Radio Broadland (later Heart Norwich) was an

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 for

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and North

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, including

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

and

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

, until early 2009. The station, now part of the national

Heart Network Heart is a British radio network and brand of 13 adult contemporary music, adult contemporary Independent Local Radio, local stations operated by Global Media & Entertainment, Global throughout the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local an ...

, is owned and 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 ...

Station history

On 1 October 1984, a new independent local radio station called "Radio Broadland" was launched by a Norfolk-based group with experience in local business, newspapers and television, but little in radio. Several people with extensive radio experience were brought in to start the station. Russell Stuart arrived from Gwent Broadcasting in Newport as managing director, Mike Stewart from Radio West in Bristol as programme controller and Robb Young moved from Radio Orwell in Ipswich as sales manager. Stewart put together the first team of presenters. Nick Risby joined from

Red Rose Radio Red Rose Radio was the first UK Independent Local Radio station to be licensed for Lancashire by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). Although a company of that name was incorporated in 1978 (as Red Rose Radio Limited), the licence was awa ...

in Preston, Tony Gillham came from Chiltern and

BBC Bedfordshire BBC Three Counties Radio is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via ...

, Dave Brown from

Radio Tees TFM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Teesside and surrounding areas of County Durham and North Yorkshire. As of Septem ...

, Rob Chandler from Radio Orwell and Adrian Finighan from Gwent Radio. Dave Brown became programme controller of the station in the late 1990s, while Rob Chandler remained for 30 years, including more than 25 years as breakfast presenter, until leaving the station in December 2013. Another long server was Chrissie Jackson, who lasted for 27 years including 14 as joint breakfast host, until leaving at the same time as Rob Chandler. Bob Harris presented a weekly show on the station for a time after it launched, while he was living in the area. For the first two years, Radio Broadland went off air at 10pm until 6am the following morning. The station simulcasted on 97.6FM and 1152AM for three years, but in 1987, due to national changes in local radio frequencies, moved to 102.4FM. Broadland at the end of the 1980s was achieving an audience reach of 50 per cent and average weekly listening of up to 18 hours per listener, some of the best in the UK. In 1990, Broadland took over

Suffolk Group Radio Suffolk Group Radio was the parent company for two Independent Local Radio stations serving the county of Suffolk in England. The Stations Radio Orwell began transmissions from Electric House, Ipswich on 28 October 1975. It was one of the origin ...

, which owned Radio Orwell in Ipswich and Saxon Radio in Bury St Edmunds and, to reflect the addition of the new stations, the company became

East Anglian Radio East Anglian Radio was a company based in Norwich that operated radio stations in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex in the UK. The stations owned by the group were: *Radio Broadland in Norwich. *SGR FM in Ipswich & Bury St Edmunds (origi ...

. The two Suffolk stations were renamed and re-launched as SGR fm in 1992. The group later won the licence to launch a station in Colchester under the SGR banner in 1993. Initially, Radio Broadland played both classic hit music and current chart hits, but in 1995 the decision was made by the EAR group to make better use of the AM slot.

Amber Radio Amber Radio was a classic hits/gold radio station operating from studios in both Norwich and Ipswich, in the region of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It was the AM sister station of Radio Broadland and SGR and served Norfolk and Suffolk, ...

was created in

and

playing 60s and 70s music, whilst Broadland 102 focused more on current and recent chart hits. The EAR group continued to be run by the original Broadland management team. In 1996, 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. ...

bid more than £25 million for the East Anglian Radio group, which later resulted in changes to the station such as networked programming and a new strapline of "Today's Better Music Mix". The original management remained in different roles with GWR and then GCap, but had all left by 2003. Mike Stewart and Russell Stuart were part of a new company, Norwich Radio Group, which narrowly failed to win a new ILR licence advertised in 2005 for Norwich. In 2007, the station reverted to the name of Radio Broadland, adopting 'More Music Variety' to reflect an emphasis on classic hits in place of chart material. Also that year, as with all of GCap's One Network, the station gained a new logo and website. An offer of £375 million for the GCap group from

, owner of

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

and

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

in London and

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

station, was accepted in 2008. All GCap's senior management departed on completion of the takeover.

Heart re-brand

In January 2009, Radio Broadland was renamed as ''Heart Norwich'', as part of a major re-branding involving 29 stations owned by Global Radio. By this time, local programming was restricted to daily breakfast and weekday drivetime with all other output networked from London.

Network restructuring

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

Heart Ipswich Heart Ipswich (formerly SGR FM) was a radio station that evolved from Suffolk Group Radio, which was the parent company for two Independent radio stations serving the county of Suffolk in England. Overview The older of the radio stations was Radi ...

as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The new station,

Heart East Anglia Heart East Anglia was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to Norfolk and Suffolk from studios in Norwich. The station launched on Friday 3 September 2010 as a result of a merger b ...

, began broadcasting from Norwich on 3 September 2010.Heart slims but strengthens
, RadioToday, 21 June 2010 The former Radio Broadland studios in Norwich were closed, after nearly 35 years, in the summer of 2019, and the building was put up for sale. Broadcasting on the Heart network moved from a local to a regional basis, with Heart East Anglia emanating from studios at Milton Keynes. In April 2021, it was announced that the University of East Anglia would open a broadcast journalism course centre at the Colegate building in the autumn. It meant that the still-intact studio areas would be retained, just a few weeks before they were due to be demolished.

References

External links

We Heart Rob and Chrissie

Listen Online

Media UK

Stoke Holy Cross transmitter
{{Global Radio Radio stations established in 1984 Radio stations disestablished in 2010 Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom

Radio stations in Norfolk