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 merged 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. More music variety arrives On 5 January 2009, Northants 96 was rebranded Heart, along with Dunstable-based Chiltern 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 town centre were closed as early as March 2011, with the station expected to be broadcast from new premises in Milton Keynes. References Radio stations in Northamptonshire Radio stations established in 1986 Northants Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom 1986 establishments in England