Heart North Wales Coast (formerly Coast 96.3 and originally Marcher Coast FM) was an independent local

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 ...

broadcast along the

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

coast, and owned & operated by

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 ...

. The station, which broadcast from studios in

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...

& latterly, Bangor and transmitted from

Great Ormes Head The Great Orme ( cy, Y Gogarth) is a limestone headland on the north coast of Wales, north-west of the town of Llandudno. Referred to as ''Cyngreawdr Fynydd'' by the 12th-century poet Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, its English name derives from the Old ...

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craigsi ...

, officially served an area stretching from

Amlwch Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within the c ...

in the west to

Holywell Holywell may refer to: * Holywell, Flintshire, Wales * Holywell, Swords, Ireland * Holywell, Bedfordshire, England * Holywell, Cambridgeshire, England * Holywell, Cornwall, England * Holywell, Dorset, England * Holywell, Eastbourne, East Susse ...

in the east, but could be heard as far away as

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

The Fylde The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills t ...

. Heart North Wales Coast, along with the nearby Heart Wrexham (formerly Marcher Sound) and

Heart Cymru Capital Cymru is a local Welsh-language Radio broadcasting, radio station owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment, Global. The station broadcasts to Gwynedd and Anglesey from studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham via the Arfon transmitting st ...

(Champion 103), were part of the

Marcher Radio Group Marcher Radio Group Ltd, previously Marcher Sound Ltd, was a British media organisation which operated several radio stations in north Wales and northwest England. The company, now owned by Global Radio (but legally still existing,) founded the ...

of radio stations, which were bought by 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 GCap). GCap put the Marcher Group stations up for sale in 2005, but in March 2006 the sale was called off. Coast 96.3 won a Gold Sony Award at the Sony Radio Awards 2006 for stations with a TSA of under 300,000. The first voices heard on Heart North Wales Coast were those of presenter Carl Hughes and newsreader Mair Thomas with Heart Breakfast at 6 am on Monday 22 June 2009. On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to close Heart North Wales Coast and merge the station with Heart Cheshire and North East Wales and

Heart Wirral Heart Wirral (formerly Wirral's Buzz) was an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to the Wirral Peninsula, sharing its facilities with Heart Wrexham and Gold, in Gwersyllt, Wrexham. History The station, owned by Global Radio (origin ...

as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 15, leading to the closure of the Bangor studios. ''

Heart North West and Wales Capital North West and Wales is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to Cheshire, the Wirral Peninsula & North Wales. The station broadcasts from its studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexha ...

'' is broadcast from Wrexham but 96.3 FM retains an opt-out for Welsh language news bulletins and programming during early mornings.Heart slims but strengthens
, RadioToday, 21 June 2010 The station was rebranded as part of the

Capital FM network Capital is a network of twelve independent contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming. Nine of the stations are owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment, while the oth ...

on Tuesday 6 May 2014.

Former presenters

Al Murray Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gr ...

References

Radio stations in Wales Radio stations established in 1993 Radio stations disestablished in 2010 Marcher Radio Group Bangor, Gwynedd North Wales Coast Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom 1993 establishments in Wales 2010 disestablishments in Wales {{Wales-radio-station-stub