shortly after Northants' former owner GWR Group mergerd with Capital Radio plc to form GCap Media
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 in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. On 31 March 2008 the company agreed a takeover by...
in 2005, Northants 96 adopted the slogan "More music variety". In 2008 GCap Media's radio and music assets were purchased by Global Radio.
More music variety arrives
On 5 January 2009, Northants 96 was rebranded Heart, along with Dunstable-based Chiltern RadioChiltern Radio
Heart Dunstable was an Independent Local Radio station based in Chiltern Road in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.-History:...
and other Global-owned stations in the East of England
East of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its...
. Heart Northamptonshire reduced its weekday local output from 12 hours to seven.
On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to close Heart Northants and merge the station with Heart Milton Keynes, Heart Dunstable
Heart Dunstable
Heart Dunstable was an Independent Local Radio station based in Chiltern Road in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.-History:...
and Heart Bedford
Heart Bedford
Heart Bedford was an Independent Local Radio station based in the Priory Business Park in Bedford, Bedfordshire.-History:...
as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The new station, Heart Home Counties
Heart Home Counties
Heart Four Counties is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire. The station began broadcasting at 4pm on Friday 16 July 2010 as a result of a merger between Heart Milton Keynes , Heart Northants , Heart Dunstable and...
(later Heart Four Counties), began broadcasting from Dunstable on 16 July 2010.. Networked and local programming on the merged station are now similar, except for commercial breaks, which are still split locally. Heart's Northampton base in the city centre were closed as early as March 2011, with the station expected to be broadcast from new premises in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
..