Heart South is a regional

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 st ...

owned and operated by

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

as part of the

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 to ...

network. It broadcasts to the south and south east of England from studios in

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufa ...

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

. The station launched on 3 June 2019 as a result of a merger between four sister stations in Hampshire and Dorset,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it fac ...

, Sussex and Surrey and

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an informally-defined sub-region of South East England, centred on the River Thames west of London, with Oxford as a major centre. Its boundaries vary with context. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub, ...

History

Under relaxed OFCOM requirements for local content on commercial radio, Heart South is permitted to share all programmes between seven licences located in the

ITV Meridian ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned a ...

broadcast region.Heart Bournemouth - format change request
OFCOM, 4 December 2018 Previously, these licences broadcast as separate stations: * Radio 210 began broadcasting from

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling) ...

in March 1976, serving

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

and north

. * 2CR - Two Counties Radio began broadcasting from

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the English ...

in September 1980, serving east

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 west

. * Southern Sound began broadcasting from

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...

, near

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, in August 1983, serving

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in Ea ...

and parts of

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

. * Invicta Radio began broadcasting to

in October 1984, initially from studios in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the ...

and

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with ...

, before moving to

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 3 ...

in 1991. Over the years, the station provided opt-out programming for the East and West of the county - at one point, extending to separate breakfast shows for Ashford and

Thanet Thanet may refer to: *Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England *Thanet District, a local government district containing the island *Thanet College, former name of East Kent College * Thanet Cana ...

. * Radio Mercury began broadcasting from

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a p ...

in October 1984, serving east

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and north Sussex. *

Ocean Sound 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 ...

began broadcasting to south

and the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isl ...

in October 1986, after taking over the licence previously held by Radio Victory. Initially providing separate programming for the East and West of the area, it also ran a split service for the

Winchester Winchester is a cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, at the western end of the South Downs National Park, on the River Itchen. It is south-west of Lon ...

area called ''The Light FM''. * Fox FM began broadcasting to

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

in September 1989. Ocean Sound's West service was split off into Power FM in December 1988 - with the parent service, later known was Ocean FM continuing for the East and North areas. In 1992, Ocean merged with Southern Sound (latterly Southern FM) to form the

Southern Radio Group The Southern Radio Group was a company which owned and operated radio stations on the south coast of England. History Southern Radio group was formed when Ocean Sound merged with Southern FM. Later, in 1992, Invicta FM and its AM services Invi ...

with the two stations largely sharing output. The company went onto purchase Invicta Radio in 1992, before being brought by Capital Radio plc in 1994. By 2005, all seven stations entered common ownership when GWR Group merged with Capital to form

GCap Media 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. O ...

, which in turn was taken over by Global in 2008. In 2009, six of the stations were rebranded as part of a rollout of the Heart network across 29 local radio stations owned by Global. Fox FM and 2-Ten FM relaunched in March, followed by 2CR, Invicta, Ocean FM, Southern FM. By this point, local programming had been reduced to ten hours on weekdays and four hours at weekends. During the summer of 2010, Global merged six of the stations into three - with

Mercury FM Mercury FM was a radio station in the Surrey and Sussex area of the United Kingdom that was founded on 20 October 1984 and closed on 25 July 2010. The station broadcast on FM 97.5 MHz in Horsham and 102.7 MHz in East Surrey and ...

joining the Heart network as a result: * Heart Solent - formed from the Dorset and Hampshire stations, broadcasting from

* Heart Sussex and Surrey - formed from

and Heart's Sussex station, broadcasting from

Heart Thames Valley Heart Thames Valley was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to Berkshire, Oxfordshire, north Hampshire and parts of west Buckinghamshire from studios in Reading, southern England. T ...

- formed from the Berkshire and Oxfordshire stations, broadcasting from

Heart Kent retained its local programming - but across all stations, local output was further cut to seven hours on weekdays. Localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising continued to air as opt-outs. On 26 February 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Global announced it would merge the four stations in the South and South East into one.Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows
RadioToday, 26 February 2019 As of 3 June 2019, regional programming consists of three hours on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast
Radio Today, 29 April 2019 Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London. Global's studio centres in

and

were closed, although local newsgathering and sales staff were retained. Across the four stations, fourteen local presenters left the Heart network.Heart Drivetime show presenters announced by Global
Radio Today, 20 May 2019

Programming

All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including ''Heart Breakfast'', presented each weekday by

Jamie Theakston James Paul Theakston (born 21 December 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, and actor. He co-presented the former Saturday morning BBC One children's show '' Live & Kicking'', alongside Zoe Ball between 1996 and 1999. He co-hoste ...

and

Amanda Holden Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English actress, media personality, and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition ''Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the ''Heart Brea ...

. Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Global's Fareham studios from 4-7pm on weekdays, presented by Rich Clarke.Public File - Solent
heart.co.uk, 1 June 2019

News

Heart South broadcasts hourly local news bulletins from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends. Separate bulletins are produced for the licence areas previously served by Heart's stations in Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Kent, Oxfordshire, Sussex and Surrey. National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times.

References

External links

Heart
{{Global Radio

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

Radio stations established in 2019 Radio stations in Berkshire Radio stations in Dorset Radio stations in Hampshire Radio stations in Kent Radio stations in the Isle of Wight Radio stations in Oxfordshire Radio stations in Sussex Radio stations in Surrey