Heart fm radio, which broadcasts across the West Midlands from Birmingham, will shortly have an East Midlands counterpart, thanks to recent takeovers in the commercial radio industry.
Heart's owner, the Chrysalis-radio group, is also investing in its Broad Street studio facilities to bring the facility up to date.
Chrysalis acquired the Nottingham-based East Midlands franchise, 106 Century FM, as part of an ownership reshuffle in the wake of the merger of Capital (owner of BRMB) and GWR (owner of Beacon and Mercia), which was judged by media watchdog to have too much of the East Midlands radio spectrum.
This station will, by the end of the year, be transformed into Heart as part of a £500,000 relaunch package, said Chrysalis's Midlands managing director, Paul Fairburn.
The acquisition came with a £29.5 million price tag, justified at the time in May as "an opportunity to grow audiences in the East Midlands towards the levels enjoyed by 100.7 Heart fm in the West Midlands."
Despite its strong recent audience growth, 106 Century FM's weekly reach, at 17 per cent, substantially lags behind the 25 per cent weekly reach of
100.7 Heart fm in the more competitive West Midlands market.
106 Century FM's market share, at 7.4 per cent, also lags the 8.4 per cent enjoyed by
100.7 Heart fm.
Mr Fairburn has begun the process by including the Heart branding in station promotion, with the aim of switching to the Heart brand completely.
The stations, aimed at the 25-44 age group, will be the younger market equivalent of the East and West Midlands greyhead radio Saga franchise.
Chrysalis has also appointed a director to promote its Heart brand to oversee its four similar franchises, but he plans no changes to the on-air staff or output.
" It's the number one commercial station in the East Midlands, and we have a programme manager doing a good job," he said.
Changes are afoot, however, at the Birmingham-based station, where after ten years, the presenter line-up is being changed to be more in tune with the target audience.
Programme director Alan Carruthers is moving to head The Arrow, the Chrysalisowned classic rock radio station, and Mr Fairburn is recruiting to replace him.
"We have already taken Carlos off air and replaced him with Steve Denyer from Galaxy in Manchester," he said.
"If we are aiming at the same age group as we were ten years ago then the DJs are all ten years older than they were and we are planning some other changes to the line-up, like drivetime presenter Nick Piercy who will also be leaving."
Chrysalis is also investing some £900,000, partly in expanding its studio complex in Broad Street, with two new digital studios for Heart fm.
"It's really quite advanced and will bring it bang up to date and gives us more flexibility in studio use," he said.
One unexpected outcome of the Nottingham acquisition is that 100.7 Heart fm was broadcast from Nottingham during the evacuation of 20,000 people in the aftermath of the London rail and bus bombings.
