The national version of the network is widely available on Global Player, Freeview, Sky, Freesat, Virgin Media and Digital One DAB.

[1] Heart began broadcasting in the West Midlands on 6 September 1994 as 100.7 Heart FM, becoming the UK's third Independent Regional Radio station, five days after Century Radio in North East England, and Jazz FM North West.

Its original format of "soft adult contemporary" music included artists such as Lionel Richie and Tina Turner.

Heart 106.2 began test transmissions in London in August 1995, prior to the station launch on 5 September.

On 20 November 2017, CN Group announced The Bay would be sold to Global along with sister station Lakeland Radio – the sale was finalised by 1 December 2017.

This reduced total weekly hours of local programming on each station from 43 to 15 and led to dozens of job losses.

[12] Drivetime output were reduced from 23 localised shows to 10 programmes covering enlarged areas, formed from the merger of Heart stations.

Stations in the North East of England, Wales, central and southern Scotland, the West Midlands and Yorkshire continue to serve their single licence areas as before.

In April 2023, it was announced Heart Scotland would reintroduce local breakfast, daytime and weekend programming from 2 May 2023, as part of a major expansion of Global's Scottish radio operations.

[22] The EE Official Big Top 40 From Global on Sunday afternoons is simulcast with Heart's sister network, Capital.

[39] Previously, Heart used a jingle package, composed by the Seattle-based music production company IQ Beats.