Under relaxed OFCOM requirements for local content on commercial radio, Heart East is permitted to share all programmes between ten licences located in the ITV Anglia broadcast region. Previously, these licences broadcast separate stations:
The first Independent Local Radio station to launch in the region was Radio Orwell in October 1975, broadcasting from Ipswich and serving Suffolk and north Essex. Orwell's owners, Suffolk Group Radio, went onto launch a separate station for west Suffolk, Saxon Radio, from Bury St Edmonds in November 1982. The two Suffolk stations were merged in 1992 to form SGR FM.
Horizon Radio began broadcasting from Milton Keynes in October 1989, serving north Buckinghamshire and initially as a sister station to neighbouring Chiltern Radio.
Ten-17 began broadcasting from Harlow in May 1993, serving East Hertfordshire and West Essex. Initially reliant on Essex FM for most of its output, it later expanded into a self-sustaining service. It was briefly known as Mercury 101.7 before reverting back to Ten-17, after being brought by GWR.
SGR Colchester began broadcasting from Colchester in October 1993, providing a split opt-out service for the area from its sister station in Suffolk.
By the early 1990s, these stations fell into the ownership of four regional radio groups, namely Chiltern Radio Network, the Essex FM Group, East Anglian Radio and Mid-Anglia Radio. Eventually, all four of these groups were brought by the GWR Group, which was taken over by Global in 2008. In 2009, nine of the stations were rebranded as part of the rollout of the Heart network across 29 local radio stations owned by Global. Hereward FM, Northants 96, Q103, Radio Broadland, Horizon Radio and SGR relaunched in January, followed by Essex FM in June. By this point, local programming had been reduced to ten hours on weekdays and four hours at weekends. The exception was Ten-17, which was part of a separate Hit Music Network, combining its local output from Harlow with networked programming from Nottingham. During the summer of 2010, Global merged the ten stations in the east of England to four - with Ten-17 closing and joining the Heart network as a result:
Heart Cambridgeshire - formed from the Peterbrough and Cambridgeshire stations, broadcasting from Cambridge
Heart East Anglia - formed from the Norfolk and Suffolk stations, broadcasting from Norwich
Heart Essex - formed from Ten-17 and Heart's stations in Chelmsford & Southend and Colchester, broadcasting from Chelmsford
Heart Four Counties - formed from the Northamptonshire, Milton Keynes, Dunstable and Bedford stations, broadcasting from Dunstable
Local programming was further cut to seven hours on weekdays, although localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising continued to air as opt-outs. The Cambridgeshire and Four Counties stations latterly moved from Peterborough and Dunstable to Cambridge and Milton Keynes respectively On 26 February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Global announced it would merge the four Heart stations into one. As of June 2019, regional programming consists of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised opt-outs for news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising. Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London. Global's studio centres in Cambridge, Chelmsford and Norwich were closed, although local newsgathering and sales staff were retained. Across the four stations, fifteen local presenters left the Heart network.
Programming
All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including Heart Breakfast, presented each weekday by Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden. Regional programming is produced and from Global's Milton Keynes studios from 4-7pm on weekdays, presented by Hannah Clarkson.
News
Heart East broadcasts hourly local news bulletins from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends. Separate bulletins are produced for the licence areas previously served by Heart's stations in Cambridgeshire, East Anglia, Essex and the Four Counties. The Milton Keynes newsroom also produces bulletins for the Communicorp owned Heart Hertfordshire. National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times.
