Heart Sussex (previously Southern FM, also operating as Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey in

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and 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 population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

and

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. ...

) 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 which was owned 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 ...

(formerly

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. ...

) and played commercial, chart-oriented popular music. Broadcast and managed from studios and offices in

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 ...

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 ...

and

, the station played a mix of pop,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and

RnB Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

with the overall tag line being 'The station for Sussex and Surrey' – replacing

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 Nor ...

. On 17 September 2008, it was announced that Southern FM was one of 30 local radio stations to face a re-brand to

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 ...

within the next 18 months. Southern FM was rebranded as ''Heart Sussex'' on 22 June 2009.

also merged with

in July 2010 to be re branded and re-launched as a sub-section of ''Heart Sussex'' operating as ''Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey'' or simply ''Heart Crawley & Surrey'' – sharing the same programming output.

History

The station launched as Southern Sound from the converted Rothbury Cinema in Franklin Road, Portslade. Under the leadership of managing director Keith Belcher and programme director

Rory Macleod Rory MacLeod (born 3 February 2006) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Dundee United. Club career In December 2021, aged only 15, MacLeod signed his first professional deal with Dundee United. On 9 February 2022, ...

, early presenters included Sean Bolger, Louis Robinson, Stewart Macintosh, Vince Geddes, John Mann, Russ Williams and Becky Manesseh. The head of news at launch was Paul Woodley with a reporting team including

Andy Steggall Andy Steggall is the multimedia manager at the Ordnance Survey and a former television sports presenter, producer and filmmaker. He produced the South and West edition of the BBC regional football show ''Late Kick Off'' and has been working fo ...

, Andrew Winter and

Cornelius Lysaght Cornelius Lysaght ( , born 1965 in Gloucester, England) is a British journalist and broadcaster who was the BBC's horse racing correspondent from 2001 until 2020. Lysaght was raised in Herefordshire and educated at Eton College. He began broadc ...

Tommy Boyd Timothy Leslie Boyd (born 14 December 1952), better known as Tommy Boyd, is a British radio presenter. Television From 1977 to 1980, Boyd was co-presenter of the ITV children's magazine programme ''Magpie'' replacing Douglas Rae. In 1981, h ...

joined the station, initially as a fill-in for Timbo (Tim Lloyd) and was subsequently hired to present a regular Sunday evening show with a team of assistants including

Nicky Keig-Shevlin Nicola Keig-Shevlin (born 1 January 1965) is a radio presenter who spent the majority of her career working for Brighton based station Southern FM (formerly Southern Sound). She presented the weekday breakfast show 'Danny and Nicky in the Morning ...

. At the launch of the station, Southern Sound broadcast only to Brighton and parts of West Sussex. In 1987, transmissions were extended to Lewes, Newhaven and Seaford. Then on 5 February 1989, the station won a new licence for East Sussex too. Initially running split programming for East and West Sussex, the station now only splits for commercial breaks. In 1994 the Radio Authority merged the two licences to become one official ILR licence. Whitehawk Hill Transmitting Station (December 2012)

Whitehawk Hill Transmitting Station (December 2012)

The station broadcasts to the following areas: * Analogue

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

FM ** 96.9

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 ...

- Newhaven Transmitter ** 102.0 MHz – Hastings Transmitter ** 102.4 MHz – East and West Sussex, including Eastbourne (

Heathfield Transmitter The Heathfield transmitting station is a facility for FM and television Transmission (telecommunications), transmission at Heathfield, East Sussex, UK (grid reference TQ566220). Opened in 1969, its antenna (radio), antenna mast is a tall guyed ...

) ** 103.5 MHz – Brighton and Worthing ( Whitehawk Hill Transmitter) *

DAB DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dąb, ...

Digital Radio: Block 10B 211.648 MHz **

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

(Findon Transmitter) ** Newhaven (Newhaven Transmitter) **

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

(Hastings Transmitter) **

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

(Eastbourne Transmitter) **

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

(Burton Down Transmitter) **

( Whitehawk Hill Transmitter) **

(Little Prestwood Farm Transmitter) **

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 East Su ...

(

) ** Central Sussex (Truleigh Hill Transmitter) * Heart Crawley & Surrey broadcast to the following areas on FM: ** 97.5 MHz – Horsham Transmitter ** 102.7 MHz – Reigate Transmitter Since Heart and Mercury FM merged. Heart Sussex has taken over Mercury's frequencies, on both the

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earlie ...

and

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

transmitters.

Network restructuring

On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to merge Heart Sussex with the station

as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The newly merged ''Heart Sussex and Surrey'' station began broadcasting from Brighton on 26 July 2010. The merged Heart brought the addition of an additional sub-station, Heart Crawley & Surrey operates operationally separately. Sales are dealt with by a separate team (based in Crawley) – they may be based in

in the near future though. In addition, to this Heart Crawley & Surrey also has a different website. On air though, both stations broadcast/simulcast the same core coverage with the exception of adverts (and select news features).

and Heart have now completed the switchover and for the time being are operating out of both addresses. Radio House, Portslade, the previous home of Southern FM and recently a broadcasting station for Heart Sussex, was put on the market in 2019. Heart Sussex was to be merged with Capital Brighton radio station. The website is now called ''Heart'', with a page for Sussex.

References

External links

Official site - Heart Sussex

Official site - Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey
{{Brighton and Hove Companies based in East Sussex Companies based in West Sussex Radio stations in Sussex Radio stations in Surrey Radio stations established in 1983

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom