On 19 January 2015, The Hits formed the backbone of a new locally branded Bauer City 3 network of radio stations in Northern England and Scotland.

Two networked shows were also introduced across most stations - Old Skool and Anthems and In: Demand - produced from Key 103 in Manchester.

[7] Separate schedules for Northern England and Scotland were introduced in August 2015,[8] followed in July 2017 by two networked mid-morning shows for most of the FM stations, produced from Manchester and Glasgow respectively.

[12] In February 2017, the Free Radio group of stations in the West Midlands began carrying off-peak programming from the Northern England network, replacing most of its own regional output from Birmingham.

Gem in the East Midlands joined the network in July 2019 to carry late night and overnight programming from Manchester.

[13] Five stations were acquired to join the network, of which four retained heritage branding: Pulse 1 (Bradford), Signal 1 (Stoke-on-Trent), The Wave (Swansea) and Fire Radio (Bournemouth).

Pulse, Signal, and The Wave began carrying off-peak programming from the Hits Radio network on 15 June 2020.

[14] The fifth, The Breeze (Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester) rebranded as Hits Radio under a licensing agreement with Nation Broadcasting.

The new show is presented by Joel Ross and Leanne Campbell and broadcast from Bauer's Liverpool studios at the Hits Radio Tower.

The first song that played on the former Kiss frequencies was Pink with Trustfall and Hattie Pearson was the presenter who launched the stations.

On 4 August 2024, Bauer announced that after 27 years of the West FM name, the station would be rebranded to 'Clyde 1 Ayrshire' from 16 September 2024 and share all output with Clyde 1 whilst retaining local news, weather and travel bulletins.

The service is taking capacity on a select number of Bauer owned ensembles including Northern Ireland, Liverpool, Swansea, Bradford, Stoke and London.

Bauer acquired additional DAB capacity as part of the deal to buy Wireless Group's local radio portfolio in 2019.

Network programming for England and Wales originates from Bauer's London headquarters or studios in Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle.

Until May 2022, CFM, Gem, MFR, Radio Borders and The Wave opted out of networked scheduling, during weekdays, and weekends respectively.

Prior to September 2024 the local Bristol FM/DAB station and digital-only London service had followed the standard Hits playlist, which continues elsewhere.

At all other times, mainly evening & overnight, hourly national bulletins originate from Sky News Radio in London.