commercial stations which included Chiltern Radio, based in Dunstable 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/syndicated 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. However, after a time, some shows such as breakfast, mid morning and drive time were localised with each Chiltern Network station broadcasting individual shows. In 1988 the Home Office declared that the independent local radio industry was able to support a permanent split in AM-FM broadcasting and decided to enforce this rule through the IBA. All 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 15 July 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. A better music mix, a hostile takeover The Chiltern Radio Group, then a plc received a hostile takeover bid from GWR Group plc 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.