The choice of on-air name proved to be simple when the BBC aired a series called Shoestring complete with the fictitious Radio West.

[1] Headquartered in expensive studio premises in the Watershed complex on Bristol's Harbourside, by 1983 the station had suffered losses of £300,000.

This resulted in considerable changes to the programme output and presentation line-up, including Roger Day (ex Caroline, Piccadilly, and BRMB) being brought in to host the breakfast show.

Financially, commercial radio struggled to make any money as the 1980s economy in Britain was hampered by union strikes.

Test transmissions for GWR commenced the next day before it launched as a 24-hour full service station at 6 am on Monday 1 October 1985.

New disc jockeys were brought in, however the station still sounded like competitor Radio Bristol with its mix of music, news and talk (as was the trend in British commercial radio at the time due to needletime restrictions) and listening figures were not improving.

GWR Radio began splitting frequencies as required by the 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 radio station's (and the group's) long held philosophy of heavily researching the average person's listening habits and tastes led by group chairman Ralph Bernard created a tightly formatted sound where popular Top 40 chart hits and ex-Top 40 songs were blended in with older hits.

Fans of the previous guises of some stations bought by the GWR Group, notably Essex FM and Beacon Radio were unhappy at the sudden re-branding of the stations, accusing the new management of reducing local output such as news bulletins and replacing local programming with networked shows such as Late Night Love and The Request Fest, which originated from the Bristol studios.

The programming on this relay was identical to the Bristol service, aside from jingles and sweepers that stated 'GWR Weston', and had separate advertisements for North Somerset listeners.