Heart Essex (formerly Essex Radio and then Essex FM) is a British

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

. It was launched on 12 September 1981, broadcasting from

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

and since 27 October 2004 from

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

, both in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

History

Heart began as Essex Radio in September 1981 broadcasting on 95.3

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

& 1431

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

to Southend-on-Sea and 96.4

& 1359

to Chelmsford in December 1981. The station was formed by several local companies including

Keddies Keddies was a small chain of department stores in Essex, England, with its flagship store in a prime location in Southend High Street (originally called the Broadway). The business had a national reputation, being recognised in The Fashion Handbo ...

, Garons & TOTS with David Keddie, owner of the

department store in Southend becoming its chairman. The station's FM frequencies were changed in 1986, with 95.3 becoming 96.3 (95.3 was handed to

BBC Essex BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on New London Road in Chelmsford. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 160,000 ...

) and 96.4 becoming 102.6. In 1989 the station split its AM and FM frequencies (as required then to do so due to a new Radio Act requirement to end simulcasting) and The Breeze began broadcasting on Essex Radio's old AM frequencies. The first song played was

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

's 'Wired for Sound'. In January 1994 Essex Radio relaunched as Essex FM. It was then rebranded as Heart in June 2009. Essex Radio Group launched several nearby stations, including

Ten-17 FM Ten-17 was an Independent Local Radio station, broadcast from studios at the Latton Bush Centre in Harlow. The station launched in May 1993 and served Harlow, East Herts and West Essex until its closure on 25 July 2010. History Ten 17 came int ...

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

in 1993, oldies station Breeze (now Smooth Essex) in July 1989, and dance station Vibe FM (now

Kiss FM Kiss FM, Kiss Radio or variants may refer to: Asia-Oceania * Various Kiss FM-branded stations in the Philippines ** 95.1 Kiss FM, Lucena, Quezon ** 102.3 Kiss FM, Tagbilaran, Bohol * Kiss92 FM, Singapore * KISS 969, Sri Lanka * Kiss Radio Taiwan ...

) in 1997. Essex FM became part of the

GWR Group GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...

(now

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysa ...

) in October 2000 from the

Daily Mail and General Trust Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is ...

(who bought the Essex Radio Group in 1998). Programme controller Craig Denyer introduced the Greatest Memories Latest Hits format in the late eighties. The format was launched on

April Fool's Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...

when presenters supposedly went on strike because of the format. Station identification was provided by

Airforce Productions An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

. They were also responsible for the earlier 'Together we can Make it' package. Essex FM's Creative Team (founded 1987) helped win awards for advertising and soundtracks, including Creative Circle Honours, Independent Radio Advertising Awards and a bronze in the

Sony Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

for 'Now in 1939' a contemporary musical documentary to commemorate World War 2. Commercial producers included John Calvert, Carolyn Rogers, Lisa Rutherford, Scott Young, Chris Slack & Pete Sipple.

Later years

Since GWR bought Essex FM in 2000 and following the merger of GWR and the Capital Radio Group in 2005 to form GCap Media, Essex FM started to take some network programmes, like the weekday evening new music show Music Control. Essex FM however was one of only two or three One Network stations (the GCap media station network) which retained most of its local output, opting out of shows like ''Late Night Love'' and ''The

Jeremy Kyle Jeremy Kyle (born 7 July 1965) is an English broadcaster and writer. He is known for hosting the tabloid talk show ''The Jeremy Kyle Show'' on ITV from 2005 to 2019. He also hosted a US version of his eponymous show, which ran for two seas ...

Show''. They also broadcast their own jingles - made by ReelWorld in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, based on their package for

Hallam FM Hallam FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Sheffield, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 283,000 ...

. However, in June 2008 new owners Global Radio, in spite of the station just obtaining its best listening figures for 5 years with a music format slightly more skewed to new music, decided to include Essex FM in their plans for a huge radio shake-up. The station was forced to drop its non-peak time local programming, including weekdays mid-mornings and late night. On Monday 29 June the station changed its music style to an older approach and introduced a format more like London station Heart 106.2 and dropped off its sung jingles - effectively a clean slate. The station's strapline was changed to "More Music Variety". In May 2009 the station began calling itself ''The Heart of Essex - Essex FM, and began to use the Heart news and travel beds, as well as jingles (IDs as Essex FM over what would normally be 'This is Heart'). On 22 June 2009, Essex FM was officially branded ''Heart Essex''.

Network restructuring

On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to merge Heart Essex with

Heart Colchester Heart Colchester (formerly SGR Colchester) was a radio station broadcasting to Colchester and the surrounding areas. The station was launched in 1993 as SGR Colchester by the East Anglian Radio group, which also operated the Ipswich-based SGR-FM, ...

and

Ten 17 Ten-17 was an Independent Local Radio station, broadcast from studios at the Latton Bush Centre in Harlow. The station launched in May 1993 and served Harlow, East Herts and West Essex until its closure on 25 July 2010. History Ten 17 came int ...

as part of plans to restructuring plans for the Heart Network. The new station, ''

Heart Essex Heart Essex was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to Essex and East Hertfordshire from studios in Chelmsford. The station launched on Monday 26 July 2010 as a result of a merger b ...

'', begun broadcasting from Chelmsford on 26 July 2010.Heart slims but strengthens
, RadioToday, 21 June 2010

Closure

In February 2019, Heart Essex's owners, Global Radio announced a major shake-up of radio across all of their brands. In the case of Heart Essex, these changes were to take effect from Saturday 1 June. The new schedule would mean the complete closure of Heart Essex. The very last show broadcast from Chelmsford aired between 16:00-19:00 BST on Friday 31 May 2019. After this show, all programs were network programs broadcast from the main studios in Leicester Square, London. The exception to this was the 16:00-19:00 drive time show on Mondays-Fridays, which is broadcast on new station

Heart East Heart East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the East of England from studios in Milton Keynes. The station launched on 3 June 2019, following a merger of four Heart statio ...

, which is broadcast from studios in Milton Keynes.

Transmitters

The 102.6

FM signal comes from Baker's Wood west of Chelmsford. This broadcasts to Chelmsford, Braintree,

Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Chelms ...

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

and

South Woodham Ferrers South Woodham Ferrers is a town and civil parish in the borough of Chelmsford, in the English county of Essex. It is approximately from London and southeast of the city of Chelmsford, and had a population of 16,453 at the 2011 Census, a decr ...

. It is the strongest signal with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

of 2.0 kW. 96.3 MHz FM comes from Benfleet, which covers

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

and most of southern Essex with an ERP of 1.3 kW. 97.5 MHz FM comes from Maitland House in central Southend with an ERP of 100 W. This was launched in the late 90s to fill a gap in the town centre. In

, Heart Essex broadcasts on 101.7 MHz from the Rye Hill mast, with

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

being served by the Wivenhoe transmitter broadcasting on 96.1 MHz with an ERP of 500 watts. Heart Essex is also available on DAB

Digital Radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...

via the Essex multiplex.

References

External links

Heart Essex

Bakers Wood transmitter

Benfleet transmitter

Maitland House transmitter

Airforce
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heart Essex (Chelmsford and Southend) Radio stations in Essex Radio stations established in 1981

Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom