Heart Dorset (formerly 2CR – Two Counties Radio) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

station, broadcast from studios at a former branch of MFI on Southcote Road in Bournemouth. Its original name was derived from the fact that its broadcast area included parts of the counties of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. The station was merged with

Heart Hampshire Heart Hampshire (formerly Ocean FM and Ocean Sound) was a British independent local radio station serving South Hampshire, West Sussex and Isle of Wight primarily for Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Chichester. The station served an are ...

in July 2010 to form the regional station Heart South Coast.

History

Former BBC Radio Solent presenter John Piper launched the station in 1980, with the words ''Good Morning Hampshire, Good Morning Dorset''. At that time, 2CR consisted of a ''full service'' station with music, personalities, phone-ins, and a local news service. Managing Director for the first three years, was Norman Bilton who joined them from Metro Radio in Newcastle. The station's longest serving staff member was office manager Rosemary Mundy, who worked for the station from its launch until 2009. The station gained its highest

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

listening figures at the turn of the millennium with a successful daytime line-up consisting of ''The Morning Crew'' (Richie, Martyn & Emma), Katherine Orman from 10am to 2pm and Adrian Clarkson from 2 to 7pm. Clarkson was replaced by GWR network presenter Rob Smith in 2002 and Orman left shortly afterwards to be replaced by James Lloyd from

Fire Radio Hits Radio Bournemouth & Poole is an Independent Local radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio Network. The station broadcast to Bournemouth, Poole, and Christchurch, Dorset, based in Segensworth in Fareham Th ...

Network restructuring

On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to close Heart Dorset and merge the station with

as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The new station, '' Heart South Coast'', began from Fareham on 30 July 2010.Heart slims but strengthens
, RadioToday, 21 June 2010

Notable past presenters

* * Seán Street *

Fran Godfrey Frances Helen Godfrey (born 29 June 1953) is a former BBC Radio 2 newsreader, most famous for her appearances on ''Wake Up to Wogan'', a long-running breakfast show in the United Kingdom.''Mustn't Grumble'', by Sir Terry Wogan (2006) () Godfrey be ...

* Martyn Lee * Bam Bam *

Charlie Wolf Stephen Linsky (born 12 April 1959) better known as Charlie Wolf, is a British-based American radio talk show host, disc jockey and political commentator, and formerly the Communications Director of Republicans Abroad UK. Wolf previously pres ...

Christian O'Connell Christian Liam O'Connell (born 7 April 1973 in Winchester, Hampshire) is a British radio disc jockey, television host, writer, and comedian living in Australia. He presents ''The Christian O'Connell Show'' on weekday mornings on Gold 104.3 in ...

* Dan O'Hagan

References

Companies based in Bournemouth Radio stations established in 1980 Radio stations in Hampshire Radio stations in Dorset

Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom {{UK-radio-station-stub