The station's Head of Programmes Ralph Bernard went on to become a very significant figure in British commercial radio as founder of Classic FM.

[citation needed] WR made tentative plans for growth as it set to acquire struggling Bristol station Radio West.

GWR Radio began splitting frequencies as required by the British Government – which declared its desire to end simulcasting on both FM and AM.

The local element of the station especially its news coverage had progressively become briefer and reduced in length, then moved onto Brunel Classic Gold, before being dropped altogether.

The GWR Group expanded from the late 1980s through to 2005, purchasing other stations throughout southern England, eventually becoming the largest radio company in the UK.

Fans of the previous guises of some stations bought by the GWR Group, notably Essex FM and Beacon Radio criticised the sudden re-branding of the station's taglines and playlists, accusing the new management of reducing local content such as news reports and cancelling local shows in place of programming from the Mix Network, such as Late Night Love and The Request Fest, which originated from the Bristol studios.

In 2008, GCap Media was taken over by Global Radio, who subsequently announced that GWR Wiltshire, in common with many other of the other One Network stations, would be rebranded Heart, by 2010.

[citation needed] On 26 February 2019, Global announced Heart Wiltshire would be merged with three sister stations in Bristol and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall and Gloucestershire.

[2] Since 3 June 2019, local output has consisted of a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.